James Harding, the BBC's former director of news and current affairs, said if the BBC went ahead with plans to run advertising alongside podcasts, it would “take advertising out of journalism”.
The BBC announced in March that it was considering selling ads alongside podcasts on third-party apps such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where “advertising is the norm.” His podcasts on BBC Sounds, the BBC's own audio platform, are ad-free.
[Read more: Global slams BBC plan to carry advertising on UK podcasts]
“We're very, very seriously concerned about what's going to happen with advertising for podcasts.”
Harding, who has been editor of AudioFirst's Tortoise newsroom since 2018, told the Lords Digital Communications Committee this week: [Ofcom chief executive] Melanie Dawes, I want Ofcom to spell out how much of a problem it is for start-up news companies…the podcast market will take advertising out of journalism. That means we're very seriously concerned about what will happen to advertising for podcasts. ”
Mr Harding said the plan would be “severely rejected by the BBC”.
“People will start saying, 'Wait a minute, why am I, the license fee payer, effectively being charged twice to allow the BBC to advertise in the UK?'
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“When people start asking that question, I think film and TV people will say, 'Well, wait, if the BBC has crossed the threshold in terms of getting ad revenue for audio in the UK, it's the same for video. Would you do it the same way?'
“So I'm against it for us, I'm against journalism and news, but I'm also worried about the BBC.”
Mr Harding also expressed frustration at not being allowed to add third-party podcasts to the BBC Sounds audio app.
“No matter how you look at it, if you look at what we do, it's public service journalism. But the BBC believes that we can have real influence and real influence in terms of journalism. We do not allow you to participate on the platform.”
The BBC first announced it would open Sounds in 2020, with several third-party podcasts on the platform, including popular shows The Rest is History and No Such Thing as a Fish. The Times and Sunday Times' flagship podcast The Story is available on Sounds, but there seem to be few other news publishers besides the BBC.
Mr Harding added that opening up Sounds would “help increase the diversity of views and opinions and the range of voices heard by BBC viewers”.
Suddenly added to advertising blacklist by Global Disinformation Index
Harding appeared before the Lords to discuss the sustainability and future of news, along with executives from two other mid-sized publishers, the youth-oriented Joe Media and the libertarian web magazine Spiked.
Spiked editor Tom Slater said 70% of the site's revenue, which has no paywall, came from donations, with “the vast majority” coming from regular payments of around £5 a month.
Slater said Spiked “realized that a large amount of the content we published on YouTube, regardless of the subject matter, became monetized almost immediately.”
“There's no rhyme or reason to this, at least from our perspective, other than the fact that it's a counter-opinion. It has the potential to directly impact your ability to a) reach people and b) make money. There is.”
Spiked published content criticizing the coronavirus lockdown and aired outspoken views on transgender rights.
Slater said Spiked lost advertising revenue on its website after receiving a warning from Global Disinformation Index, a non-profit anti-misinformation group, that its brand was unsafe.
“Anhard's experience is very similar to ours,” he told colleagues. “Our advertising was about 25% of our revenue, but it dropped off pretty quickly.
“Then we found out, basically through people who work at advertising companies, that one of the brand safety organizations called the Global Disinformation Index had put us on one of their blacklists.
“And this means that despite the fact that we are a reputable news organization, we have standard editorial policies in place. Rival brand safety organizations like Newsguard* give us 100% In February, NewsGuard ranked The New York Times 12.5 points for transparency and editorial process. (He said that he regularly inserts arbitrary statements into news articles.)
Mr Slater continued: “Because of this new anti-disinformation industry, but really, I think of it as a kind of anti-disinformation industry in many ways, certain platforms are very quick to get defunded and make up for it. Sometimes you have to go back and forth to do that, and to do that you need to change your platform…
“I think a lot of people don't even know that these companies exist. Between news publishers, their advertising agencies, the brand safety companies they work with, and the disinformation companies they subcontract their responsibility to. There are so many long organizational chains that it's often difficult to know what's going on, let alone who to deal with. [talk to] when something goes wrong. ”
Joe Media chief executive John Quinlan also revealed some details about his business, which was acquired from management for the second time in four years earlier this month.
Programmatic advertising accounts for 20% of Joe's revenue, and the company's flagship channel, Politics Joe, receives about 1 million video views a day, Quinlan said. Last year, Joe's channel received about 7 billion views across all its content, he said.
Although he didn't mention the company's recent financial struggles, he did seem to hint at a possible move to a membership model. “Our big bet, so to speak, is on the scale and credibility of the brand…”
“We want as many people as possible to know our brand, and we look to monetize it in a variety of ways, including subscriptions and supporters.”
*The author of this article was a former News Guard employee.
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