Bye Bye ITN?

Well at least he admits it rather than putting a spin on it! They have to realise they are never going to overtake sky or news 24 with the menial budget they have and the standards of reporting they churn out. Last week ITV news came last in terms of trust in a poll, so they need to sort that out too!

Indeed, but also up to the end of 1992 the ITV companies had a direct commercial interest in C4 because they took all of the advertising revenue. Aswell as that, AFAIK it was just a fact that ITN would produce the news for C4 rather than being a hard won contract.

I'm not saying that it's impossible for ITN (more than likely to be called ITV News after a takeover) to carry on producing C4 news, but it's certainly on the cards that they may return to what they started out as - the ITV network's news department, instead of a blanket news provider providing news for many outlets.

From what Charles Allen has allegedly said:



..he would give a higher profile to the ITN brand and not call it "ITV News".

What, in the same way that he remains totally committed to regional commitments, the same way that regional production brands would live on, and in the same way that the reduction in regional hours was supposed to see greater investment in the regional slots that were left?

I'm sure it would be mere months before we get informed that it 'doesn't make sense any more' to have ITN as a separate brand, and that the viewer found it 'confusing' to have anything vaguely connected with ITV not using the ITV brand, and thus it will be renamed to 'ITV News' (along with job cuts and dramatic scaling back of facilities). If he genuinely believes there is room for ITN to exist as a separate brand long term, then there is room for all of the regions to be branded with their own name, rather than being part of this non-existant 'channel' called 'ITV1'.

I don't believe for a second he has any intention of retaining the ITN brand long term, he's just claiming he is as a pacifier to those who work there.

here is the article ... interesting, although i doubt very much that itv would ever consider giving prominence to the ITN name again.

------------------------------------------

Copyright 2005 Associated Newspapers Ltd.
The Evening Standard
And finally: can ITN weather the storm?

IS ITN facing its final bongs?

Just weeks after Sky News took over as Five's news provider, now ITV is threatening to dump its journalistic partner of 50 years. With the network finally under his control, chief executive Charles Allen warned this week that if he didn't gain control of ITN, the company would lose its biggest customer when its contract expires in 2008.

Some in the City saw Allen's threat simply as a ploy to drive down the price of the 60 per cent of the news organisation that he doesn't own. But in ITN's Gray's Inn Road headquarters, it only added to the uncertainty that in recent years has brought morale low.

So it must be reassuring for staff to have such a relentlessly upbeat boss as David Mannion. In his airless basement office, the ITV News Channel beaming out of a wallmounted screen, Mannion, 54, exudes the convivial optimism of a man entirely unflustered by crisis.

"The future of ITN has been uncertain for as long as I can remember, and I've been around ITN since 1979," he says cheerily. "We just get on with our jobs."

Any suggestions that the company has been weakened by redundancies, budget cuts, regional closures, the loss of Five - well, they are just wrong, Mannion suggests. "It might look like ' weakening', but it's not," he replies.

"The cuts were some years ago and now we've recovered. I've also persuaded ITV to invest millions more to cover the war in Iraq, the tsunami, our new studio set.

When Charles Allen says news is at the heart of ITV, he has certainly put his money where his mouth is."

Still, Allen's intentions towards ITN are causing some anxiety. In a new book by Richard Lindley, ominously titled And Finally ...? the ITV boss insists: "We will not renew the [ITN] contract." Unless he can force the three minority shareholders - Reuters, United Business Media and the Daily Mail & General Trust - to sell him their stake, Allen says: "We will undertake to produce our own news in-house".

Some commentators see this as a "death knell" for the organisation, which has already dropped its onscreen identity in favour of "ITV News". But Mannion, appointed editor-in-chief a year ago, insists that nothing much, in practice, is likely to change. "It can go one of two ways," he says. "Stay as we are, with ITV owning 40 per cent, or at some point we become wholly owned by ITV again. Either way, the provision of network news to ITV will continue out of that newsroom. On a workaday basis, it doesn't matter much, to be honest."

What concerns him more is Lindley's interpretation. "Richard has got it into his head that were we to be wholly owned by ITV again, that would compromise our independence. If I may use the vernacular, that's bollocks. For 37 years, ITN was wholly owned by ITV. Did anyone then suggest that Aidan Crawley, Geoffrey Cox, David Nicholas were anything other than completely independent editors?

Why should I or anyone in my position be any less independent under ITV's ownership?"

BUT isn't the concern that shareholders would press for more audience- g rabbing news stories, as with the US networks?

"There is not a shred of evidence to back that up," he says, reddening.

"I find it slightly insulting that this is being put around. If owners or shareholders appoint someone as editor, they do that because they believe they make the right judgment calls, and, yes, because they believe they'll deliver the best possible audience. But once you start to interfere, the whole thing starts to collapse. It would be bad for business were they to try it."

Even if ITV took full ownership, it would make commercial sense to keep ITN as a separate division, he believes. "It's an internationally renowned brand.

Charles Allen, I'm sure, is aware of its value."

The loss of Five was a knock, he admits, but financially "it has not damaged us". Besides, there is enough "good news". The two per cent increase in viewing between 6pm and 7pm since last year, for instance, while the BBC's news audience fell: "People talk about declining news audiences, but we've put bums on seats."

So what of Roger Mosey's comments, some time ago, that Sky, not ITN, had become the BBC's main competition? "If he doesn't see us as the competition, he's blind," he responds. "We outstrip the BBC with far fewer resources."

Still, not all Mannion's plans have succeeded. Last year, he forecast that the ITV News Channel would overtake BBC News 24 by Christmas. "Ambitious *******, aren't I?"

he grins. "I didn't make it. We're well third. But the news channel is still a baby, and has a fraction of the budget of Sky or News 24."

As for the steady, if not startling, viewing figures for a revitalised News at 10.30pm - around three million last year, against a 4.8 million average for the BBC - he blames viewers' unfamiliarity with the new schedule, as well as ITV's mid-evening programmes "not performing particularly well".

He is infuriated by suggestions that ITV's bulletins have softened, increasing showbiz coverage, for instance, to boost ratings. "Show me," he says. "To say we've dumbed down is nonsense. None of the so-called critics have ever managed to find any evidence."

What about his practice of paying interviewees - most recently Monica Lewinsky - to talk about Bill Clinton's book? "If we think the story is of sufficient public concern, and the only way to deliver that story is a payment, we won't shy away," he says. "Besides, the BBC does it. They acknowledged that last year." He appears to be referring to a comment by Peter Horrocks, the BBC current affairs chief, regretting an interview fee paid to George Best in 2002.

As proof of ITN's serious journalism, Mannion cites foreign coverage - greater now, he says, than ever. This has involved tragedy: a photo of Terry Lloyd, a friend killed in Iraq, is by Mannion's desk.

His responsibility to his correspondents in Iraq, he says, is "one of the few things that put me off my sleep". With three crews currently there, he reviews their safety "hourly". "It's always a balance between the journalistic compulsion to cover the story and the safety of your teams. I know I'm putting people in danger. I never stop thinking about it."

HE LIVES in Fulham, is married, and has a 21-year-old son.

Growing up in Derbyshire, he chose not to go to university, but, without telling his parents, took a job on a local paper, the Long Eaton Advertiser.

This led to work in a news agency, local radio and television, and finally ITN.

Apart from stints editing GMTV and Tonight with Trevor McDonald, most of his career has been in news. With McDonald, he famously scooped the first interview with Nelson Mandela after his release from jail. His secret: warning Mandela's minders that thousands of journalists would be descending, and offering to "organise them" in exchange for a meeting.

McDonald remains a friend who will be "impossible to replace". His successor, Mannion hints, is likely to be a current presenter. "We have a tremendous amount of talent inhouse. They'll take some beating."

You would expect such loyalty from a man who has made his life here. "I am proud of ITN's history," he reflects. "But I do think, particularly through Richard [Lindley]'s book, there's a bit of looking back at the past with rose-coloured glasses.

The journalism today on ITV News - the work of John Irvine covering the tsunami, of Bill Neely, Mark Austin, James Mates - these are wonderful essayists. In 50 years we'll look back and say these were the golden years of ITN."

Assuming, of course, it still exists.

Thanks for posting that. There was also an article in the Express today in which McDonald was defending claims of ITN dumbing down.

Picked up the Richard Lindley book at work today. Have been dipping into it this evening.

Some interesting stuff. And people like Bill Neely are surprisingly outspoken about how the lack of resources affects their ability to do their jobs.

There are surprising little errors though - he says that David Mannion returned to ITV News in January 2004 - wasn't it about 18 months before that? No mention that he was in charge at the time of the Iraq war coverage.

Well Play.com have the book back in stock, so I ordered my copy tonight, so I hope it's worth reading, otherwise thats about £15 down the drain!

Does anyone know if ITN are planning to release anything this year? Like a DVD (similar to the BBC News 50) or their own book?

It is a good book, just read up to the eighties so far and it is amazing of what stuff actually went on behind the scenes

Not sure if this has been posted before as its an old article, and i know i read it myself a few months ago, but its quite relevant to this thread
http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2004/no2_purvis.htm

I personally think that this proposed ITV takeover of ITN is only bad news. If Charles Allen wants to kill off ITN, then that's another one of ITV's core values buggered up thanks to him. This Chief Executive needs to be desposed, and bring a Chief Executive in to salvage the ITV in which Charles Allen has ruined.

He actually wants to fold ITN into the ITV News Group, and then brand the whole thing ITN, in the same way that the production arm of ITV plc is called Granada.

In principle I think it's a good idea, so long as investment is maintained.

Anyway, I don't suppose that in reality a change of chief exec would make much difference. Like Lorraine Heggessey, Charles Allen is just a convenient hate figure.