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September 3, 2008
Update on BBC.com
I had breakfast this morning in London with Richard Sambrook, who has been charged with making BBC.com a major player among web based news providers. Here is an update on the progress of the BBC in the online space:
1) We have integrated all of our newsrooms, from radio to TV to web. Our theory was that this would decrease the work load on journalists by balancing the peak demands but in fact it has raised the expectations for all reporters. We are still in a transition from those who work only on specialized platforms (TV as example) to the next generation comfortable across all platforms on a given story. We have invested in journalism production tools. There is a production skill set that needs to be married with the substance of stories.
2) Video is drawing online traffic. The sport video usage is up 20 times in the past four years, with a real peak in demand around the Beijing Olympics. We are now beyond a text focused audience.
3) We continue to tailor the news to regional demand. For example, Matt Frei, our anchor for World News America, is a Brit but has lived in the US for the past decade. He has his own deep roots and contacts in the market, leading to better stories. We need also to alter our tone, growing our US bureau, tailoring our approach to a US audience, regionalizing the news.
4) Video content on the web must differ from TV. It should be shorter, less intermediated, less heavily produced. “It should be raw and direct, not like sitting back and watching TV,” he said.
5) There is a big audience for business news. Viewers recognize the interconnected nature of markets and the direct connection to their personal net worth. This is a work in progress at BBC.
6) BBC.com international traffic pattern shows just over 50% of users from North America, the balance in Asia and Europe.
7) BBC.com advertising has held up well despite the global economic slowdown. Key sources of money are travel/tourism, countries for economic development, and corporate image ads.
8) Sambrook believes that the New York Times and the Guardian have led the newspaper business in adapting to the online arena. “They are both doing video very well. In fact the Guardian has Guardian films, longer form pieces.” He questions whether the NY Times or Guardian are really monetizing their online traffic, especially outside of home markets.
Here are the implications for PR people from this discussion. We need to recognize that there are fewer truly global media players and we should connect with them outside of home market (BBC in New York and Hong Kong). We must offer video content relevant for the web, not highly produced video news releases. We can offer consumer generated content that helps to build connection to media brands, as all participants are in experimental mode. I would appreciate your comments as always.
Posted by Edelman at September 3, 2008 9:18 AM |
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Comments
Absolutely agreed on using the reduced number of major media sources on a much more international basis.
The point that jumps out most though is video content must be produced for the web. In recent weeks I've been amazed in particular at how relatively minor media players (moderate local newspapers, for instance) have started pushing out many of their lead stories via video content, backed up by text, rather than using text illustrated by a picture.
Content was always king, now it's extremely diversified - and more like the emperor.
Posted by: Steve Earl at September 3, 2008 12:18 PM
The commercialization of the media is one major factor that has given rise to the explosion in the PR industry. Richard is right in saying that journalists have to operate across multiple platforms: one impact of that multi-skilling is that journalist no longer have to produce one story with a deadline in the evening, they may have to produce four; a print version, a web-text version, a podcast story and a web-video.
As a result of multiple rolling deadlines, journalists generally don’t have time to do their job properly which has created an enormous number of opportunities for the PR industry.
Don’t have time for an interview? We do, listen to our podcast and if you like you can use bits of it.
How about TV? Not to worry our video media release will do your job for you.
Even our media releases are written in a style you can use … no editing necessary.
An enterprising communications campaign can use the current weakness in the world of journalism to ensure market saturation of a well crafted message.
Posted by: Nigel Catchlove at September 6, 2008 3:17 AM
Nigel,
I like your enthusiasm but your views are quite different from my own. We should not in any way pretend to substitute for media.
Thanks for reading,
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at September 9, 2008 8:50 AM