20th November 2009
By Ashley Scrace
It’s arguably the hardest period the media has ever faced – and little of it is within the media’s control.
That is the implication at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM), Southport.
But while it’s out of control, it’s not out of grasp.
A sinking ship?
The future of the media has become the skunk of the conference. Everyone can smell the need for resolve, but no one knows how to handle it.
What we’re seeing in the media is simple: a depleting managerial, democratic structure based on a sinking economic foundation.
It’s not necessarily incurable – though many will portray it this way due to the sheer size of the collateral damage.
And when you look at it, all does seem lost. It is predicted that 1,300 papers will have closed by 2013 and that one-in-four jobs will be lost – possibly one-in-three depending on the circumstances.
Nudges from the NUJ
The National Executive Council of the NUJ state their condemnation: NO to job cuts; NO to budget cuts; NO to the eradication of regional and local news.
They claim that: “Such cuts not only damage quality but are a false economy – losing readers and viewers – and ultimately advertisers – as overworked staff are forced to cut corners and compromise on the range and depth of coverage.”
And this became echoed by various members of the NUJ. The recession is the bloodied remains of an already decimated corpse.
A profitable exercise
The point the NUJ is making is how can these job cuts can be justified, when they come at a time when profit is still being made.
Johnston Press – the publisher of papers such as the Yorkshire Post – have just revealed 19.1% advertising revenue losses. But they’re still in profit – at a time when they plan to cut their costs by £50 million.
The Trinity Mirror has actually seen share prices gradually rise. Yet they plan cuts including: a pay-freeze in 2009; approximately 40 editorial redundancies for staff at its Birmingham division BPM, as part of plans to tackle a £6 million forecast loss for the division in 2010; and a further seven places are due to be cut in the Merseyside area – something the NUJ has been campaigning to stop.
In all cases the same scenario is at play: loss in profits are being remedied by disproportionate job and budget cuts in vain attempts to regain financial supremacy.
Even the losers get lucky sometimes…
Non-commercial public-service broadcasting is taking a bashing, mainly with regards to the licence fee. There is no doubt that the BBC needs to continue. Sometimes we forget it’s a global network of monumental importance which we really cannot let go.
But top-slicing the licence fee is not the way forward. By using the BBC to, effectively, subsidise other routes of broadcasting and the digital switchover will damage its editorial position and reputation as an independent, reliable broadcaster.
But the BBC does need to come down to earth. Something needs to be done to ensure that our money is being spent wisely, securely and sufficiently – no matter what the area of application.
Publications are not all suffering and this maybe part due to their rejection of the transforming multi-media work. Private Eye posted profits in the millions, and this may be due to their reluctance to publish anything on the web.
Yet this model of rejection cannot last for long. The media is moving towards digital platforms and soon the web will have to be embraced for all it is worth. But how to make money on the web? That’s an eternal question, and the loss of advertising revenue has thrown the normal business model into disarray.
The variety of sources
At a lecture in August, Robert Peston, BBC Business Editor, said: “It is increasingly clear that much of the audience doesn’t care whether they receive their information via the blog, some other internet channel, the TV, newspapers or radio.
“We did a survey in February of where British people get their information about the economy. 84% still turn to television first, but 53% used the internet, as opposed to 52% who go to a newspaper, and 37% radio.”
These are worrying findings. While the internet is a useful resource, most of it is user-generated of the ill-informed. It’s this user-generated content (UGC) which may also be killing us. The content posted by so many is pointlessly useful. The quality may be astounding but the professionalism and reliability of the content is questionable.
Yet UGC often gets a greater prominence in the news agenda – because it’s cheap and plentiful. This system is just absurd: it’s like replacing David Beckham, with his years of experience and reliable professional conduct, with a child who kicks a ball in the back garden. The latter is plentiful – and possibly useful for neighbourhood-terrorism – but lacking experience, training and reliability.
The graduate
The collapsing media may be taking its overstated toll. But its effects on students are understated.
Adam Christie, freelance journalist from the NUJ South Yorkshire Branch, painted the bleak picture to my even bleaker face.
He explained some simple truths: “Last year we saw 3,000 students leave university with journalism and media based degrees. Years ago this would’ve been great. But this now comes at a time when the same numbers of jobs are being eradicated.
“It’s a worrying prospect. There are still jobs. But you’ve got to be good and lucky.”
So what can be done? Adam could not be conclusive, but added: “If I were in that situation I’d be asking for my money back.”
It’s good I kept my tuition receipt then.
Where do we go now?
There have been trials before. There have been pressures before. There have even been recessions before.
The crisis facing the media is not just one of job cuts and economic pressure – it’s also a turning into a crisis of democracy.
Without the media, who criticises the elite? When the Prime Minister makes policy, who comments and scrutinises it from outside Whitehall? Who keeps tabs on the exploitation, hardship and problems faced by the millions of the voiceless and powerless?
The answer? No one. Maybe the drunkard in the pub will make stand. But how will he know, or anyone know, what to make a stand about?
After the deluge…
The main issue at the heart of the collapse is the business model of media funding. Advertising has declined; the current model drowns in debt; and so comes devolution, via culling those with a duty to democracy.
Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the NUJ, said: “There is a funding crisis of the public service broadcasters and the commercial sector. The BBC needs saving. Without it news would suffer. Even Sky News would not be improved by the removal of the BBC.”
“It’s a duty to democracy to retain a strong media.”
No one can give a definite answer of where we’re going. We’ve all got suggestions, though, of where we should be going. We’ve all got ideas on how to save ourselves. And by coming together we’ve all got hope and reason to float upon the waves of the storm and protect an industry dealing with the frontline of democracy.
