A couple of thoughts from the perspective of someone who runs a hyperlocal site [www.alderleyedge.com] that has no professional or trained journalists involved…

The essence of a hyperlocal site is community – not journalism!

Regarding the quality of writing produced by sites such as ours, I may be biased, but I think it compares very favourably with the local newspaper. You nit the nail on the head with your comment “People are involved because it means something to them” and to that end more care is taken over what is published.

All good points and I agree with you to a large extent about the regional media – you only have to see the route the Brighton Argus took eight years ago in abandoning local news in favour of Big Brother etc for the London commuters to see that there is some confused thinking out there.

You talk to the top people at Northcliffe, Newsquest and Trinity for example and they say the right things but look at their websites and you can see the message isn’t getting out.

I also agree the BBC doesn’t have that great a local presence – although that is something they are trying to address.

My concern is on the media as a whole. While the paywall is not the only way to monetise online, it is the most immediate and other solutions are quite a long way down the line. I fear that by that time that may happens papers like the Independent, Guardian, Express and Telegraph and broadcasters like Channel 4 and ITV will have been so damaged that we will be left with a direct choice of BBC or Murdoch and as a rsult democracy in the media will suffer.

Malcolm

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. My response to your question was borne out of frustration for the general tone/direction the discussion was taking. Your question just got the brunt of it. As I said in the post, I should have sat on my hands. I’m sorry you got the brunt of that.

I think we have to break the BBC issue and the general idea of a level playing field in to two areas. The idea that a publicly funded organisation should play against commercial organisations is one that does deserve some investigation and investigation on its impact. But I think that’s different from the idea that this is to ‘blame’ for a lack of plurality in the media we access online.

Paywalls are not the only solution and the problem is not just the cost of online. The problems go deeper (and offline) and are mostly pre-web. We could look at the inherent problems that the freesheet model highlighted. We could look at the cover price battle in print that devalued the product and educated an audience to pay less. Lots of things that happened way before the web. That’s before we even begin to look at the mistakes made in the way that organisations have engaged and invested in the web.

The solutions are many and varied but the vast majority are nothing to do with BBC. As another commentator in the session noted, the BBC actually doesn’t have that great a local presence. Their local efforts are either to regional to impact on the local media market or cover it with a national news focus. ie a national news story just happens to be on your patch.

The truth is that regional media is behind the game. They invested in areas that didn’t include the journalism. Now there is a big job to do. In the morning troubleshooting session I heard stats(from hitwise) saying that searches for local news and content are up but traffic to local media sites had stagnated. That sounds like an opportunity missed (and I’m pretty sure it isn’t the BBC getting that traffic)

Good blog.
‘Twas me who posed the question about the BBC which drew your rapier-like response ( a pun on swordplay, not a criticism).
It is a difficult question which often draws a passionate response but it was a shame I left it so late in the day to pose it when we were running out of time.
My question was intended to be ‘is it right and proper and fair competition that the BBC provides online content for free’? I am not fighting the corner for local newspapers – they are largely responsible for their own demise. Neither am I demanding an end to free content online – organisations like The Lichfield Blog and the local village news site I help manage in Oxfordshire are a vital part of the web’s increasing democratisation of the media across the world.
However, I wonder what part the BBC is playing in democracy online. While the online service is free (and there has been no discernable increase in licence fee despite the amazing quality of the site) what chance do other news organisations national, local and print, broadcast and online of introducing a paywall?
Ultimately all news organisations are suffering and making online pay is the only way we can successfully protect the variety of media we have.
I do not understand why the BBC’s news and sport websites are covered by the licence fee (although I use both all the time as they are superb). If the organisation wanted to release a free newspaper I am sure it would not be allowed yet for some reason it is allowed to treat online as an extension of broadcast media. I think a lot of what was covered at rewired showed that it is a medium in its own right.
I have few answers just questions and sought out your blog to pose a question more eloquently than I managed on Thursday.

Malcolm Bradbrook

That’s why I still talk about these things (such as in the context of news:rewired) but at the same time I’m doing something about it – encouraging collaboration on revenue generation for hyperlocals, starting a hub to talk about and share experiences in hyperlocal and even planning my own ‘practical’ conference to get some real outcomes.

I thought it was a good session, better than most I’ve been in and all the contributions were really good. It’s good to get a little heated sometimes.