- Steve Herrmann
- 8 May 07, 05:14 PM
You might have noticed a change at the top of the News website pages today.
In the orange banner next to the 91Èȱ¬ logo (on the UK edition of the website) where we used to have audio and video links to programmes, we now have a link to a live stream of 91Èȱ¬ News 24. (The programme links have moved to the right).
We’ve known for a long time that when we make the News 24 stream available on the site during a major breaking story it gets a lot of traffic. We also know that there’s a good take-up for the News 24 video summary.
So as part of our aim to make sure all our key news services are available on-demand, the News 24 continuous live stream will be available from today on the website, whenever you want to watch it.
Steve Herrmann is editor of the
- Peter Knowles
- 8 May 07, 03:48 PM
On the face of it, 91Èȱ¬ Parliament is the narrowest of niche channels. You’d have to travel down the channel listings as far as Discovery Ironing +1 before you’d find something more niche. What it says in the lid is very much what is inside: Parliament. This means committee hearings and debates from the devolved parliament and assemblies, as well as full coverage of the Westminster chambers. They occupy the bulk of the schedule.
But there is something in the character of these debates and hearings which is the source of an idea we’ve been exploring. We care about authenticity and speech, unmediated. It’s the opposite of soundbite television. There is a lot going on in the political world which is worth hearing in full and a lot of resources to be tapped into – by way of archive and material from other broadcasters – not available anywhere else.
So, over a bank holiday weekend where the weather was less than inspiring, the channel made use of some surprising resources.
From abroad, we broadcast the whole of the election debate between Sarkozy and Royal (Friday evening with translation – all two hours 40 minutes of it). From the election night itself, the channel took coverage from TF1 and France 2, in French, for those who wanted to experience the event direct and as an alternative to the high-powered special presented by Jon Sopel on 91Èȱ¬ News 24, (who, rather conventionally, stuck to broadcasting in English). Earlier in the day, we heard from C-SPAN, with Angela Merkel on the transatlantic partnership.
From the archive, ten years on from New Labour coming to power, 91Èȱ¬ Parliament showed in entirety the election night broadcast and this ran all day across the rainy bank holiday Monday. We’ve been told that many participants in the 1997 election stayed glued to their sets, throughout the day. (Next stop in our tour of the election archive:1987, which is showing 5 October).
Drawing on the 91Èȱ¬â€™s wider resources, the channel showed 91Èȱ¬ Scotland’s beautiful film by Ruaridh Nicoll. Patriot Games, examining the history of the Act of Union. And from our own archives, in a new documentary, Robert Orchard told the complex story of Tony Blair’s relationship with Parliament as he prepares to step down.
This morning, that extraordinary opening session of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Back to the Commons, this afternoon, and normal business.
The programming ‘specials’ do, I think, offer something of value and they get the channel noticed in and . In turn, this helps us reach a wider audience for our normal parliamentary schedule. 91Èȱ¬ Parliament is the only parliamentary channel, among dozens in the world, to have regular audience ratings (we reach around one million adults, per month) and I think these specials play their part.
Peter Knowles is the controller of 91Èȱ¬ Parliament
- Steve Herrmann
- 8 May 07, 11:00 AM
The 91Èȱ¬ News website won two last week – best news site and the People's Voice award in the same category.
Firstly I want to thank everyone who voted for us for the People's Voice award - it's great to know you appreciate what we do. The main Webby award winners are chosen by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, whose website says: "To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise -- and perhaps a little bragging." So here goes.
It's the third year that we have won both awards, which is a major tribute to the journalists, developers and designers who make the site what it is.
Over the past year we’ve brought in some new things – introducing personalisation of local news, weather and sport, making video easier to find, adding the "most popular now" pages and introducing this blog, among others.
The range and quality of the 91Èȱ¬'s journalism underpins what we do, and finding new ways of presenting it on the site, as the tools of our trade get updated and reinvented (last week's , for example), is one of the best things about being in online news.
We've got some exciting plans for the coming year which I can’t share in huge detail yet, but will include further developing video on the site, pulling together key editorial content more readily for big issues and stories, and raising the profile on the site of some of the key 91Èȱ¬ News programmes. That’s a few of the things we’re working on – what else would you like to see?
Steve Herrmann is editor of the
In this week's Newswatch, the programme about viewers' thoughts on 91Èȱ¬ TV News, Newsround’s editor, Tim Levell, discusses whether it is appropriate for a news programme to poke fun at President Bush and News 24’s Stephen Mawhinney defends the amount of coverage given to Topshop’s unveiling of the Kate Moss collection. You can watch the programme by clicking here.
The Guardian: Leader article praises 91Èȱ¬ Parliament. ()
Daily Telegraph: Interview with the 91Èȱ¬'s director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield. ()
Daily Mail: Reports on Sir Patrick Moore's comments that the 91Èȱ¬ has been ruined by women. ()
The Guardian: Reports that 91Èȱ¬ staff numbers have fallen by 9% since Mark Thompson became director general in 2004. ()
