By Matthew Stokes
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| Lord Black |
Three weeks ago, the Oxford Media Society hosted Andrew Mullins, MD of The Independent and The Evening Standard. If you were there you will know the enormous challenges which print media are currently facing. If not, you will nevertheless realise that the traditional newspaper is facing a task of Herculean proportions to hold its own in this age of digital media.
One title on the newsstands that is holding its own while adapting to the new climate is The Daily Telegraph. The widest-circulating quality daily, it sells over 600,000 copies a day (The Times, in second place, does not break the 500,000 barrier). The Sunday Telegraph, while losing to The Sunday Times, is also weathering this seemingly endless storm remarkably well. Circulation has fallen by just over 5% in the past year; The Sunday Times has lost a tenth of its readers over the same period.
Something, clearly, is being done right. Few people are better placed to tell us what this is than Lord Black, Executive Director of Telegraph Media Group, which owns both newspapers, as well as Telegraph.co.uk and their respective mobile and tablet versions. He will be speaking to Oxford Media Society on Thursday, November 17, 2011.
Lord Black has had a long and distinguished career in the press and media. After graduating from Peterhouse, Cambridge, with a double first in History and winning the Sir Herbert Butterfield Prize for History, he joined the Conservative Party Research Department for three years, before working as Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Energy.
After the 1992 election, he worked for the lobbying firm Westminster Strategy and PR consultants Good Relations. Four years later, he became Director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). Following the death of Princess Diana, he tightened constraints on the Press, specifically to control intrusion on the young princes’ privacy. When the Human Rights Act was enacted in 1998, Black lobbied to protect freedom of expression in the press.
Seven years later, Black became Director of Communications for the Conservative Party, and was also Press Secretary to then-leader Michael Howard, before joining Telegraph Media Group in 2005, the post he still holds today.
Lord Black holds several other notable positions both within and outside the media sector. Since 2009, he has been Chairman of the Press Standards Board of Finance, which funds the PCC, and also sits on the Advertising Standards Board, which funds the Advertising Standards Agency. As Chairman of the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust he works to maintain and enhance press freedom throughout the Commonwealth. He is also a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum and sits on the Council of the Royal College of Music.
In 2010, he was made a peer in the House of Lords as Baron Black of Brentwood. Despite his life in media, his first speech was on the role of older women in civic society and the particular problems of osteoporosis.
His diverse background is particularly relevant at this difficult time for the press. As well as the difficulties of new media, Lord Black will undoubtedly have much interesting insight into the PCC, which is currently being scrutinised by the Leveson inquiry.
Lord Black will be speaking to the Oxford Media Society this Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 8pm, in the Shulman Auditorium, The Queen’s College. If you will be attending, please indicate on Facebook by clicking here.
Everyone is more than welcome, though it costs £2 for non-members while being free to members. Annual membership fees cost £10 only. Hope to see you there!
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