[cma-l] Westminster Media Forum: Partnerships are future for UK regional news – but who’ll be in control?

[CMA-L]

October 15th, 2009 Posted by Laura Oliver

The most salient comment in yesterday’s Westminster Media Forum on the
future of local media came from Community Media Association (CMA)
director Jacqui [sic] Devereux.

Having listened to presentations from several of the ‘big players’
(ITN, STV, Global Radio) interested in a bid to run the government’s
proposed independently funded news consortia (IFNC) as a replacement
for ITV1’s regional news service, Devereux said she welcomed talk of
partnership, but was concerned about the ‘jockeying for position’ she
had heard in the room.

Partnerships should not be established if the main issue is who
controls that partnership, she suggested.

“There’s no reason why the bigger players and the smaller players
can’t work together to make this work properly. But it will only work
if there isn’t a big player in there saying we need to control this
‘because’,” she said.

Smaller players, such as the community radio stations and TV channels
represented by the CMA, must have a protected place within the IFNC
proposals, she said – a sentiment echoed by ITN chief executive
officer John Hardie, whose vision for a ‘grand alliance’ of local
media included an ‘open door policy’ to encourage smaller newsmakers
to take part.

Source: http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/10/15/wmf-partnerships-are-future-for-uk-regional-news-but-wholl-be-in-control/

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