The Future of News

Recently Tim Denyer and Natalie Redford were lucky enough to attend the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, one of the most prestigious media events in the UK. Here are their key takeouts from The Future of News session.

The dominant theme of the Guardian sponsored Edinburgh TV Festival was unquestionably the future of the BBC. But, when you have the likes of Armando Lanucci, Nicola Sturgeon and Sue Perkins voicing their opinions, we feel the subject has been rather covered.

Instead, we wanted to focus on the output of a stimulating debate on ‘The Future of News’.

Chaired by Cathy Newman, the Heads of News from BBC, Channel 4, Sky News and the VP of Comms from Google discussed a challenge familiar to many brands and marketers.

Fundamentally, broadcasters need to shift their model on how they get their news product to audiences. People now have more choice, more often. To simply rely on TV broadcasting as the sole distribution of news just isn’t cutting it.

Similarly, audiences are harder to reach through broadcast alone. 60% of 18-24’s now get their news online.

So, the five key take outs from the session that we can apply to what we do as brands are as follows:

  1. Use the opportunities new channels and platforms give you to tell stories in new, creative ways.
  2. Resist the temptation to dumb down
  3. Stay true to the values you hold as an organisation and have a core set off guiding principles. This will help your brand navigate through the noise.
  4. Learn and adapt
  5. Embrace new friends like Snapchat to attract younger audiences

It will be fun to watch.

A big thanks to the Guardian for inviting us up to the festival.

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OMD UK

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