Welcome to the weekly Wrap from How-Do - media news for the North West.

The Wrap's guest editor this week is Mick Ord                 

Things are seldom quiet in Liverpool ( hey, change that to 'never') but this past week the  drums have been rumbling even louder than usual  - the latest twist being ITV's  sale of its 50% stake in Liverpoolfc.tv back to the club.

As the will-they-won't-they-sell  Hicks-Gillette saga spills onto the front and business pages, the leaders and letters columns….the 'F' word, it  appears,  can give the impression that  football is the  only show in town.
 
We're not innocent bystanders in this footy domination either.  It's true of my first and true  love, radio.
 
BBC local radio has been reporting the news and sport since 1967. When I started as a reporter in the 80's it was all razor blades and quarter inch tape. Now our digitalised broadcast journalists are increasingly expected to have online and TV skills, as audiences in a multi-platform broadcasting world demand more and better news, sport and entertainment from all providers.
 
Which is why I was a bit surprised to read my friend Mark Thomas' comments in last week’s Wrap sniping at the BBC for "challenging the regional press" with planned investment in ultra-local websites.  Older members of the parish will recall similar arguments from some newspaper editors in the 1960’s when local radio began.

"They're trespassing on our territory" and  "Only WE can do local news" ….

Remember the inform, educate and entertain principle Mark. In that order then and now. 
 
And while I'm on one, I recall being excited rather than defensive in the 90's when there was a short-lived but in some ways ground breaking array of commercially run local cable TV services in many areas including the North West. .. 

Few of us ‘meeja’ bods are immune to falls in audience figures or copy sales as seen during this scary but exciting time, which is why if we continue to communicate with our audiences and partner each other where appropriate, we stand a better than average chance of survival.
 
But we're already doing that… aren't we..?     
 
Mick Ord is the BBC’s North West Capital of Culture co-ordinator        
 
Other stories on How-Do this week:

•  Deadline closes at 5pm today for the inaugural How-Do Creative & Media Awards
• Fashion retailer Guess appoints Think Publicity
• The Tate's Gustav Klimt exhibition goes to True North
• Tangerine to launch Slazenger drinks 
• £420m Catalyst healthcare consortium appoints Bell Pottinger North 
• CheethamBellJWT picks up Bronze Global Effie 
• Alvaston Media buys The Magazine
• 2M Media launches LeedsConfidential 
• Five commissions Warship from Granada Factual North
• Channel M invests six figure sum on TV and outdoor promotion
• Code appointed to London Olympics new media roster
• Events company Glasgows wins place on English Partnerships roster
• Versus Cancer retains Truth for second year
• Facebook's commercial director to guest at TBWA
• Mere signs Everton's Valente for Talk...Don't Walk brief
• Unger shortlisted for another property journalism gong
  
• Lynn Ashwell moves up to deputy ed at The Bolton News
• Fuse brokers Observer deal for Paddy Power
• ITV considering opening Rovers  Return pubs 
• Toolan, Moorhouse and Norris sign long-term Key 103 contracts
  
• Ofcom to limit advertising for new community stations
• D&AD appoint seven regional judges
  
• Big Chip Awards extend deadline for entries to 17 March
• Paver Smith hires first personnel manager
• Building Trade Skills hires Beattie Communications
• Holly Budgen joins Momentum
• NWDA officially confirms winning agencies for its design roster
• COI seeking to enage a 'regional agency' for £2m tobacco push
  
• BBC Radio Lancashire - a statement from the editor John Clayton
• Wire FM plugs gaps with Keen and Russell
• BBC's Kershaw back behind bars
• Xfm Manchester boss upbeat about the future
• Design Initiative organises 'Futures' in Liverpool
  
• Mediaburst signed up Loancheck Foundation
• (very) slim pickings at the Creative Circle awards for regional agencies
• Former Paver Downes staffers launch Zut Media
• Peter Saville's 'Unknown Pleasures' voted most 'iconic' album design
• NWDA looks for designers to tackle 'plaque' problem
• Isle of Man awards £10m brief to Smarter
• MUFC to launch desktop news service end March
• Homesearch celebrates 100th show on Channel M
• Tangerine launches events division with Dulux win
  
• Fuse's Tongan stunt picks up Hollis 'best use of PR' award
• UKFast goes green with Ecoservers
• Littlewoods to launch new labels on back of big web push
• ITV offloads stake in Liverpool FC website
• Four regional winners at Design Week awards
• Larry The Legend joins Liverpool Confidential
• Woodward steps down as MD of ITV Granada
• Arora believed to have bid more than £100m for Granada site
• Rippleffect extends Mercedes campaign with Sunderland FC
  

Please send news to news@how-do.co.uk  

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Comments (3)

1  By Mark Thomas , on 07-03-2008 14:20 Nowt personal, Mick old bean. I just think it is a bit rich for a body that runs entirely on public funding and in the interests of the people of Britain to spend the tax payers' hard-earned cash on launching competition to businesses that are trying to earn an honest crust for their licence-paying workforce by developing in new areas, entirely without grants or assistance from the public purse. To me, this is a wasteful and unnecessary exercise by the BBC. Is the aim to drive the regional press out of the digital marketplace? If so, the BBC is doomed to fail in that aspiration, but what it might do is steal some market share and make it harder for businesses like ours to make money out of it. Hard to see who wins through that, really. I'd rather go home from a hard day's work safe in the knowledge that we are producing a quality online offering that is turning a reasonable profit, and then tune in to a nice Manchester-produced BBC drama, instead of the endless repeats we seem to get these days. But hey, that's just my opinion... Report