Informed 11


Times and the Washington Post making their coronavirus-related coverage available to non-subscribers. In a welcome move, the BBC has suspended its program to shed 450 posts – although a future funding crisis at the corporation seems even more certain.


“Te response of the regional press has been predictably shabby”


Reading the runes for the future media landscape suggests that the current crisis will accelerate already evident trends, according to Douglas McCabe, the chief executive of Enders Analysis. He predicts a shiſt in consumer spend from retail to online, a transfer of advertising away from offline, an increasing move from print media to online consumption and a shiſt in the funding model from dependence on advertising to subscriptions. Te media industry analyst also cites


newspapers’ distribution crisis, with core older readers unable to obtain newspapers as a key issue for the industry. Innovative steps to distribute for free may resolve this, although as social pressure to isolate grows, this challenge can only grow. Facebook is currently operating more


slowly than usual, such been its increased traffic, largely driven by users searching for news. It has reversed a long-time decline in news-driven traffic to that platform. Te macro business impacts on the media might not be the most noticeable changes, however. Millions of workers, journalists among them, have discovered that a working from home is feasible. Radio broadcasters have accepted that content trumps sound quality. And television journalists have realised Skyped comment to camera from intriguing home setings is possible for many interview subjects, and that you can even anchor the evening news from a home office.


Fiona Roberts who produces Radio 4’s Inside Science, has created an effective home studio from inexpensive equipment, much of which she already owned:


“I set up group Whatsapp or Facetime


calls with the presenter and contributors from the confines of their own homes or wherever”, she explains. “Tis allows them to hear each other (and me when I switch my mic on) and record them. I then load the SD card files into an editing package and craſt the final product.” Her system is not without downsides. “It’s not studio quality, and I worked for 23-and-a-half hours yesterday to finish a programme. So far we’ve been trying to not make the changes in the way we are working be too obvious on air. We’ve been lucky to date that our main contributors are scientists or science journalists who are quite tech savvy.” Tere are issues, however. “Te


separation between work and home has gone, and I don’t have the best ergonomic set up – backache and RSI are starting to become an issue. Also working so close to the, currently well-stocked, fridge is becoming problematic!” For the moment, Roberts is accentuating the positive. “I am thinking of ways to take advantage of working at home and I am looking for stories that play into being stuck at home, oſten with kids, so we’re look at science experiments you can do at home with your kids where reporters can record themselves and then send the audio to me.” Working from a home office is by no means the only innovation. While much of the work of the courts has been put on hold ‘for lockdown’, those covering ongoing cases at the Old Bailey have been told that they can dial into hearings for the first time. A judge at Norwich Crown Court allowed reporters to cover cases by Skype. As anyone who has followed a case from a ‘media annex’, viewing proceedings on a screen is not the same as being in court – but it is easy to see that such developments could allow reporters to cover cases in courts located elsewhere


in the country. For many reporters telling the story of the crisis has made this one of their most intense and emotional working periods ever. On-air correspondents have joined applause for NHS workers, anchors such as Diana Speed on the Today program have audibly shown emotion. Others, such as ITV Wales’ Rob Osbourne have involved their entire family to explain the virus and our response. Correspondents and experts in topics such as health and personal finance have enjoyed something of a boom, their specialisms suddenly sought aſter. What we have yet to see are the results of many other journalists on enforced furlough, finding creative ways to fill their time. During Te Times lockout of 1978/9 hundreds of editorial staff were paid to do nothing for 11 months. A great many wrote the books they had always promised – almost none of which concerned the challenges of introducing new technology to the newspaper industry. Doubtless in years to come, a


“It is hard to believe that current disruption will not leave profound marks on our industry and the way we work.”


cohort whose lives changed direction as a result of this crisis will be identifiable. How completely any of us return to


pre-Covid-19 ways of working remains to be seen. Fiona Roberts for one is looking forward to the resumption of her long and expensive commute. “I work in a very collaborative way, oſten have interns and trainees and experts visiting for interviews etc. I miss them all,” she said. Not everyone feels that way, of course, and it is hard to believe that current disruption will not leave profound marks on our industry and the way that we work – quite possibly in ways that are still impossible to imagine.


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