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Five things I’ve learnt about… football writing

January 29th, 2010

Have you been watching the Africa Cup of Nations?

It’s pretty decent. Standard isn’t too great – but you can’t knock it for excitement. The first game saw Mali turn around a four goal deficit with just minutes to go. Incredible.

The competition marked my debut as a sports reporter. As in proper, real life match reports. Here’s one – Egypt 3-1 Nigeria – and here’s another – Ivory Coast 2-3 Algeria (AET).

It’s been a difficult exercise, and I’d be lying if I said I’m not slightly relieved knowing that now the semi-finals are out of the way, my Cup of Nations stint is over.

But it’s certainly been valuable. Here’s the five things I’ll be taking with me…whi


(picture by Oluniyi David Ajao on Flickr)

1. It’s a lot harder when it’s not your team

“A beautifully whipped cross from in-form winger Courtney Pitt found Scott Rendell in the box, who gladly slotted past the goalkeeper to make it 2-1,” reads a line from a match report I wrote while at university.

Anyone who enjoys football can write a match report. But knowing about your own team is one thing – writing about another is completely different. Take that example above. The fact I knew it was Courtney’s cross was because I recognised the pint-sized, shiny-headed man straight away. Also because I knew, instinctively, that Courtney was always on that wing. And the cynic in me could even say that the fact it was a good cross meant it had to be him – nobody else in our squad could whip a ball like that. Still can’t.

And Scott Rendell? Of course it was Scott Rendell! You can spot that barnet a mile off.

But this is all knowledge I’ve gathered through years of following, programme-reading and website-scouring about the mighty U’s.

When your covering an international tournament, there’s simply no time to do this. Instead, you spend your time wondering who scored, and where the assist came from. You don’t know if the player hit it with his weaker foot, or if he’s been playing well for his club recently, or even if his name is spelt correctly on the team sheet – more often than not, African football is victim to some rather suspect administration issues, making the whole endeavour and awful lot trickier.

2. Notes are everything

We did our reporting with the help of Eurosport who have been covering the tournament live. Thanks Eurosport.

So the usual plan is to watch closely, scribble down everything that’s happened, and then collate it together somehow at the end. If you’re good, you’ll figure out some way of joining up themes, spotting consistently good players, seeing where tactics have had the game won and lost. That seems easy – but trust me it isn’t. Again, it’s easy to spot when someone like Steven Gerrard plays well – you almost expect it – but Zambia’s centre-back? Less simple to spot.

3. Multitask to victory

Ahhh, the life of a football reporter. You sit there, watch football and then write about it. Couldn’t be easier.

Only problem is, you see that photo gallery over there? That needed to be made too. Not to mention previews for the next day’s games. Throw in a bit of subbing and other assorted jobs and suddenly it’s a little more difficult to focus on the game.

Never again will I moan about seeing a report which feels a little rushed.

4. Time is of the essence

Somewhat naively I assumed I’d be able to take time over my reports. You know, sculpt out something beautiful. Something a little like Stuart Hall – and fill my match report with twisting verse which gives the beautiful game the respect it deserves.

No.

It’s all about speed.

At the BBC, they call it the four-par match report. The whole game in four measly but significant paragraphs. It’s strict – one extra letter can throw it all out – and once it’s done it’ll zoom off to various destinations: mobile, Ceefax, Red Button… everywhere.

Eventually, like the website, the full version will appear. Usually about ten minutes or so later. A little more time, granted, but still tough – especially if you want to make sense.

But again the four-par report is important. In a lot of places – Ceefax being the main one – they’ll only get that version of the report, and so everything that’s important has to be in there. It’s tough – but strangely rewarding. Particularly when it’s a thriller. Here’s my four par from Ivory Coast v Algeria:

Algeria knocked out pre-tournament favourites Ivory Coast in a thrilling Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.

Algeria’s Karim Matmour cancelled out Salomon Kalou’s opener before Kader Keita’s 89th-minute screamer looked to have put the Elephants through.

But substitute Madjid Bougherra rescued Algeria with a last-gasp header to force the contest into extra time.

Hameur Bouazza then took advantage of disastrous defending to send Algeria into the semi-finals.

5. Football writing is fun… lose your newsy restraints

If you’re writing a football report it’s highly likely you’re a football fan. And obviously, if you’re reading one you will be too.

So that provides a bond you just don’t get with news writing. A bond that says that both writer and reader love something very much.

Make use of that – if a player exhibits sublime skill, for example, you know that football fans the world over will be gushing about it just as much as you are.

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Posted in Five Things, Sport

20 practical and innovative ways to introduce micropayments for newspapers

May 15th, 2009

A couple of posts ago, while pondering micropayments, I wrote “If my time at the BBC has taught me anything, it’s that ideas are worthless — it’s working examples that really get you somewhere”. Since then, a friend emailed me, saying that she thinks the problem with micropayments is that people don’t know see how they fit in. They don’t see how people — the punters — will react to suddenly being told to pay for something that used to be free.

I believe it can be done.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

It’s not a case of just throwing up subscription walls, slapping readers in the face with a log-in screen that says “Join now and get 40% off at Debenhams”. We need to be inventive. Considering how creative journalism is, the lack of creative thinking with payments (and the web in general) is baffling. What are we afraid of? Innovation? Profit?

So I’d like to get the ball rolling. Here are 20 suggestions for adding micropayments to a newspaper website. The ideas cover promotion, implementation and, for want of a better phrase, damange limitation. I’m going to divide them up into categories depending on the ‘type’ of person.

Mr Jones the Newspaper Buyer, 53

1. Mr Jones appreciates online treats after buying his newspaper

Mr Jones goes out and buys The Times. He spends 90p. Mr Jones reads The Times on his way to work, and stuffs it in his bag when he’s done. At work, he checks the newspaper online; but hang on — he can’t access the articles. Under the new micropayment scheme he’s forced to pay again. Right? Wrong. In Mr Jones’ paper, he has a voucher. On that voucher is a unique code that can be used once — and only once — to access the day’s content online. He can do this for just 30p — that’s a third of the normal price. For £1.20, Mr Jones has got the print product and all the additional online extras too. Mr Jones is happy.

2. Mr Jones wants to subscribe (Thank you Mr Jones!)

Subscriptions are on the decline, yes, but there are still core subscription readers who will be around for some while yet. Mr Jones is one of them. If he wanted to subscribe to The Times he would have to pay £5.50 per week. Mr Jones should be offered the newspaper plus all the brilliant web content for £6.50 a week. Five days of web goodness for just £1. “That’s lovely,” says Mr Jones.

3. If there’s one thing Mr Jones enjoys more than cricket, it’s reading about cricket

It’s test match season — and if there’s one thing Mr Jones loves, it’s settling down to watch the days play at Lords. In a perfect world, he’d be able to spend his days watching the willow. But sadly he has to resort to following the action online. No problem, though, because for £1, Mr Jones gets full coverage from the test: A column from Michael Atherton, a podcast with Geoffrey Boycott, an interactive scoreboard. Typical things like match reports and liveblogs will still be free — the casual cricket fan won’t pay. But for people like Mr Jones, all this great coverage is really enjoyable.

4. Mr Jones is interested in politics

Between work, cricket and spending time with his lovely wife, Mr Jones doesn’t have much time for anything else. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to know what’s going on in the world of politics. For 50p a week, The Times will send him a politics digest t0 his inbox once a day from their team at Westminster. If he likes it, he can subscribe for £1.50 a month — saving 50p as he goes.

5. Mr Jones is delighted with his theatre vouchers, and he knows which show to see

So many shows, so little time. Or maybe, so little money. The good news for Mr Jones is that to go alongside the micropayment relaunch, The Times has also launched its special interactive theatre guide. Mr Jones knows what’s on, at what time, and how good it is. The guide costs 50p per week — but at the end of each month he’ll get some vouchers to print off and enjoy. Money well spent Mr Jones!

Pete the student, 20

6. Pete gets £5 of free credit every month

Pete may be eating moudly bread and sleeping in grubby sheets, but he still likes to keep up to date. Handy, then, that he gets £5 free credit to spend on newspapers online each month. He can spend it as he chooses. On any newspaper. Just one of the perks of being a National Union of Students member.

7. Pete thinks Flight of the Conchords are awesome

Which means he is pleased to discover the feature about the new series on the website. He reads it. It’s free. But for an exclusive audio clip of Bret and Jemaine talking about the show, he can pay 20p. If Bret and Jemaine are feeling exceedingly generous, their live track will cost Pete 50p — but he can download it to keep.

8. Pete really loves music

Pete is getting fed up of having to buy clips from his favourite bands individually each time. Those 50p installments soon add up for him. For £5 a month, Pete can download clips, listen to podcasts, see exclusive video interviews on all all online newspaper sites. Not just one. The income is distributed to newspapers depending on which content he chooses.

9. Pete supports Chelsea

Don’t blame Pete, it’s not his fault. But we shouldn’t begrudge him the enjoyment of knowing about his club. Mr Jones subscribed to the test match, but Pete just wants to know about Chelsea. That’ll cost him 80p a week. For that money he’ll get daily news digests, exclusive interviews, features, fan community involvement: all sorts.

Now while Pete is a bit of a grubby glory hunter, he still follows his local team: Shrewsbury Town. He can follow them as well and, because he already subscribes to Chelsea, the second team only costs him 20p per week.

10. Pete wants to share his favourite articles with his friends

Chelsea thump Aston Villa 4-0? Well we have some celebrating to do! Pete can send the interview with 4 goal hero Didier Drogba to his Chelsea-supporting pal Dean. Dean, subsequently, signs up to the newspaper service. “How does this work then?” he asks.

11. It’s dissertation time — get the archive out!

If Pete’s lucky, his university will give him access to Lexis Nexis, a brilliant archive of newspaper articles. Problem is, not all newspapers are included. Searching is tricky, and it can be quite buggy. For £5 — a one off, he won’t use it again — he has full access to the online and offline archives for all UK newspapers (or, indeed, the world’s newspapers!). If he’s struggling, all consecutive weeks of archive use will just cost him an extra quid. Pete is thankful — his dissertation is bloody brilliant.

Karen the stay-at-home mum, 35

12. Karen cares about her childrens’ education…

Karen wants to know everything there is to know about schooling and education. She wants league tables, inspection reports and real-life case studies. Does she have time to sift through the paper every day? No way! For £1 a week, Karen recieves a weekly digest of the important stories of the week in education. If she buys a newspaper on Sunday, she can use a voucher to get this digest for 50p. Again, if she subscribes for a week, she gets a discount.

13. …But that’s not all she’s in to

Education is important, yes, but Karen would get bored (and probably quite depressed). So as part of a bundle offer (think Sky subscription packages) Karen can choose two other sectors to get digests for — for just £1.50 per week. That’s less than half price!

14. Loose Women — let’s go online

(for my non-UK readers, Loose Women is a daytime chat show with a panel of four or so middle-aged women.)

Karen likes to get right stuck in with Loose Women when it’s on. Sure, they’re whiny, and she can’t stand one of them, but she likes the relevance and indeed the fun the show brings. For 20p, Karen can join in with the online webchat each day. She chats about the issues covered in the show and has fun with other likeminded people, all from the comfort of her home.

15. Karen is an avid reader, but hasn’t got time for a book club

Before they moved onto that strange digital channel, Karen really loved the Richard and Judy book club. It made the tricky task of picking the wheat from the chaff much easier. For £1 a week, Karen can subscribe to the newspaper book club. The literary editor will preside over the suggestions, and subscribers will get money off the featured titles. Every week, a distinguished author will be on hand with interviews, podcasts or webchats.

Phil the news junkie, 26

16. Phil wants to be up-to-date, all the time

Phil can’t get enough news. He always likes to be the first to know. He follows all the social media services, but what he’d really appreciate is a human filter. For £1 a week, Phil gets access to the human-powered breaking news wire. The wire editor’s job is to filter meaningful tweets, images, links and news snippets and bring them to Phil. The editor is doing the leg work so Phil doesn’t have to.

17. Phil knows he is likely to spend a lot online, so he deserves bulk discounts

Each month, Phil is spending around £20 on micropayments. That sure is a lot! His loyalty should be rewarded. If he adds his newspaper credit in chunks of £20, he gets £5, absolutely free.

18. Phil treats his newspaper credits like an Oyster Card

(For non-UK readers, an ‘Oyster Card’ is a pre-pay card for London transport)

If you spend more than a certain amount on an Oyster Card in one single day, any trips for the rest of that day are included in that price. Nifty. Likewise, when Phil spends a lot of time reading one particular newspaper, he could end up spending the same amount as the cover price. If this is to happen, Phil automatically unlocks the rest of the ‘paid’ content for that day. Lucky Phil!

19. Phil spends SO much, he’s now a priority member

Phil is really valued by newspapers. He spends a lot. So, whenever newspapers are promoting a special event, or book, or film… Phil is the first to know. And Phil gets first refusal.

20. Phil knows a big story when he sees one

Phil is shocked at the recent revelations revealed by the Daily Telegraph about MPs expenses. He wants to know everything about it. Fortunately, for £1.50, Phil has access to all articles relating to the expenses issue. All analysis, commentary and opinion is free for him to enjoy and digest.

–

Additional notes

Are these ideas the finished product? No, clearly not. But from what I can find its a pretty extensive bunch of thoughts – and I’d love to see what others can come up with too.

The important bit: What we DON’T charge for

I’m going to try and nip one of the inevitable criticisms of these ideas in the bud straight away. “Why would you pay if you can get the news somewhere else?” Simple: Because what we’re charging for will be unique. You don’t charge for the story — you charge for its valuable extras. You don’t charge for the written interview, you charge for the associated audio clip. In other words, if you site is the only place you can get this information, then that’s when you can charge.

Easy-to-remember rule: If it would go on the Google News frontpage, it should be free.

We also need to know how sites adopting micropayments would fit into the link economy. In particular, what do we do with blogs? Simple: we leave them as they are. Blogs can act as traffic vacuums. By linking here and there, appearing on feeds, getting involved, blogs can keep newspapers involved socially, while at the same time drawing new readers to the paid-for content.

Outdated ideas we need to dismiss

The notion of ‘all or nothing’ subscription walls is outdated and, quite frankly, ridiculous. When someone clicks on an article and is greeted with a message saying they must take out a monthly subscription, their mental response is “But I only wanted to read that one article!”. Just like small top-ups brought mobile to the masses, micropayments can bring paid online content to the masses too.

Loyalty in news no longer exists. If you think there is anyone out there who goes online, reads one source and one source only then you are deluded. Move on.

Crucial factors that must be in place

Do you go to a seperate newsagents each time you want to buy a different newspaper? Didn’t think so. They’re all in the same place, and all bought using the same currency. Let’s bring this way of thinking online. There must be one, and only one, system for paying for newspaper content online. You need to be able to sign in, and be signed in to every newspaper in the world. Only then can we succeed in monetizing the web.

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Posted in Blogs, Comment, Newspapers, Social Networking, Sport, The Future, The Web

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Gollllllllllaccio! The greatest paper review is back — on the Guardian

April 9th, 2009

An odd thing happened when I was a wee lad: For a distinct period of time — about two years, there or thereabouts — I knew a helluva lot more about Italian football than I did English.

How on earth could such a thing happen? Very easily: Sky had all the live football, Match of the Day was on too late, and I was too young to muscle my way into the crowds at my first and only footballing love, Cambridge United.

So that left just two sports programmes to be regularly digested each weekend. Trans World Sport — a bizarre collection of sports like World Rally and Skiing that woke me up at the weekends (and had a very intense opening sequence).

And then the brilliant Football Italia.

On Saturday, the magazine show. On Sunday, the live game. Since maturing I’ve come to realise that Italian football is complete and utter toss, but at that time in my life, it was the only way I’d see live games. And so, as a result, I ended up taking a fondness to Parma. A great team, at the time, that have now turned a bit rubbish.

Gazzetta Football Italia — the Saturday show — had the usual blend of goals and interviews. And as kids we all gained much pleasure from shouting the trademark ‘Golllllllllllllllllllaccio!’ at the start of the show. A cry that you’d hear being screamed across the playground up and down the country. No idea what I’m on about? Watch this clip, and wait for the memories to flood back:

Beautiful.

The second best thing about the show (yes, the ‘Golaccio’ was the best thing — it was that good), had to be James Richardson’s newspaper review. Sat outside the trendiest cafés in all of Italy, James would pick through the sporting press, effortlessly translating headlines. I’ve never in my life picked up a copy of La Gazzetta Dello Sport — but I somehow felt like I read it every weekend for two years.

Enough of the nostalgia. Here’s what I spotted today:

Woohoo! There he is… swanky café; La Gazzetta Dello Sport; strange looking cake!

This seems to be a bit sporadic by the Guardian — the last clip I can find is from Euro 2008 — but I hope they keep this up. I miss James. My footballing week is enhanced greatly with comments like “Bayern aren’t new to going down easily, they are after all managed by Jurgen Klinsmann” and “[a Bild reporter] buried a sausage under a corner flag at the Nou Camp. A sort of game of ‘hide the sausage’, if you will. Instead, rather appropriately, Bayern came up with their wurst performance since 1974″

How James has never crow-barred his way into BBC or ITV I’ll never quite understand. But, for the time being at least, the legendary paper review is back — and it’s as good as ever. And, if you want more Richardson goodness, you can subscribe to the equally good (if a little more demanding of your time) Football Weekly podcast.

Gollllllllllllacccio!!!!

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Posted in Comment, Sport, TV

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ITV Sport … FAIL

February 4th, 2009

I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

There we were, watching the football, and it’s heading to penalties. It’s nil-nil, a bit scrappy, Everton just edging it… and two minutes before the end of extra time, an ITV ident sweeps across the screen.

WHAT?! ADVERTS?! The game is still going on. The whole pub gasps for a bit. And, as if written by the gods, ITV sort out their technical cock-up and return to the game.

It’s 1-0 to Everton. Almost 120 minutes of pretty poor football and ITV miss the one bit of excitement in the whole game.

A shambles. Make no doubt about it — this was a MASSIVE blunder. Not helped by “it came at a bad time for us, sorry if you missed it” comment offered by the pundit team in the studio.

I can only hope it was gremlins rather than human error. And gremlins seem the likely option — as after the match ITV viewers were treated to a minute or so of this:

itvballsup

Oh dear.

I wonder if something more shameful happened. I wonder if the producer had rigged up the adverts to go on at a certain time — i.e. at the end of the extra time. Tradition on ITV is that right smack-bang on the end of extra time they’ll cut to ads before returning for the penalty shoot out. What they didn’t allow for here, then, was stoppage time, or just general delays that happen in any sporting event.

One word: FAIL.

On a serious note, is it about time the coverage of football on ITV is put under a little scrutiny? I think so.

First off, the pundits are awful. Clive Tyldesley couldn’t analyse a cabbage, let alone a football match. Compare ITV’s offerings with Sky and you’ll see a canyon of quality difference. And to think that when Sky first got the rights they were roundly criticised by many — they’re now streets ahead of both BBC and ITV.

Neither the Beeb or ITV have anyone even close to be as good as Jeff Stelling, or Andy Gray, or Richard Keys. Even the small-time pundits like Jamie Redknapp have more to say about the game. Hell, I’d rather have Kris Camara analysing football than Mark Lawrenson. Seriously.

Second, and this bears some importance with me, are we all forgetting the ITV Digital fiasco? Their failing to properly manage their contracts, coverage and finances has led to many football clubs being placed in severe financial straits. Cambridge United went into administration soon after the ITV deal collapsed. Many clubs are still suffering from the knock-on effect of the dodgy deal.

And thirdly… well… it’s just rubbish, isn’t it? The only time ITV get it somewhat right is on Champion’s League nights — and that, I’d argue, is only because the pictures are provided for them. All ITV have to do is commentate over it.

If anyone out there watched the Histon vs Leeds match early on in this year’s F.A Cup, you’ll have seen the terrible state of the cameras. Yes, it was raining hard, but a whole half without the camera being wiped? Jesus, what tosh. And what happened to giving a camera a shield from the weather?

Amateur stuff, it really is. Get football off ITV — no-one enjoys it.

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Posted in Comment, Sport, TV, main

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Was Cristiano Ronaldo uninsured? (The danger of auto-subtitles)

January 8th, 2009

No, he wasn’t. But if you were watching Sky Sports News you may have been mistaken for thinking the wonder-kid was in an awful lot of trouble

For most viewers, it wasn’t a problem — the anchor didn’t get it wrong. But if you were watching somewhere that was making use of the automatically generated subtitles that Sky employs, you would get a confusing account of what happened.

Do the words uninjured and uninsured sound similar to you? They’re not a million miles apart. So when the Sky Sports News anchor said:

“Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo was in a high speed Ferrari crash earlier today. He was uninjured.”

The subtitles heard it as:

“Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo was in a high speed Ferrari crash earlier today. He was uninsured.”

Quite a different story, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Why was I watching with subtitles? Well… I was in the gym, working on my Cristiano Ronaldo body. But I could have been in plenty of places — doctor surgeries, waiting rooms… countless pubs — pretty much every Wetherspoons shows Sky Sports News on one screen, and BBC News 24 on the other. Both with subtitles.

And we can’t forget the deaf community either, of course.

So it’s fair to say quite a sizable amount of viewers. While it’s certain Ronaldo wouldn’t give Sky any aggro over a mistake like this — I doubt he noticed… — there may come a time when a sensitive news report could turn a bit ugly when fed through the subtitle machine.

Legally speaking, who’s responsible?

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Posted in Comment, Sport, TV

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Blue Square are an embarrassment to football

October 25th, 2008

The Blue Square Premier division — formerly the Football Conference, the 5th tier of English football — is not known for high-standards on the pitch.

But it wouldn’t be unfair to expect professionalism off it.

Yet, the league’s sponsors, Blue Square, seem hell bent on making it hard for themselves.

All through last season, fans from Blue Square Premier (BSP) clubs were taking part in local keepy-uppie competitions. Two fans would go on to compete in the final at Wembley, taking place the same day as the playoff final.

So far, so good, and the prize money was a massive £100,000 for the winner, plus £20,000 to his favourite BSP team.

It got to final day. The two keepy-uppie hopefuls were led onto the pitch to compete one last time. But, and here’s the crucial bit, the competition was changed. No longer was man vs man in keepy-uppie. Nope! Instead, each person had to try and kick a ball into a blue square. The players were one penalty area, the box was on the half way line.

In short, while not impossible, it was very, very, difficult. Believe it or not nobody won the prize, and the £120,000 stayed in the pockets of Blue Square.

Both clubs complained about the game, and Blue Square responded:

“Although the final game was difficult, it wasn’t impossible, and from a Blue Square point of view the prize money was insured to the extent that a winner would have been more beneficial to the overall competition. We were genuinely cheering on every single finalist in the hope that they would manage to scoop the prize.”

I bet you were.

But wait, there’s more.

Over on their official BSP website, their journalists have been hard at work. Yup, hard at work getting things wrong.

Take a look at this: a cock-up of epic proportions. Here’s what went wrong:

1. The journalist used the internet as his/her sole source, and didn’t fact check

2. The website wasn’t a news outlet, but one maintained by a football fan at Rivals.net.

3. The football fan in question supports Cambridge United — and the article focuses on the money troubles of Histon FC. So, the fan would have no inside links there (presumably. And you’d check, wouldn’t you?)

4. Histon FC and Cambridge United are fierce rivals. They are about 10 miles apart, if that.

So the journalist used an unverified source, from a website written by a fan of a rival club. Great work.

The saga gets deeper when you realise that the apology was made after a complaint from Histon — rather than the journalist finding out it wasn’t false. The importance of that? I’d say it’s unfair to brand a website, even a fan-written one, as inaccurate if you don’t actually check.

But, on the plus side, the site reports today that one of Cambridge’s top strikers, James Constable, has been called up the the England C squad.

Shame that James Constable in fact plays for Oxford United, and has never played for Cambridge in his life.

Nevermind.

[EDIT: The James Constable error has been corrected. I wonder if they check the web to correct their errors too?]

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Posted in Sport, The Web

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Regionals should get their houses in order before trying to stop others

October 21st, 2008

I don’t think it’s fair that some of the local press is getting in a strop with Sir Michael Lyon’s plans for better regional BBC content.

Read this article in today’s Times for a bit of back story:

Newspaper groups are unhappy about BBC proposals to introduce ‘hyper-local’ news websites, covering a town or county, which they believe will stifle their digital growth, at a time when their profits are crumbling in the wake of the economic downturn caused by the credit crunch. The plans, though, have to be approved by the BBC Trust, which Sir Michael heads.

That paragraph, on its own, seems to present a good point from the regionals. Why should the BBC juggernaut — and it is a juggernaut, despite its well-publicised hardships — trample on the local press with its own hyperlocal offerings?

Chief exec of Trinity Mirror, Sly Bailey, has been doing the rounds lately. She’s been here there and everywhere defending newspapers. Her interview in Press Gazette was especially interesting — but since it’s not online, nobody can read it. Figures.

She pops up again in the Times piece:

Ms Bailey accused Sir Michael of holding “outrageous views” and making “an astonishing attack on the local press” and said that “research shows consumers rate regional press as more trusted than any other media, including the BBC”.

I trust my local paper. Why would I have any reason to disbelieve that a school put on a production last week? Or that someone is now 100 years old? I’m not dismissing local press as being trivial here, but my point is that it’s a lot harder for the BBC to maintain that trust when they deal with far more complex topics.

Here’s my main criticism of Sly and co.’s argument:

If the BBC doesn’t go ahead with its hyperlocal plans, will it mean local newspaper sites will improve?

I think we all know the answer.

My two most local newspapers — The Hunts Post and Cambridge News — aren’t doing nearly enough to engage with their readers online. The Hunts Post is a great newspaper. It has a small team. Too small, I’d argue, but that’s another issue. I don’t blame them for not spending too much time interacting online, because the paper still has a very strong print audience.

But the Cambridge News? Cambridge is a city of early-adopters. I once read that, as a percentage of total population, Cambridge has more people registered on eBay than any other European city. Sorry I can’t verify that with a source, but anyone who knows the city well wouldn’t find such a statement hard to believe.

Cambridge is a home to huge centres for the likes of Microsoft. Does its newspaper reflect that? I’d argue no, not at all. Their ‘blogs’ aren’t even blogs at all. Why is there not a news blog? Or a sports blog? Or, considering Cambridge is a hub for science in the UK, why not a science blog that is written in the same style as Bad Science in the Guardian?

If the paper has a Twitter presence, it’s not publicised enough. If they’re on Facebook, they’re doing a pretty poor job at making themselves known.

Now, it’s all well and good saying what’s wrong with a site. It’s another to prove it can be done better. Well there’s proof in Matt Gooding’s Cambridge United Blog. Matt writes for the Royston Crow — another newspaper starved of any kind of progressive internet publishing. I wonder if they know they have the likes of Matt in their ranks? A waste of brilliant blogging talent.

More to the point, though, if Matt is doing his Cambridge United blog in his own spare time, for free, using tools that are available for no fee, then why isn’t the Cambridge News? They couldn’t possibly complain of budget constraints. You know, even if they just aggregated his blog. Or linked to it. Or ANYTHING that acts as a service to readers to let them know that some brilliant, opinionated writing is out there.

The moral of this whole tale, of course, is that regional press haven’t dealt with the internet. It scares them. They don’t know how it works.

A friend of mine was recently told not to mention the internet in a job interview with a regional because “the editor doesn’t like it”. The editor should be sacked this instant. When I mention this tale on Twitter yesterday, I got a load of replies saying ‘I bet it was…’. All were wrong. But it goes to show that it isn’t an isolated problem.

If I was to meet Sly Bailey tomorrow, I’d tell her to wake up. Rather than have a go at the BBC for moving with the times, why not look into providing better websites yourselves. It doesn’t cost much. The site I created for Whitireia Journalism School in Wellington, New Zealand, earlier this year proves that so much can be done with so little time, effort and money.

I’m biased, of course, but I’d say Newswire.co.nz is a far better local news site than Cambridge News. Newswire’s total cost? About £200, plus my wage. Cambridge New’s total cost? I dread to think.

What will be most telling will be the response to my criticisms. There won’t be any — except maybe from Matt Gooding and those at Newswire. Why? Because they’re in control of their online identities. The likes of the Cambridge News won’t be aware of anything I’ve said. I hope they can surprise me, I really do.

I’ve used the Cambridge News as my example, but to steal a Sarah Palin-ism, I think it’s fair to suggest that Cambridge News is a microcosm of the UK regional press.

Many regional papers would be happier if the internet didn’t exist.

But here’s the good news: There’s still time. It can still be turned around. There is enough money in the kitty, and enough readership to give any regional paper some online success. Whether they rise to the challenge or not is up to them. If they don’t they’ve only got themselves to blame.

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Posted in Blogs, Debate, Multimedia, New Zealand, Newspapers, Social Networking, Sport, The BBC, The Future, The Web

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If you’re a football fan, you’ll appreciate this

August 7th, 2008

As part of my course last year I met up with a guy named Andy Ollerenshaw. I met him before the Cambridge United vs Weymouth match in the F.A Cup, and we had a beer in the Cambridge United Supporters Club bar.

He was on a journey. Starting in the preliminary rounds, Andy would follow a team for every game in the cup. And, when they got beat, he’d follow the winner right up to the final in May.

I’m DELIGHTED to announce that Andy has written a book about his experience, and it is available to buy soon. He emailed me a while ago asking if he could quote me… so I’m excited to see if I made it into the book.

When it comes out, I plead with all the football fans out there to buy it. Firstly, because it’s about the very essence of the English game. Secondly, because it has Cambridge United in it. And thirdly, because Andy is a thoroughly nice bloke, and I’m sure it’ll be a fun read.

Find out more about it here.

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Posted in Blogs, Sport

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It’s the journalism that counts, not the technology

June 30th, 2008

G’day and Kia Ora from Down-Under. (See… picked up the lingo and everyfink.)

*ahem*

Right, we’re verrrry close to launching the news website that I have built. It’s called NewsWire, and come launch day, you’ll find it right here: www.newswire.co.nz . Until then you’ll have to do with a little coming soon note. Unless you know your way around Wordpress, in which case you’ll be able to load the homepage with a bit of URL jiggery-pokery.

But you wouldn’t do that, would you? It would be like opening window 24 on the 1st of December. It’s just not the done thing.

Anyway. To the point:

I hit a dilemma today. How involved in the web process should my students be?

In a perfect world, they’d do it all. Gather news, write copy, take pictures, record audio, take video, produce multimedia packages and so on. And then plonk it all into a CMS ready to hit the web at the click of a button.

However, we don’t live in a perfect world. Some people won’t get it. It’s not their fault. I can safely say that I could be taught by the artist in the world — but I’ll never be able to draw. Slightly different, yes, but the principles are still there. We have to get used to the fact that not everyone will be able to be an online journalist to the full degree.

But that’s not to say they can’t do some of it.

It’s like when I do radio. I can edit audio, cue clips up, do all (most?) of the technical things. Not to mention all the newsgathering beforehand. Yet, I couldn’t present a sandwich, let alone a radio show. So I leave that to someone else.

For web, what skills should we be insisting students learn at least?

Well, me and my crack team (so that’s myself and two tech-minded students, then), have decided that every student should probably be expected tonewsgather (audio, pictures and video included), and then accompany that raw material with a written article.

Said article should then be loaded onto the CMS (as I said, we’re using Wordpress. A doddle?).

That, the team decided, should probably be it. Students will then email their multimedia to a special Gmail account (for the storage, you understand) for it to be prepared and then uploaded before eventually going live.

The people doing the uploading will be a squad of four. Jim (the program leader), myself (tutor) plus Luke and Aaron — the two tech-minded students.

The process that the normal students won’t get involved in — unless they show a desire to — is cropping and resizing images; cutting, compressing and uploading audio/video; and producingslideshows with Soundslides. And, they will also be spared the hassle of using all the custom field bits of Wordpress that are necessary to make sure our template works correctly.

This is good from our point of view. It’ll mean we get sorted quicker, and content will be clean, consistent and well-produced from the offset.

But am I doing the other students a disservice by not insisting they get involved with the WHOLE procedure?

I’m tempted to run a series of 2-hour workshops on Audacity, Soundslides and Windows Movie Maker (no comments on the software, please. That’s all that’s on offer. And anyway, it’s a good bunch). But in doing so I risk making the whole experience seem too complex and, as a result, very offputting.

For me, online journalism isn’t about what goes on inside the computer. It’s more about attacking stories with a certain state of mind. It’s about knowing that certain stories work better with video. It’s about knowing that audio just HAS to be downloadable if we are to know how that greasy politician really sounded. It’s about seeing news in a way that isn’t just printed or spoken word.

That seems the greater goal: Giving the students that bite for online reporting. Once that’s laid down, the technical expertise can come afterwards — if at all.

Am I right?

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Posted in Debate, Ethics, Multimedia, Social Networking, Sport, Student Journalism, TV, Tabloids, The Future, The Web

What a difference a video makes

March 1st, 2008

What a week.

Monday saw my first ever lecture. Kristine Lowe explained to the students why we should all blogging. The ‘Do’s and Don’t’s of Blogging’ was my part — I spoke for 20 or so minutes. I think it went down well: a good new Lincoln blog appeared the next day. I’m glad at least one person caught the ‘buzz’.

My lecturers had some very kind comments for me afterwards, which I’m delighted about. It certainly bodes well for my New Zealand trip in May.

Hopefully by Monday I’ll have a recording of my talk, so I can stick it up on here for you all to enjoy/disagree with!

Then we had an earthquake. Awesome. I was up in my room at the time, about to go to bed, when all the empty cans on my desk rattled about and fell off, and then it got even more violent. In case you haven’t heard, Lincoln was right on top of the epicentre, so we got a good hit. All very exciting.

Then I posted THAT video. I remember thinking, at the time, that if I could get the video online quickly I’d stand a good chance of getting some hits in.

And then it all kicked off.

I woke up in the morning to find 20 emails from YouTube. Comments… and plenty of ‘em. It’s really quite funny, apparently, and I started to wonder quite how far this might all go.

Then I got a message from Julian March, saying how much he enjoyed it, and that he’d love to mention it on the Sky News Editors’ Blog. Which he did. I did what every cheeky student journalist should do in this situation — and applied for some work experience.

Then the Guardian got involved. “Give them a job at sky,” says the post on the Media Monkey blog. Couldn’t agree more, chaps.

Then, through the wonderful medium that is Facebook, I got this message: “In case no-one from Sky has got in touch with you to let you know, your video has caused a great deal of amusement within the newsroom. As I’m sure you can imagine, Sky likes nothing better than to beat the BBC to a story.”

That was from the Sky News presenter that night, Faye Barker.

Some more blogs got going. Journalism.co.uk wrote about it (although, mysteriously, the entry has now gone). Paul Bradshaw added his thoughts on the matter here.

Perhaps the most bizarre reaction was from a group of Sunderland students who emailed with some great comments after seeing the clip in a lecture. “I have been in a lecture since nine this morning, i’m tried, i’m irritable and I havn’t washed in days. But by god, the video you posted made me forget all my sorrows and now I feel clean again! Thanks for the emotional wash Dave pet,” wrote Lisa, who gloriously added ‘pet’ at the end too. Love it.

Back to Sky. I was contacted by Rob Kirk — editorial development manager for Sky News — who asked me to give him a call. Last time I’d spoken to Rob was while he was on his holidays, I was covering a story for Press Gazette about an internship he was running. Anyway, I gave him a ring, and he has asked if he can use the clip in a promotional video for Sky. Unbelievable.

Even more unbelievable is that he has invited me down for the day, and also offered to try and fit me in for some work experience in the near future; hopefully around Easter.

Which, I don’t really have to tell you, excites me a lot. Especially when I hear that they’ve been inspired by Jeff Jarvis this week. It seems that Sky might be the newsroom I’ve dreamed of: Multimedia everywhere. I’m not sure what I could possibly contribute to the whole situation, but I’m certainly looking forward to visiting. Just the very nature Sky got in touch tells me they are all tuned in: Julian sent a private message on YouTube, and Faye used Facebook. Says a lot, I think.
To top off the week (which, by the way, included a 2000 word essay and an ‘interview’ assessment day…. I almost forgot my course existed until they came along and knocked me into shape..), we did the SU Election Liveblog for the newspaper. And it went extremely well — some really good content, and over 2000 hits. A great result.

In retrospect, this whole affair with the video has been a strange one. I stick by the reasons for making the video — I still find it shocking — but do feel a bit ‘dirty’ for slating the BBC. It’s like the England football team. Sometimes I’m flabbergasted at how awful they are yet, after a good sleep, I find myself supporting them even more.

I could make a 2-hour long video about all the things the BBC does brilliantly. Better than Sky. It just so happened that on this occasion the BBC fell on their face in a massive way. I’m yet to hear any response from BBC, but this blog has been linked to via this url which I can’t access. It’s the BBC’s intranet. I’m dying to know what’s being said — so if anyone can find out, that would be great.

To finish this point on a lighter note, I’d like to tell a little story. I work, part time, at a Staples store in Lincoln. It’s a dull job, but one thing happened today that will live with me forever.

We’ve just had CCTV installed, and like many places, we have a monitor at the front of the store to make it obvious people are being filmed. Today, a little lad aged about 4 or 5, saw this screen. Like most children, he found it fascinating. Unlike most children, however, this particular lad found that the funnest use of this technology was to, er, drop his trousers. Bless the little fella. I hope for his sake he eventually grows out of it.

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Posted in Design, Ethics, General, Multimedia, Sport, TV, Tabloids, The Future