The future for British newspapers

As the Leveson inquiry continues and the fees Rupert Murdoch has paid out to lawyers run into the hundreds of millions, I wonder if it has occurred to him that the money would have been better spent establishing a crack team of investigative reporters working across all the News International titles - an A-Team of journalists if you like.

As I’ve said before, all the newspapers increased their circulations during the MPs expenses scandal. Clearly, there is a demand for proper stories - something most editors seem to have overlooked.  For example, the story about Virgin paying the police overtime to investigate fraud seems to have escaped major attention. Does this indicate Government plans to privatise parts of the police force? Twenty per cent of the Royal Bank of Scotland is still in private hands. Who owns the remaining shares? Were journalists monitoring Stock Market activity after the announcement was made about Hester’s bonus? And as the National Health Service is dismantled by stealth, how many of David Cameron’s cronies stand to benefit?

There’s a reason why newspaper circulation is falling and it doesn’t have anything to do with the internet. Newspaper proprietors should never have viewed the internet as a threat, but as an opportunity to focus on what newspapers do best - investigative stories.

When it comes to judging the public mood, editors in England have failed spectacularly. And newspaper managers have failed to ensure that they employ people who have their fingers on the nation’s pulse.

The British public deserves better.

The myth of the angry black woman

The Guardian newspaper recently published  a series of comments from black female writers responding to the criticism levelled at Michelle Obama. What's curious is that in England no woman is allowed to be angry, regardless of colour. Don't forget, this is a country where Cheryl Cole is described as being the "nation's sweetheart" - a woman whose only discernible talent is being able to afford good hair and make-up stylists and PR. There is something pernicious going on in England right now. It's been written about elsewhere but you cannot help but notice the absence of women in political life, in current affairs - even on television and at the cinema. Where are the female social commentators, the scientists and economists? The scriptwriters and directors?
England prefers to elevate women such as Kate Middleton and Samantha Cameron - empty-headed helpmates who conform to a particular stereotype. All the Guardian's commentators overlooked one important aspect of the "angry black woman" tag - it's a charge levelled at women of colour that's meant to imply that somehow we're not quite "feminine" enough. After all, "anger" is seen as a male preserve. Women are supposed to keep our pretty little mouths firmly shut.

The Black and White Media Show

Right now, it’s hard to be a person of colour in England, especially one who reads newspapers or listens to the news.

In the past few days, I’ve had to watch the John Terry show and the news that the England captain is to be charged with a public order offence in the new year for racially abusing a black player.

Terry called QPR defender Anton Ferdinand a f***** black c***. There’s no “allegedly” about it - Terry’s racist rant was posted on Youtube for all to see. The Chelsea captain made a statement that he intends to fight the charges “tooth and nail”. Really? Has no one shown him the footage? As a black journalist, I waited patiently for a news outlet to feature comments from a black football player about their experience on the pitch. I waited and waited, then I waited some more.

The way this story has been covered is curious to say the least. The implication is that Ferdinand should have put up and shut up, that to accuse an England captain of being a racist is “political correctness gone mad”.

Unlike Mel Gibson, Terry cannot claim that he was drunk. In fact, he has no defence. He made racist remarks and was filmed doing so. The extraordinary fact is that virtually no one in this country owns up to being a racist. No one even likes to be open and honest and admit they have witnessed racist behaviour. Truth be told, this is a racist society. Everyday I go out, I can expect to experience racism in some form or another - from being closely tailed by security guards in stores, to not being served in cafes and restaurants. I have worked for a national newspaper where a journalist thought it would be a jolly wheeze to make monkey noises whenever I came in the room. On a woman’s magazine, an editor seemed unable to bring herself to talk to me, preferring instead to write notes on pieces of paper and throw them at me.

And racist discrimination starts early. I was recently invited up to the BBC new offices in Salford where I watched a segment for a new children’s show, The 4 O’clock Club. The show features two black brothers who are both rappers. My heart sank when I saw the clip. Yes, I understand that lots of young people listen to hip hop, but given that this is the only programme featuring two black male leads, can we not have them do something else? Is it really that much of a stretch?

White Britons have no idea what it’s like to be discriminated against in this way. They just don’t get it.

Women in the British Press

A few days ago The Guardian’s Kira Cochrane wrote about the lack of women in the national press. Over the summer, she compared the number of bylines between male and female journalists. According to her research, out of all the newspapers, the Daily Mail managed to publish the highest number articles by women.

This brings me to the Leveson inquiry. With all the acres of coverage the inquiry has generated, not one journalist has questioned the editorial reasoning behind the phone hacking scandal. The whole sorry affair serves to illustrate the paucity of thinking at the most senior level of the British media.

If I was going to hack someone’s phone, why on earth would I bother with Elle Macpherson and Vanessa Feltz, for goodness sake? No, I’d hack the phones of pharmaceutical company bosses, politicians, hedge fund managers and city financiers. Look how many extra copies of newspapers were sold during the MPs expenses scandal. Does any newspaper editor really believe that any story involving Vanessa Feltz is going to generate that much interest? It certainly doesn’t justify the tens of thousands of pounds spent on private detectives and lawyers.

There are only two female editors of national newspapers in this country.  Yet there are any number of studies that show that women buy newspapers and magazines more often than men, and tend to be bigger consumers.  Would it really be too much of a stretch for media executives to make an effort to employ more women at senior levels in newspapers? Perhaps they might be more in tune with the readership and help increase circulation.

Nothing New Under the Sun (Or On UK TV)

As the channels publish their Christmas schedules, it looks like 2011 is going to be yet another disappointing year for TV. There is a reason why US television is so much better than British TV and it as nothing to do with the significantly larger budgets. Even if we had £750,000 per episode to spend on a drama, we still couldn't make a 24, a Lost or even a series like The Wire. Why? Because the kinds of people capable of writing these shows are not the writers who get hired in England.

If there's one thing I've noticed in the years I've spent travelling between the US and the UK, is how much more egalitarian the American TV industry appears to be. Writers, producers, directors come from all walks of life - they are housewives and dentists, former marines and actors. Yes, there are still too few women working in the industry - but at 25%, that's still twice the number working in the UK TV industry. In the US, Prime Suspect, the series created by Lynda La Plante, has been cancelled - but that doesn't detract from the fact that in 25 years, La Plante is still the most successful woman British TV has seen. We do not have a female Russell T Davies or Paul Abbott and I can't see that changing any time soon.

Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker's three-part satirical series Black Mirror starts on Channel 4. Despite a full-page write-up in the Radio Times and a number of plugs in The Guardian, I can safely predict that viewing figures for this will be small. Brooker appears to have been commissioned off the back of his notoriety, not the concept or execution. I'm sure the Channel 4 executive who gave him the gig would have enjoyed his "pitch" meeting immensely. But given the channel's original remit, is this a good use of its limited resources? I would have to say no.

As someone who has studied screenwriting in the US and the UK, I have observed that British writers simply do not take the business of screenwriting seriously. I've heard British writers of long-running series brag about "knocking up" scripts in the pub the night before filming. You simply wouldn't find an American writer making such a boast.

It's interesting to note that Brooker wrote the first two parts of Black Mirror but the final part is written by Jesse Armstrong of Peep Show fame. Did Mr Brooker run out of steam? And that's another uniquely British phenomenom - we are good at coming up with concepts (The Office, Fawlty Towers, Lost In Austen), but we lack the stamina to maintain any show beyond its first series. There were only six episodes of Fawlty Towers and Lost In Austen pretty much ran out of ideas after the first episode.

I cannot see this situation changing - unless all the channels make a concerted effort to ensure their workforces are as diverse as possible. Diversity fosters creativity; it really is that simple.
When everyone is white, male and middle-class and from Gloucester, you are just not going to get the best ideas. 

The British Media in the Dock

As the Levenson Inquiry into press standards rumbles pointlessly on, I’m going to add my ten cents’ worth. First, it has to be said that David Cameron’s press officers must be dancing a jig right now. It’s the perfect time to bury any (more) bad news, as there’s nothing the British press likes better than gazing at its own navel. In England, we have the highest number of people under 25 unemployed in twenty years, and we are about to see changes to the state pension which will leave tens of thousands of women destitute in their old age. But never mind, we can listen to Sienna Miller talking about being made to feel that she was living in a video game.

The solution to the subject of press intrusion is really very simple. At present any fool who can afford a camera can call himself (and it’s always a him) a paparazzo.  If regulation is required, then that’s a good place to start. It’s clear also that the inquiry is talking to the wrong people. Picture editors should be in on the discussions. If editors can agree on set prices, then you wouldn’t get photographers risking their own necks as well as others to get the picture that will literally set them up for life. When newspapers and magazines pay £100,000 and more for the right celebrity shot, then clearly something has to be done. If there was an agreed ceiling on prices, this would go somewhere towards preventing paps from jumping out of bushes and bashing on car windows, as the McCanns described during the inquiry. And if editors can agree not to employ unlicensed photographers, that would be a step in the right direction. After all, we don’t allow just anyone to drive a black cab. Drivers have to pass a rigorous test.

Then there’s the subject of training. Many newspapers used to have apprenticeship schemes. These have largely been done away with, especially as local papers have been hit by the double whammy of the recession and the rise of the internet. The traditional route of starting off as a cub reporter on your local doesn’t really exist anymore. And believe me, it makes a difference. I’ve been a freelance journalist now for ten years and I keep coming across people who have little if any understanding of media law. In a situation like this, only the lawyers can win.

Colegate: the saga continues...

Doesn’t Ashley Cole have any real friends? Someone might want to tell him that the very worst thing he could have done was to marry Cheryl Tweedy. Ashley may be one of the finest footballers of his generation but his ability on the pitch is constantly overshadowed by his relationship with the former Girls Aloud singer. Mr Cole could open an orphanage, set up an animal sanctuary and rescue a burning building full of old age pensioners, but he would still be known as the man who cheated on Ms Tweedy.

It was interesting to see how little media attention Ashley Cole’s business venture with Jay Z merited. The pair plan to set up a restaurant along the lines of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, which trains unemployed youngsters. Perhaps Mr Cole has finally began to realise that no footballer can play forever, no matter how talented they are. Cole should look to David Beckham, who serves as a poster boy for all professional footballers as to how to extend your shelf life away from the pitch. Beckham has successfully lent his name to a host of product ranges and activities generating millions of pounds of income. He could quit playing for Galaxy tomorrow and not worry.

Ashley Cole is without doubt an attractive man but which clothing brand or designer would sign up the left-back now to be its frontman now, after his disastrous marriage? Meanwhile, the relentless PR machine behind Chezza the "Biffa" continues its onslaught...