CW
EXACTLY. It is of course (I hope taken as) a given that the 1999-2000 look was just plain better than the corporate look. The corporate look itself is innoffensive enough and I didn't mind it when it was just used on the national news, but I honestly don't think it's strong enough to be applied to all of BBC News, and the English regional programmes have seen a particularly bad implementation of it.
But, whilst the old look was amazing (and I think that's the only time I've ever applied that term to a news programme) and just blew the corporate look out of the water, that's only part of the reason why Spotlight was better than it was.
The other (and often overlooked) big issue is that the decision was not made with any consideration to it's appropriateness on a national level. The M25 bound team who made the decision to drop individual regional news branding thought it was a good idea to do that because they thought it would raise the profile of regional news, make it look more important and prominent than it was, and provide a strong connection with it being part of BBC News (even though it actually isn't - although only BBC Northern Ireland have been brave enough to acknowledge this).
That's all well and good - if it works. The UK (England in particular) is one of the most diverse nations in the world. You can travel just 50-100 miles - less than some people commute to work - and almost feel like you've travelled to a different country. What works and is perceived as being good in London (or wherever) cannot necessarily be applied to the whole UK.
Nowhere else does this ring true than in the South West (in Cornwall in particular). Here, the regional news is often seen by many people as being more important than the national news. It's not that people are narrow minded or insular, it's just that they are much more aware of their immediate surroundings (mainly because so many people act as though the country stops at Bristol) and are naturally more interested in hearing about regional issues rather than a load of national stories with little or no implications for them.
A key part in all of that is that the regional news must look as though it's a completely autonomous local production without anything to directly tie it to something which comes out of London or anywhere else.
People who rabbit on about a 'greater good' or who pull out statistics about how much better regional news is doing since the corporate identity was introduced are speaking too generally; you can't generalise on regional issues.
I don't doubt that some regions have benefited from corporate regional news, but the key word is 'some'. There should have been a corporate look available, but it should have been a local decision as to whether or not it was actually implemented. If people in Southampton thought it was best for South Today to look like the national news, than that's their call. Similarly if people in Plymouth thought that it was best for Spotlight to look like Spotlight (which they did, and did for very valid reasons) then that should have been their decision too.
That way, regions who benefit from corporate regional news would have had it (and no it wouldn't weaken the identity as a whole - when 99.9% of people are never going to watch news from outside of their region, in a 'corporate' region the corporate look would be just as strong as it is with it being enforced everywhere) and those that would have been better to keep their own identity could have done so.
And particularly these days, when the corporate look itself has been very much weakened (it's really just the music that's tying it together now) I don't understand why they won't reconsider their position and let regions who want to break away do so.
What I find particularly ironic is that whilst I realise that English regions are now administered from Birmingham, the initial 'all news must look the same!' hysteria did come from London - and London have now decided that they are a special case and are allowed to have regional news which very much does it's own thing - why can't the South West be a special case too then?
cwathen
Founding member
Quote:
All in all, a complete waste of a brilliantly designed programme. Just goes to show how little understanding London have of Plymouth/South West issues.
EXACTLY. It is of course (I hope taken as) a given that the 1999-2000 look was just plain better than the corporate look. The corporate look itself is innoffensive enough and I didn't mind it when it was just used on the national news, but I honestly don't think it's strong enough to be applied to all of BBC News, and the English regional programmes have seen a particularly bad implementation of it.
But, whilst the old look was amazing (and I think that's the only time I've ever applied that term to a news programme) and just blew the corporate look out of the water, that's only part of the reason why Spotlight was better than it was.
The other (and often overlooked) big issue is that the decision was not made with any consideration to it's appropriateness on a national level. The M25 bound team who made the decision to drop individual regional news branding thought it was a good idea to do that because they thought it would raise the profile of regional news, make it look more important and prominent than it was, and provide a strong connection with it being part of BBC News (even though it actually isn't - although only BBC Northern Ireland have been brave enough to acknowledge this).
That's all well and good - if it works. The UK (England in particular) is one of the most diverse nations in the world. You can travel just 50-100 miles - less than some people commute to work - and almost feel like you've travelled to a different country. What works and is perceived as being good in London (or wherever) cannot necessarily be applied to the whole UK.
Nowhere else does this ring true than in the South West (in Cornwall in particular). Here, the regional news is often seen by many people as being more important than the national news. It's not that people are narrow minded or insular, it's just that they are much more aware of their immediate surroundings (mainly because so many people act as though the country stops at Bristol) and are naturally more interested in hearing about regional issues rather than a load of national stories with little or no implications for them.
A key part in all of that is that the regional news must look as though it's a completely autonomous local production without anything to directly tie it to something which comes out of London or anywhere else.
People who rabbit on about a 'greater good' or who pull out statistics about how much better regional news is doing since the corporate identity was introduced are speaking too generally; you can't generalise on regional issues.
I don't doubt that some regions have benefited from corporate regional news, but the key word is 'some'. There should have been a corporate look available, but it should have been a local decision as to whether or not it was actually implemented. If people in Southampton thought it was best for South Today to look like the national news, than that's their call. Similarly if people in Plymouth thought that it was best for Spotlight to look like Spotlight (which they did, and did for very valid reasons) then that should have been their decision too.
That way, regions who benefit from corporate regional news would have had it (and no it wouldn't weaken the identity as a whole - when 99.9% of people are never going to watch news from outside of their region, in a 'corporate' region the corporate look would be just as strong as it is with it being enforced everywhere) and those that would have been better to keep their own identity could have done so.
And particularly these days, when the corporate look itself has been very much weakened (it's really just the music that's tying it together now) I don't understand why they won't reconsider their position and let regions who want to break away do so.
What I find particularly ironic is that whilst I realise that English regions are now administered from Birmingham, the initial 'all news must look the same!' hysteria did come from London - and London have now decided that they are a special case and are allowed to have regional news which very much does it's own thing - why can't the South West be a special case too then?
