The News Angle Newsletter
The welcome post. Issue#1
Welcome to The News Angle newsletter!
This newsletter aims to cover issues, developments and trends in the interconnected and rapidly changing world of TV News, journalism, and digital media.
I’m a British TV journalist, turned media and digital executive. After many years of working in the media business, I am using this newsletter to reflect on what I’ve been through and the changes that I’ve witnessed, and to think about how the world of media might develop in the future.
I’m interested in media events around the world, but this newsletter will inevitably have a UK outlook.
Here’s a quick Q&A about the newsletter…
Why have I launched the newsletter?
I wanted to do more writing, and I enjoy keeping across issues in the news and media business.
After a career spanning more than 45 years, I have a detailed knowledge of the nuts and bolts of the media industry. And, as I have worked in many different parts of the business, I feel that I have a broad perspective of events and developments. So, I’m keen to have a go, and look forward to the challenge.
What is my background?
Well, I’ve built up a lot of experience in many different areas, and have worked in an industry that has undergone a remarkable period of transformation.
I come from a family of print journalists. My father, Peter Dacre, was a senior Sunday Express correspondent in the newspaper’s heyday, and my eldest brother Paul was editor of the Daily Mail for 26 years, and is now editor-in-chief of DMG Media.
After university, I went into broadcast journalism in 1978, starting at the BBC as a News Trainee, and then spending 20 years at ITN, the British commercial news organisation – ending up as Editor of ITV News from 1995-2002.
After leaving ITN in 2002, I became a media and digital executive – launching a series of TV channels and online platforms. I currently chair a number of media companies and organisations.
So, a career and life, then, that has been influenced by or immersed in the three key spheres of the media world: print, broadcast and digital.
In terms of writing, as well as this newsletter, I am the editor of a monthly magazine for people who used to work at ITN - called the ITN 1955 Newsletter. And I have written about my time as Editor of ITV News here.
What changes have I seen in my career?
A lot!
As a young TV journalist in the BBC in the early 1980s, I worked in newsrooms that used typewriters, film and teleprinters, and a broadcast environment in the UK where there were only three TV channels.
During the next 45 years, I saw at first hand the impact of the digitisation of the TV news process, the arrival of internet and mobile technology, and the proliferation of channels and broadcast platforms.
Looking back at my career, I often seemed to have been involved with or affected by many of these changes. I saw, close-up, the impact of digital and computer technologies on newsgathering at ITN, and I was at the centre of lively public debates surrounding the role of TV news and the launch of government-funded and Local TV channels.
How will I use this experience in this Newsletter?
As a one-man band, I’ll need to be selective about what I write about - and postings will be on merit.
But my plan is to use the experience that I’ve notched up during my career to write about current and recent developments in TV News, journalism, and digital media – and also to look back on some of the events and issues that I’ve been involved with during the ups and downs of my career.
A newsletter, therefore, that has an eye on the future, comments on current media events, and reflects on times past.