Jaundiced

By Richard Addis
June 9th, 2008 at 02:48pm
Media

I have been on retreat from blogging for a couple of weeks partly just because I can and partly because I have been feeling jaundiced about journalism and it is not particularly interesting writing about being jaundiced.However, thanks to a magnificent promotion by Tim de Lisle in today’s Guardian here is a short effort to explain why.Basically I suppose it is boredom. When was the last really interesting thing that happened in journalism here in the UK?I include all journalism in this although I am basically a student of print/web/video rather than TV.I mean, here we are in London, supposedly a leading global centre of competitive journalism and what are most people doing? Slogging away, churning out the same old formula week after week, milking rather dank little pots of inspiration for all they are worth, trying to survive an economic downturn by merging desks and cutting back on expenses.I am not complaining about events. I never believed in the mindless news editors who whined about “quiet days” and “dead news”. I always felt they were revealing more about their inner blandness than anything else.Anyway, events are not letting us down at all. Obama has been and remains an amazing story about the rebirth of America and there is plenty else to get excited about. (How on earth Jesse failed to win I’d Do Anything requires a whole lot more investigation).I am complaining about the lack of new ideas of any kind on the media scene. Has everyone gone to sleep? Worse, I am complaining about the lack of courage among our media chieftains. Given that many of them are metaphorically strapped to a workbench with a whirring saw marked RECESSION slowly approaching their necks, one might have thought they would do something.Look at print developments today. Telegraph titles merge newsdesks. London Evening Standard and London Lite streamline news desks. Thomson Reuters union threatens strike. O’Brien attacks IN&M.Against this backcloth 90% of activity in media companies is simply shuffling chairs around. A new editor; a redesign; a gradual move back to the old design; a new column; a new section; a CD give-away. Oh, of course, I mustn’t forget the really big idea: cut back on the staff and ‘repurpose’ the content for a multi platform age. Man oh man, depressing or what?The last exciting thing that happened? Maybe when everyone starting going tabloid. Maybe when Associated launched Metro in around 10 days flat.For any editors or publishers out there who want to do more than cling grimly onto their jobs here a few ideas……

1. Make your paper free
2. Do news on the web - and at least 50% of it in video - and turn your paper into a daily magazine
3. Redefine what news is - it has been crying out for a rethink for 20 years
4. Get hundreds of readers to sign up as reporters - pay them if they get stories in
5. Launch a photo magazine

Life is short!

Entry Filed under: Media