Citizen Journalism

Our news outlets are all running around today, trying to source pictures and video of the bit of North London that was on fire and being looted last night.

If you've got a fuzzy shot of a burning bus, then I can understand mailing it to the beeb. If I had anything better than that though, I'd be on the phone to newspapers selling it - not giving them great content for free.

News outlets aren't charities and they want the pictures to sell papers. These are the terms and conditions for uploading to the BBC news website and frankly, I think they're taking the p*ss. You're lucky even to retain the copyright.

In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. This may include the transmission of the material by our overseas partners; these are all reputable foreign news broadcasters who are prohibited from altering the material in any way or making it available to other UK broadcasters or to the print media. [See full Ts & Cs]

It's important to note, however, that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News and that if your image and/or video is accepted, we will endeavour to publish your name alongside it on the BBC News website. Please note that due to operational reasons this accreditation will probably not be possible with video. The BBC cannot guarantee that all pictures and/or video will be used and we reserve the right to edit your comments.

If online newspapers move to subscription

Then where does that leave bbc.co.uk?

Rupert Murdoch has announced today that he expects News International's online titles to be on a subscription model 'within a year'.

And the Guardian is considering making specialist areas of its website, such as MediaGuardian, subscription based.

Surely that leaves the BBC as the elephant in the room. BBC.co.uk is already the UK's 10th most visited website and the largest UK news site.


If other online news outlets move to subscription models and the BBC remains free, then it represents a huge market distortion. I'll be expecting fireworks from Murdoch when, as the UK newspaper market begins to charge for content, the BBC's online traffic starts to rise.

What will it take to stop people reading newspapers?

UK Newspaper sales have been sliding for some time, with the December ABC numbers for virtually all titles not painting a picture of a growing market.


It's a slow decline though and despite predictions of the end of the printed newspaper, circulations are still high. The Sun is back above 3m again and The Telegraph, as the largest quality daily, sells around 850,000 copies.

It's going to take a step change in the market to put a real dent in newspaper sales and I think it could come from Apple. A large-form ipod Touch is predicted to launch this year

(not a picture of a large-form ipod Touch)

What's that got to do with newspapers? Well I think a big part of the reason why daily newspapers are still read on paper, is that there's not a good electronic platform to read them on.
Mobile phone screens are far too small to be useful and opening a netbook on the commute to work is a geeky pastime at best.

If Apple bring their elegant designs and ease of use to a next-gen PDA with a screen big enough to comfortably read an article, then it could start a change that has long been predicted but hasn't happened yet.

Papers on paper will stay with us, because ipods at the breakfast table just doesn't feel right. But an ipod that picks up The Times wirelessly while it's charging and has it ready to go for London commuters. That really could work and could be as easy as downloading The Times application from the Apps Store.

It could also be very lucrative for the newspapers themselves, if they use the technology to engage a young, London-based, ABC1 demographic.