viewpoint Steve Bird believes good journalism can win in a digital deluge


Leave the factories and meet the readers


A


global infrastructure that is all but free to use, cheap mobile communications and fast, high-bandwidth


broadband have put every kind of data within easy reach. We now have a library, a TV studio, a games console, a shopping centre and even a newspaper in our pockets. Oh, and a telephone. Within five years, 80 per cent of


the world’s population are predicted to own a smartphone. Social and economic change that has been compared to the invention of the printing press in terms of its impact has put readers and consumers at the heart of a transformed world. “Audience engagement” is a digital


catchphrase but it is one that many journalists can relate to: expressed simply, readers should be at the centre of what we do. The problem is that for many employers this fundamental idea – which is hardly new – has been ignored in favour of a narrow and compromised commercialism. Journalists, who trade in data and


are at the heart of the media, might expect to be in the vanguard of this technological revolution. Instead, most are anxious not optimistic. Far from benefiting from investment in their future, newsrooms are being depleted and work outsourced as the staff left behind are expected to become a jack of all trades. The Telegraph has been replacing seasoned journalists with supposedly digitally-savvy employees, while local media groups expect one person to edit up to a dozen titles. Thirty years ago, Rupert Murdoch


invested in technology at Wapping to take on the unions and print a cheaper product to undercut rivals: a formative influence on the rise of the


“  For all the latest news from the NUJ go to www.nuj.org.uk ” theJournalist | 9


“factory journalism” described so well by Nick Davies. But a business model that made millions in the 1980s and 1990s is failing. Classified ads, the cash cow that sustained vast profits, dried up early this century with the rise of online rivals. Consumer dependence on print media for news and a bundle of extras is withering. And, to add salt to the wounds, digital start-ups – still known by some as “digital disruptors” – have been better at winning online audiences.


The problem for Murdoch et al is


that the digital revolution is not a fad and change is now being forced on those who fear their revenues will soon fall off a cliff.


As they can’t or, more likely,


Audience engagement is a digital catchphrase but it is one that many journalists can relate to: expressed simply, readers should be at the centre of what we do


won’t invest in an uncertain future, the industry response has been a familiar one: when profits are falling, you cut and keep cutting. Ethical standards, for those that still have them, become negotiable. The disturbing influence that HSBC had to silence bad press is symptomatic of the same desperation. But this is a


problem for this business model, not for journalism. The internet is opening up a world of data to be mined for stories and a worldwide audience for a great article. And, above all, in the maelstrom of


Steve Bird is FoC of the Financial Times chapel @ftnuj


information, reliability and quality are beginning to build new reputations for those who can attract and keep readers. In the face of the new competition, media tycoons like to complain about the BBC and the Guardian giving away content for nothing without seeing that the free exchange of information defines the internet. In commercial terms, Google and Facebook (free sites) are scooping up ad revenues. . Those hustling for ad revenues and


looking downmarket at clickbait for salvation may well not protect their profits, their titles or their employees. The irony is that good journalism could save the industry. This is a message that NUJ members can take to employers who are genuinely looking for a way forward. People will pay for content they trust. Advertisers will pay to feature in articles that get read. It is time to abandon newspaper factories, stop sacking staff and let journalists use technology to build a relationship with the people who matter, our readers.


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