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.
