A senior BBC executive has held out the prospect of content-sharing with local newspapers in an apparent olive-branch towards the industry.
James Harding, director of news and current affairs at the corporation, says the BBC is considering making its audio and video archive to local media as part of a new partnership approach.
At last year’s Society of Editors’ conference, Home Secretary Theresa May said the BBC’s network of local websites risked harming the local press industry.
But addressing a conference on local journalism organised by the BBC yesterday, James said the differences between the BBC and local newspapers have been overdone.
James told an invited audience at Salford’s MediaCity: “The BBC is open and willing to see how we can work together.”
He revealed he has set up a working party to look at extending co-operation between the corporation and local newspaper groups, which could, for instance, see BBC content streamed on local press websites.
Said James: “We share a belief in local journalism because we have a responsibility to the country we live in to ensure that local journalism gets back on its feet.
“We may compete like cats in a sack for stories, but, in the end, we have a common purpose. And, to my mind, the squabbles in recent years between the local press and the BBC are getting us all nowhwere. We have looked like a circular firing squad.”
Former Times editor James said the corporation was tackling what he called “the old bugbear” of BBC sites failing to credit local news organisations for stories.
“In my meetings with the regional press from Kent to Yorkshire to Gloucestershire, people say that there’s been a marked improvement on that front – and, yes, there’s still a way to go,” he said.
He also denied that the BBC was to blame for problems in the regional newspaper business.
“It’s Facebook, Google, Zoopla and Gumtree that have done for the classified and local advertising business in print with all of the consequences for local newspaper revenues and jobs,” he added.
David Holdsworth, controller of the BBC’s English regions, will lead the working group considering practical ways of papers and the broadcaster working together.
Trinity Mirror regional editorial director Neil Benson told the conference he was encouraged by the developing partnership with the BBC and urged it to “do simple things, like linking back,” to build the relationship.
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Asked if we could have a 15 second clip from the BBC for one of our stories online. Was told it would cost £2,000 plus.
That’s despite the fact their story accompanying the video was more than remarkably similar to the one on our website.
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What a joke… our local BBC site took four days to mention a major fire that was the talk of the district and could be seen 30 miles away . Their ‘headline’ items which didn’t change for the four days were a tribute to one of their presenters who died and the Solstice event at Stonehenge. Perhaps they could give us a share of the licence fee instead.
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I lost count of the number of my stories the BBC “shared” down the years. However, it would have been nice if they had asked first!
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Has the olive branch anything to do with the fact that today’s regional newspaper newsrooms are so poorly staffed that the BBC now has to think about sourcing its own local stories rather than just re-reading them from the first editions? Surely not?
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Neither party has much to gain. Local papers and TV now both give very poor LOCAL news coverage. TV because it’s lazy and papers because companies like JP and Gannett starve them of staff and run papers with kids.
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We do work with the BBC – we do the stories and the BBC lift them.
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You don’t win anything with kids.
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Right digipaul . just lose lots of cred and readers. Most of older hands long since jumped ship. Youngsters keen, some talented but green as grass. But they are CHEAP.
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Afeared, south is bang on. Out in the countryside in an area where four local weeklies and one regional daily compete, a huge row lasting months involving English Heritage, the local MP, the county council and irate villagers was mentioned briefly once in one weekly. Other issues which, if they took place in a town, would merit front page treatment are routinely ignored. Local World…? I don’t think so.
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So should the BBC be using license fee money to provide free content to newspaper publishers that make many millions and yet invest little of that in journalism?
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