Kelner’s just not listening to the right people

Simon Kelner, interviewed in MediaGuardian this week, carefully maintains a near Luddite position on his paper’s digital presence. It’s hardly surprising; this is the newspaper company whose chief executive stated, almost exactly a year ago, that newspaper journalists are incompatible with the “instant news” required online.

Kelner doesn’t concede much from that position - there’s mention of impending investment, but he claims to be happy letting others pioneer, presumably in the optimistic belief the Independent can catch up later. And he also takes a swing at podcasts (despite the Indie trying to do a few itself).

“Unlike his fellow editors in the ‘quality’ section of the market, Kelner is endearingly contemptuous of multi-platform journalism, especially when it comes to pod and vodcasts. ‘I’ve never met anyone who ever listens to podcasts,’ he explodes. ‘When I saw in the Telegraph ‘Get your podcast of Simon Heffer discussing David Cameron’s latest policy announcement’, I thought you’ve got to be joking! I’m not convinced that they’re the future.’”

His mistake, perhaps, to look to the poor old Telegraph. Elsewhere, things are very vibrant. Guardian Unlimited, the Times, Channel 4 and a bunch of smaller publishers have all had notable successes. GU, indeed, does 1m audio downloads even in a slow month and continues to see growth. That someone, somewhere, is wanting all this stuff can’t be argued. See who emails into Media Talk, or watch the community seize upon every new edition of Football Weekly, and you start to get a picture of who those people are.

It’s a mixed crowd, but they’re probably not all the type to be having lunch with Simon down at the Ivy (where, once, I had a comedy collision with him on the stairs to the gents. But that’s another story). Well, actually, I know some of Media Weekly’s listeners do lunch there; they should mention the show to him over pud… and also suggest that making media for only people you know could consign the Indy to an even smaller niche than then one it enjoys now.

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COMMENTS / 2 COMMENTS

Neil, I think you’ve actually been a bit soft on Simon. Surely almost anyone else in his position and making such pronouncements would be signing their own professional death warrant? It’s kind of put me off the Indy really…

I’ll be in touch again soon about having a beer in London Village with you in May.

Muz thought this on Mar 21 07 at 3:41 am