Abstract

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade the pace of change for big media organisations like the BBC has been unprecedented, as they work to keep pace with the changing digital landscape. To the outside observer this may manifest itself in the form of new products and services, such as iPlayer, but what’s much less apparent is the degree of internal upheaval that’s involved. Simon Andrewes is currently leading a project to deliver and implement a set of online tools known as the Journalism Portal – to help BBC Journalism collaborate and share more effectively. It’s based to some extent on bringing the concepts of social networking into the Journalism workplace, and it is the latest step in the BBC ’s long and sometimes bumpy journey towards a multimedia and multiplatform destination. That journey has involved management restructuring, physically moving teams together and driving technological change in the way journalists work. In this seminar he will discuss some insights gained into the cultural, managerial and editorial challenges of adapting a large traditional news organization to a digital environment.

About the speaker

Simon Andrewes was formerly Head of Newsroom development at BBC News specialising in the design and delivery of large-scale organisational change. Earlier this year he left to become an independent consultant and is currently engaged by the BBC as Programme Director for the Journalism Portal. In his 28 years at the organisation he has worked as producer and editor on a range of TV and radio programmes, and for the last ten he has been a senior manager in News at the heart of the organisation’s digital transformation.