Wednesday 10 December 2008

Branding Journalists




Is Robert Peston bigger than the BBC?

That was the idea put forward in a recent Journalism lecture. Robert Peston has become a reporting superstar in the last few months: a house name, a revered example of the crème de la crème of business and economics Journalism. So successful he has become, that it has been argued that his very BBC reports following the rollercoaster nature of the financial markets have themselves affected the financial markets. His mere utterance of a loss in confidence creates a national loss of confidence like a tiny mallet hitting a megaphone.

But what makes some news more powerful and more able to affect events than others? Is it Robert Peston’s deliciously strained and undulating prose or his steely severity? Or his undeniably brilliant Journalistic prowess and networking, with contacts placed all over the stock exchange? Has he become his own brand? Or is he only listened to because he is from the BBC? The BBC is broadcast to over 200 countries and is available to over 274 million households, and is one of the most watched, listened and read news outlets in the world, in its many mediums.


As one of my colleagues contested in the aforementioned lecture: “If Robert Peston ditched the BBC and moved to Channel 5, he wouldn’t be as successful”. So maybe the BBC is the bigger brand.

Either way, in the world of capitalism, the success of the brand transcends to Journalism. That selling asset that creates acknowledgement, trust and embeds itself in our memory works with media reports as well. It is not enough to be brilliant at your job – perhaps Robert Peston would not be as successful on Channel 5 news. You need to extra beacon of recognisability to really be noticed, and to influence the most.

But brands are branching out. With the diversification of the media world, and the rise niche news catering for narrower more specific and often more detailed topics, available as and when you like it, one monolithic brand like the behemoth BBC is not enough. As Susan Soloman notes, different audiences require different brands. “Brand Journalism” was coined by Larry Light, the Global Marketing Officer of McDonald’s in an effort to name the change in mass marketing strategy. Macdonald's would start tailoring its brand communications to specific markets and change them to suit the types of media in which they appear.

Soloman notes with the digital revolution on our doorsteps, and people from Journalists to Joe Bloggs able to talk about more specific things in a wider number of words or frames, mostly online, we can tailor and create our own brands to suit more nische markets.

Returning to Robert Peston? How has he created his own brand? Through his blog! Ahh it comes back to this old cornerstone of the new media world. Much of Peston’s market–shifting breaking news was through his blog – he, and many others like him have built up an entire consumer following by the expanded voice that a blog provides. No longer are broadcasters limited to their 5 minute bulletins – they can expand and offer more information. This is particularly useful in this article's example in the case of financial investors, bankers, those really affected by financial news, who have sought the big BBC brand, and coalesced around an offshoot brand, in the name of the reporter who tells them what they need to know.

Once again, another example of how the online world is transforming Journalism. We ourselves can attempt to create our own brand, and attract our own market of news - the space is out there to achieve it.