Wednesday 23 December 2009

Best of 2009: Laura Oliver

Laura Oliver, editor of Journalism.co.uk, choses her Best Media of 2009, and, in the post below, so does her colleague Judith Townend.

Best Old Media: Private Eye. Not everyone's cup of tea, but uses its mixture of entertainment and extensive investigative work to make a great cover-to-cover read. It was ahead of everyone reporting Paul Farrelly's Trafigura question, continues to push its investigation into PFIs and despite its apparent technophobia manages to cut through the jargon and hype that sometimes surrounds online journalism and digital media.

Best New Media: Some really strong candidates here - Reuters for its great debates series, which brought online and offline meetings together to interview leading political figures through a range of social media tools. Breaking News On - the Twitter news service - for both its rapid growth, and its teenager founder's deal with MSNBC. Whether you think it's the right or wrong move its a fascinating rise to watch.

Best story: Nick Davies' investigation into the News of the World/phone hacking allegations.

Best journalist: Paul Foot winner Ian Cobain for his investigation into Britain's involvement in the torture of terror suspects detained overseas for the Guardian. But I'd also like to give a nod to James Ball, senior reporter for the Grocer and freelance investigative journalist, for landing some great investigative stories and teaching me the basics of CAR [Computer Assisted Reporting].

Prediction for 2010: Increased fragmentation of local media with new players emerging to challenge regional monopolies and more assets being sold off by local media groups. Attempts at partnership in the local space (whether public service reporting, or IFNCs) and the results... and hopefully for all media, consolidation online, less social media for social media's sake - killing off older experiments that don't work and focusing on what they're really good at online, whether live coverage or football videos, and exploiting this for both their audiences' benefit and revenue.

Tomorrow: Press Gazette editors past and present, Ian Reeves and Dominic Ponsford.

Best ofs, so far: Patrick Smith; Grey Cardigan; Jean Morgan; Neil Fowler; Chris Wheal; Adrian Monck; Paul Linford; Jo Wadsworth; Steve Dyson; Steve Busfield; Sam Shepherd.

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