September 2024 Update
As summer gives way to autumn, there are a number of notable shifts taking place in the UK’s media landscape. As usual, you’re with Rowan Gavin, Better Media Campaign Coordinator, as I look back through the last month of our work. If you want to go further back, you can read the last update here.
Newspaper News
This month has seen some significant developments at some of the UK’s most important newspapers. Guardian News and Media announced that it was entering exclusive talks about the sale of The Observer to Tortoise Media, a ‘slow news’ outlet co-headed by a former Times editor and a former US ambassador. The sale, which comes with a commitment of £25m over five years from the proposed new owners, is being opposed by unionised staff at The Observer, who are concerned that the implications of disentangling the Sunday paper from The Guardian have not been properly considered.
Meanwhile, The Evening Standard has sold its last daily issue, and is becoming the London Standard, a weekly publication. The new paper “will look and feel the same”, according to EIC Dylan Jones – however, his previous longstanding role as editor of GQ magazine seems to have influenced the Standard’s new direction, as the first issue of the weekly edition features much more lifestyle coverage than it does news.
These two quite different stories are interesting milestones in the decline of the British newspaper. While it remains to be seen what directions these two publications move in long-term (if they get a long-term), it’s becoming very clear that the pressures that have decimated local and regional papers over the past decade are now having significant effects on even some of the largest and most prestigious publications.
Conference Correspondence
Our member Rob Watson attended Labour conference over the past week, and reported on a few causes for cautious optimism. Media reform was not a particularly prevalent topic of focus at the conference, but Rob found a few nuggets to takeaway.
Notably, key ministers including Lisa Nandy (Media, Culture & Sport) and Chris Bryant (Creative Industries) observed that government’s engagement with civic society organisations and the arts industry could be improved. They also noted concerns about the fragility faced by freelance workers in the current climate, and seemed keen to support change to support those workers, both in the creative industries and in journalism.
Overall, Rob told me, he thought that the way government representatives were talking about making changes to the structure of social engagement suggested that they might be more willing to engage with radical change than had perhaps been expected – albeit a practical kind of radicalism.
People Power
All that said, government is still a long way from fully engaging with the potential of grassroots community media to improve access to information and social cohesion. Working to fill that void, the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) and several independent media outlets have launched a new collaborative series titled ‘People-Powered Storytelling’. It brings together a range of perspectives on the transformative power of community-centred media – well worth leafing through the contributions!
PINF have also collaborated with Changing Ideas to launch a new award for tenacious journalists, which offers new independent journalism projects grants of up to £20k plus eight months of mentoring. This kind of philanthropic funding is sorely needed in a climate that sees many independent journalists working for free or competing for scarce roles that conform with their principles. Just one award won’t buoy the independent sector to the degree that it can fill the shoes the mainstream media are increasingly stepping out of, but it is encouraging all the same.
That’s all for this month! As always you can contact me on contact@bettermedia.uk – my working hours are Thursdays, 8.45-4.30.