“Is there a future for West Midlands media?”
Subs’ Standards blog reports on Thursday’s Press Club meeting in Birmingham on the future of the mainstream media in the West Midlands…
“The first 10 minutes were given over to a DVD compilation of Birmingham’s glorious print and TV past — featuring, bizarrely, images of New Faces, Pot Black and Basil Brush”
Despite the free open-access event being trailed on D’log last Monday…
“There were no pure bloggers represented in the audience — in the straw poll of around 70 attendees”
Pics from the event here, along with Steve Dyson’s account of the panel debate…
“For me, the biggest ‘debate’ occurred with a local government PR who claimed she was trying to stuff press releases into our hands, but no longer knew anyone at the papers because they had left. I think I upset her when I quipped that any decent PR would make sure they knew one of 100+ journalists at our new premises in Fort Dunlop. She did not like that…”
Meanwhile, Dave Lee comments on the BBC’s scrapping of plans to offer local video news, and he starts monitoring the Birmingham Mail website to see if they take advantage of the breathing-space the BBC’s just given them.
Not that I actually need such local online video news, though, when my BBC local radio station already offers 1) extensive and exemplary local news and events coverage, and even 2) “behind closed doors” featurettes. The only problem is that such coverage isn’t indexed or made searchable and then made available again online via a pinpoint-accuracy ‘listen again’ archive. Instead, almost all of that detailed historical record of the inner-life of a city just fades away into the ether, after a few days on iPlayer.
