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Close under-performing local websites, Highfield tells BBC

The BBC should close its “under-performing” local websites and work with regional press publishers to cover local news, says Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield.

Ashley – a former BBC technology director – said the corporation should stop trying to be “all things to all people.”

Speaking at the Newspaper Society AGM on Friday, he urged his former employers to partner with local media publishers to distribute its content to the public.

He also called for local newspapers to be”appropriately credited and rewarded” for creating content for the BBC and sharing it with them.

Said Ashley:  “I suggest now is the time for Auntie to put on some different spectacles and start looking at local press differently: as a genuine partner to take the BBC to a wider audience.”

“Local newspapers and their associated web brands can actually bolster the BBC’s value if they stop viewing us as the competition and work with us to distribute their content.

“The BBC is one of the country’s most important cultural institutions and the relationship it has with us as a nation is truly astounding. But it’s not the BBC which has a direct relationship with people in Pocklington, Peterborough or Portsmouth. It’s us – the local media operators.”

“We can increase public value by increasing the reach of BBC content if the BBC allows us to access it – all of it – from video content to weather – free of charge, and take it to market.

“The BBC needs to stop trying to be all things to all people, and focus on what they are best at – creating world-class content.

“They can keep their regional brands – Look North, BBC North West et al, but close their underperforming local websites and work with us, rather than against us, as we become their local media distribution partner and fully utilise our own, highly trafficked, rapidly growing, hyper local sites.

“We’ll give proper attribution to that content, which ever medium we publish it in, whilst ensuring we keep our own local voice. This way, plurality of voice is maintained.

“In return the BBC can focus on being innovative whilst fulfilling its duty of delivering great education, information, and entertainment.”

Ashley’s speech can be read in full here.

18 comments

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  • May 19, 2014 at 8:47 am
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    Not content with making JP staff redundant, AH is now gunning for BBC staff. JP should concentrate on what it is (or was) best at also. It hasn’t become Johnston Media/Digital yet. To read the speech in full I was taken to The YP website, does that few seconds count me as a digital reader? How very deceptive.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 9:13 am
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    That’ll be right – Highfield proposing a media outlet’s closure. His area of expertise, after all.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 9:45 am
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    JP is sacking staff LEFT RIGHT AND CENTRE to make more money for its shareholders,attempting to pay off bad debt,trying to run newspapers without photographers, get your own house in order before having a pop at the BBC.

    Soon sadly there will be no local newspapers, people don’t need them with the internet now.

    If you want to have a go at someone have a go at The Daily Mail, that internet site is destroying yours not the BBC, you would not dare have a go at them, why not, because they are another private company in the same game lol!

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  • May 19, 2014 at 9:58 am
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    He does have a point, although I don’t agree with the solution. BBC local news websites are badly written and researched (I saw a story published the other week that neglected to name the name of the town where an incident took place), randomly and in frequently updated. Having a dedicated resource for web doesn’t help – it means stories are written by people who are removed from the original (radio, for example) story. The detail of stories are often lost.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 10:01 am
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    Commenters here damn Ashley for JP redundancies and then damn him for suggesting something that might protect JP jobs. There’s really no pleasing some folks.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 10:35 am
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    Seven years ago, under strong pressure from the Newspaper Society, the BBC abandoned plans to launch ultra-local TV services from its network of local radio stations.
    The BBC Trust vetoed the plans to give newspapers the opportunity to provide the TV service. And what did the whingeing provincial press owners do to take advantage of this golden opportunity? the square-root of bugger all!.
    I would challenge Highfield’s assertion that BBC local online services are “under-performing.” This is sheer propaganda — another media business trying to undermine the Corporation. Following this through to its logical conclusion, the BBC should sack all its journos, pack up its news service and leave news to the newspapers….– as it was forced to do when it started back in the 1920s.
    In spite of its faults and failings, it is still the finest broadcasting organisation in the world. The licence fee provides so much for £145.50 a year — compare that with buying a copy of the Daily Mail each day! It certainly doesn’t exist to shore up Mr Highfield’s JP outfit and help line the pockets of him and his shareholders.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 11:56 am
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    What I’ve seen of the Daily Mail website is very different from that of the BBC. For the bimbo market, the Mail website is brilliant, full of celebrity pictures and trivialities. The blokes like it, too, for all the girls in their bikinis and short skirts.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 12:10 pm
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    User Generated Content not working out, then?
    Here’s an idea, get the BBC to supply JP’s content and close down their own sites thus removing competition. Once the BBC’s local sites are gone, people will have nowhere else to go for local news, so JP can start charging for what used to be free local info.
    Soon get that bonus up to 200% of salary, eh Ash!

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  • May 19, 2014 at 1:22 pm
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    Thing is, the BBC isn’t interested in generating traffic or revenue from it’s local news sites, and It wouldn’t be of any worth to them to put in an ounce of extra effort in order to fill the coffers of a private enterprise like Johnston Press with licence payers money. He’s basically begging for a piece of ‘Aunties’ pie. Sorry Ash, but it’s going to be bed with no supper for you.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 1:25 pm
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    pj Robbo, what on earth are you talking about? People don’t visit the Daily Mail website to look at local news do they.

    Highfield is right, too often do we pick up exclusive stories only for the local news and radio to grab hold of them and rebrand them as their own hard work when we’ve done all the groundwork.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 8:36 pm
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    ‘Confused’ you talk as if the BBC does not get any exclusives, my local paper (Brighton Argus) can’t even sent a Jorno or a photographer out to a local fire, just rely on pictures from Twitter and quotes from Facebook, dont be so silly!

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  • May 19, 2014 at 9:28 pm
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    For once I agree with Ashley. It was a running joke in our newsroom about the BBC ripping off our stories without even a hint of a credit.

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  • May 19, 2014 at 11:12 pm
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    From what I see of JP websites there ain’t a lot for the Beeb to steal.
    Perhaps Ashley should close down the worst JP websites, which carry some of weakest material you can find outside of a kid’s comic.

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  • May 20, 2014 at 9:05 pm
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    Unfair on Brighton Argus Pj. Staff levels are pathetic there compared with a few years, which is one reason why circulation is about 16,000 a day instead of its peak 100,000 plus. Staff there do their best under tough conditions. I am told South East Today is known as BBC Kent in Sussex, but can’t think why…

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  • May 21, 2014 at 1:35 am
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    Ah yes, because newspapers do partnership with other media so well. Sorry, did I say partnership? I meant wanting everything and giving nothing.

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  • May 22, 2014 at 10:06 am
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    “Ashley Highfield spoke at The Newspaper Society’s annual meeting today (Friday , May 16)”
    Published in a JP paper TODAY Thursday May 22.

    Maybe get one’s own house in order first?

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  • May 26, 2014 at 12:34 am
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  • June 6, 2014 at 1:46 pm
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    Ashley Highfield is driving local weekly newspapers into the ground. He’s bringing them down to the level of Facebook but still wants to overcharge for them. Getting the readers to do the work of journalists and photographers only lowers quality and accuracy. What company can survive by lowering the quality of their product? Of course he’ll walk away someday soon with a big handshake on to some other unsuspecting company whose staff will be decimated too.

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