November 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to IBT’s November newsletter with an update on our work and relevant news from the media industry. (IBT Newsletter November 2017)

This month’s briefing with the Sunday papers

Later this month we’ll be taking a closer look at four Sunday newspapers, The Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Telegraph and Observer, and we’ll hear from key executives who will tell us what they’re looking for and how best to pitch ideas to them. The Sunday papers often feature in depth reporting on global issues and stories so this session should have wide appeal to IBT members. The four speakers will be:

• Vicki Harper, Features Director, Telegraph group
• Dominic Herbert, News Editor, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People
• Kate Mansey, Deputy Features Editor, Mail on Sunday
• Tracy McVeigh, Chief reporter, Observer and Acting Editor, Guardian development site.

We’ll also be asking the speakers to tell us how the Sunday titles work with their daily counterparts and websites. This event will take place from 10-12 on Tuesday November 28th at our offices in Southwark. Places are limited so please book early.

Register for this Sunday newspapers event

Last month’s briefing with BuzzFeed UK

Last month, Alan White, News Editor at BuzzFeed UK spoke to a packed audience and gave us a clear rundown on how the UK operation works and its relationship with colleagues in the US. There’s been a big increase in the number of staff in London since Alan joined and he was clear on the sort of stories that work best for him. Above all, he wants exclusives, but don’t assume that he is only interested in lighter pieces. He’s keen to build the site’s reputation for hard news and investigations, and he urged those present to get to know individual reporters.

Notes on the briefing can be found on the IBT members’ page.

Digital leadership workshop

Next month, we will be running our first digital leadership workshop, which will explore some of the challenges of achieving digital change across an organization. Zoe Amar, who specializes in digital leadership in the NGO sector, will lead the workshop, which will include a detailed case study from an international NGO. This session is suitable for heads of digital or others who wish to know more about how to achieve digital change. It will take place from 9am to 2pm on Thursday December 14th at the IBT offices. The workshop will cover:

• How to assess where your NGO is at with digital
• How to develop a digital strategy and embed it into your organisation
• The challenge of competing against digital native charities – with a digital mindset, thinking like a start up
• The importance of looking at the user experience/journey.
• How to manage risk
• The 7 areas every digital strategy needs to get right
• Case studies of organisations which are excelling in digital
• What success looks like and how to get there
• How charity leaders should use social media – for storytelling, provoking debate, thought leadership, talking to stakeholders, managing a crisis.

New BBC operating licence

Ofcom, the media regulator, has published the new BBC operating licence. We are delighted that this now includes a commitment to international factual programming, as one of the high level objectives. The BBC will have a statutory duty to provide a range of international content beyond news and current affairs. This duty was not made explicit in the draft licence. IBT lobbied for this change which will have important consequences, as Ofcom will now be required to monitor the BBC’s international content. We’d like to thank all our members who wrote to Ofcom to argue for this change, namely ActionAid, CAFOD, Concern, DEC, Sightsavers and UNICEF.

For more details see the OFCOM website

Discussion on authentic storytelling from the global south, November 9th

Next week, One World Media will be hosting an afternoon of discussion on the theme of  ‘authentic storytelling from the global south.’ There will be three separate sessions, all taking place on Thursday November 9th. In one of the sessions, David Lammy, the Labour MP, will be in conversation with Jon Snow. Lammy will be talking about how Africa is represented in the UK media.

Book tickets for this event on the OneWorldMedia website

Sheffield seminar on public attitudes to international development, November 13th

Later this month, the Sheffield Institute for International Development will host a seminar looking at the latest research on public attitudes to international development. Three different pieces of academic research will be presented and debated. The seminar takes place from 3-5pm on Monday November 13th.

See the Eventbrite page to register

Fake News panel debate, November 14th

Later this month Quartz will be co-hosting an event looking at fake news. They’ll be debating the role of algorithms in spreading the news, talking to some of the people developing tools to stop fake news from proliferating and discussing the future of the news business. IBT will be publishing its own report on fake news early next year.

The Quartz event will take place at 6.30pm on Tuesday November 14th.

Regsiter to attend this panel debate

Best wishes

Mark