Reportr.net

Arguably the world’s leading broadcaster, the BBC has outlined its priorities for the coming year in its Statements of Programme Policy 2007/2008.

The lengthy document makes interesting reading, not just because of what it includes, but what it doesn’t. In particular, any discussion of the BBC’s award-winning news site, BBCNews.com seems like a bit of an afterthought.

The website is one of the BBC’s secret success stories. In its (almost) 10 years of life, it has become one of the world’s leading sources of news and information online (full disclosure, I was one of its founding members and worked there for nine years). In February, it hit a billion page views for the month.

In the light of this, you would expect that growing the website would be a key priority for the BBC. But instead any mention of it is buried in the section on Future Media in its policy document. The language used reveals how the service is perceived by management:

bbc.co.uk news and information complements [my emphasis] the BBC’s television and radio broadcast news coverage across all subject areas, including local, national and international news and sports.

At a time when news organisations across the world are realising the value and essential nature of their online properties, BBC bosses appear to view their own news site as a bit of an add-on.

What is more surprising is what you find in the News section of the document. This is devoted to the BBC’s 24-hour news channel, News 24. The top priority here is:

Put BBC News 24 at the heart of the BBC’s online proposition and enhance audience interactivity via texts and emails.

I can understand why the BBC wants to build on its relationship with the public by using online tools of engagement. But putting TV at the “heart” of the BBC’s online services? This just sounds counter-intuitive.

Perhaps this is to be expected. The BBC was born as a broadcast organisation. This document shows that it still considers itself to be primarily a television and radio organisation.