A new era called engagement

We are facing an unprecendented challenge within the media industry, say GNM bosses Definitely worth a read

New media, traditional values
Liz Forgan, chair of the Scott Trust

We thought last year was a tough one. New presses built, the readers of both newspapers introduced to a completely unknown format, full colour through the papers, a fundamental redesign and a rethink of content as well as form. It was all very exciting and utterly exhausting for the staff of every department of both papers. And the result was a triumphant success in both cases. Everyone concerned would have been well justified in taking the foot off the accelerator a bit this year and taking time to look around and enjoy the landscape.

Unfortunately for that plan, the landscape has been undergoing an even more radical change of its own. The ingrained habits of decades finally reached a tipping point, and 20 years of “blue sky” thinking about the shift from ink on paper to electronic news distribution became a practical reality. In this publication last year we were still carrying helpful little boxes entitled “What is a blog?” This year Comment is Free is an established part of GU and there is barely a newspaper journalist worth their salt who has not joined the worldwide blogathon with readers. The Guardian took the plunge and announced a policy of “web first” for much of its journalism. The first generation of instinctive internet users reached decision-making levels of the media-buying industry and advertising started shifting to the net at a serious pace.

All this poses big issues for the commercial departments of the company. Electronic business models are quite different from those of printed newspapers. Some would say there is not yet a business model worth the name to be found in electronic journalism. We are all watching each other like hawks and it is a good time for innovators with strong nerves and deep pockets to be alive.

But the issues for editorial departments are more fundamental still. When anyone with a digital phone can be a multimedia publisher of information, what is a journalist? The values of scrupulous news analysis and brilliant writing are going to have to fight it out with immediacy, uninhibited personality and the outer limits of free speech for the attention and trust of audiences. Now that moving pictures, audio and text are as mobile as a newspaper under your arm, can the separate media crafts retain their own spheres at all?

This is no longer just the stuff of special management away-days. It is the daily currency of our working lives. We have to think far and fast and fundamental about every part of our industry and there is no possible strategy except to keep up and, if possible, get ahead.

Guardian Unlimited is a sensational example of how a world-beating new entity can grow out of the skills and insights of the old media even without the huge resources the BBC has poured into its online services. But there is scarcely a minute to enjoy the pleasure at its success. This stuff is moving so fast there is no time to blink.

However, it is possible for talented people to be carried away by the challenge of the new, and it is one of the jobs of the Scott Trust to see that there is still time and money to look after the enduring reasons why our newspapers exist and the values of courageous and independent journalism as we have known them since CP Scott edited the Manchester Guardian.

We do that in all kinds of ways. Most obviously in the thinking and arguing that goes on in our editorial departments every day about the rights and wrongs of what we write in the papers or publish in GU. But behind that are two other important activities. First is a commitment to training the next generation whose tools may be different from the ones CP and his colleagues used but whose values need to be shared.

Secondly, there is a commitment to the wider dissemination of ideas about good journalism – public lectures like those in memory of James Cameron and Hugo Young, research projects, public seminars and exhibitions.

One of the features that distinguishes the freelance with the mobile phone from a great newspaper is the commitment to invest in the long term and in the public good alongside a hotly competitive commercial operation. The Scott tradition always set great store by both.

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Posted in: Engagement Marketing

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