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Michael Grade

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Michael Grade sets out a clear purpose for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News


Category: ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Date: 24.01.2005
Printable version


ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Chairman Michael Grade will deliver the inaugural Hugh Cudlipp Lecture at the London College of Communications this evening (24 January 2005) and will set out his personal vision for the future of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News in the multi-channel and digital world.

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"As with every other genre in the digital universe, news providers are beset by increased competition, declining audiences and fragmenting revenues. One result is that serious news values are coming under increasing strain."

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Michael Grade will make clear that in this increasingly competitive environment, the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ will not change its standards or soften its news agenda in order to sustain or increase its audience share.

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Indeed, its secure funding places a greater responsibility on the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ to stick to its core values and deliver its purpose of 'supporting an informed citizenship'.

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"The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ has a duty to set the gold standard in news reporting, in accuracy, in impartiality, in creating a better understanding."

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He will point to recent polling evidence that puts ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News top amongst the public as the most trusted news organisation and will say that, for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ to retain that position, it has to fulfil one of its primary responsibilities: to engage audiences in stories that matter.

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He will acknowledge that there may have been some confusion amongst ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ editors and journalists in the past, not knowing whether to pursue audience share or to provide serious news only for an elite group.

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Michael Grade will reject that it is necessary for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ to choose, saying that a distinctive, high quality news service will not result in the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ losing audience share.

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"It is a counsel of despair to believe that serious journalism is incapable of being popular journalism."

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"One of the key challenges for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ journalists is how to engage the audience in stories that matter. One of the stated aspirations of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News is 'making the important interesting'."

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Michael Grade will acknowledge the changing culture in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News that has been demonstrated through its swifter and more transparent reaction to mistakes and complaints.

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And he will reinforce the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s commitment to impartiality, an aspect of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News in which the Governors have stepped up their monitoring role – with the next report, on Europe, soon to be discussed by the Board.

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Concluding his lecture, Michael Grade will sum up the current and future ambition of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ News:

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"The ambition for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ journalism must be to scale the commanding heights. That means an agenda driven by significance not sensation; by scepticism not cynicism.

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"It means a passion for accuracy of fact, and precision of language; a thirst for knowledge and nuance; a commitment to continue investing in difficult and challenging journalism; and an understanding that properly reflecting the complexity of the world back to Britain is as important as properly covering domestic events.

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"It means a journalism of high endeavour. A distinctive journalism, built on trust, impartiality and independence. A journalism that never patronises or talks down or underestimates its audience.

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"A journalism founded on a serious agenda delivered in an engaging way – a journalism, in short, that really does 'make the important interesting'.

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"A journalism, too, that is not afraid to take considered risk."


Notes to Editors

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Michael Grade is delivering the inaugural Hugh Cudlipp Lecture.

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The lecture has been established by the Hugh Cudlipp Trust and the London College of Communication to commemorate Hugh Cudlipp as a key figure in British journalism between the Thirties and the Eighties.

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He was editor-in-chief of the Mirror Group for more than 20 years from 1952, retiring in 1974.

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Hugh Cudlipp was born in Cardiff in 1913 and died in 1998 as Baron Cudlipp, a life peer.

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Michael Grade began his career as a sports writer on Hugh Cudlipp's Daily Mirror in 1960, where he remained until 1966, before leaving to join his family's theatrical agency.



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Category: ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Date: 24.01.2005
Printable version

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