Oxford Media Society to host ‘world’s leading ad man’

By Matthew Stokes

You might not be aware of it, but Sir Martin Sorrell, who will be speaking at the Oxford Media Society this Wednesday, most likely has a huge amount of control over your daily lives – or, more importantly, over the cash in your wallet.

As Chief Executive of WPP, he is at the helm of the world’s largest advertising group, which employs over 150,000 people working hard to entice you to part with your cash. Several – if not most – of the most successful and memorable advertising campaigns in history have come from WPP and its subsidiaries.

After studying at Christ’s College, Cambridge and Harvard, Sir Martin Sorrell joined Saatchi & Saatchi – at the time, the world’s biggest advertising agency – where his influence and success earned him the nickname ‘the third brother’. In 1986, he left the company to buy a controlling stake in a small company making wire supermarket baskets. 

His intentions, however, went further than providing Sainsbury’s with a steady supply of baskets. Over his first three years there he acquired 18 advertising companies, including JWT – the fourth largest agency in the world at the time – in a hostile $566m takeover. Only three years later in 1989 the company bought out Ogilvy & Mather, in another hostile bid valued at $825m. 

Since that time, WPP has expanded and diversified to become a world leader not only in advertising but also in branding, public relations and media investment. He steered the company through difficult times in the 1990s and 2000s, and the company now has a market capitalisation of £9.1bn. One of the most respected figures in the industry, he has unsurprisingly been labelled ‘the world’s leading ad man’. 

Over 300 of the Fortune 500 companies are clients of WPP, as are over half of the NASDAQ 100 companies. In the UK, WPP work with Nestlé, BP, Unilever, the BBC, ITV, Guinness and Marks and Spencer amongst hundreds of other companies. 

He was appointed an Ambassador for British Business in 1997 and joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Panel at the turn of the millennium. In 1999 he was appointed to serve on the Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership. He was knighted in the 2000 New Year’s Honours List. 

He also holds a number of posts at educational institutions, including the London Business School, the Judge Business School in Cambridge, the IESE in Spain, the Harvard Business School and the Indian School of Business. 

The Oxford Media Society is proud to be sponsored by WPP this term, and is honoured that Sir Martin Sorrell is opening the term’s event schedule at 8pm, January 18, 2012, in Lecture Room B, Queens College.  He will be giving a talk about his career followed by a Q&A session. Admission is free for members and £2 for non-members, who can sign up on the night for membership which costs £10 a year.You can indicate your interest to attend by clicking here to join the Facebook event.

This is truly a great opportunity to see one of the most recognisable figures not only in the advertising industry but in British business today. Not one to miss – see you Wednesday!

Lord Black Explores Press Freedom in Oxford

By Matthew Adeiza

The greatest threat to British newspaper is not necessarily government control but the challenge of maintaining financial profitability.  If newspapers are not financially sustainable their freedom will be seriously curtailed. Lord Guy Black took this position while giving a lecture on the invitation of Oxford Media Society at Queen’s College, November 17, 2011. 

Lord Black, Executive Director of Telegraph Media Group, traced the origin of government efforts to control the press to the Licensing of the Press Act 1662 which sought to control the publication of seditious and libellous materials. The Act expired by the 1695 and was not renewed by the Commons. 

He noted that a renewed effort to curtail media excesses towards the end of the last century due to the perceived role of the paparazzi in Princess Diana’s death has not been significantly successful because of changing media technologies that make statutes obsolete before they can be reviewed. 

Drawing from his extensive experiences in media and politics, Lord Black submits that emphasis on self-regulation by media organizations and journalists rather than strict government regulation is the best solution to public concern about media excesses. 

He reasons that if the media are constrained through laws not to freely perform their duties democracy will suffer with its attendant consequences. This is particularly important in the digital age where there is a crisis of trust of online information. The traditional media continue to provide a source of authoritative information people can rely on.

The Telegraph boss concludes that despite general concern, which he shares, about government initiatives, especially after the phone hacking scandal, media organizations must solve their financial problems by taking advantage of digital opportunities to expand their reach and flow of income. He acknowledges that it is a herculean task as some smaller newspapers have already closed down but insists that papers need to survive to ensure the plurality of voices that characterises democracy.   

Lord Black also answered questions from the audience on a wide range of issues especially the values that have stood the Daily Telegraph out in a challenging media environment. In response, he explained that his paper’s success is due largely to “authoritative, vigorous and comprehensive journalism”.

The lecture was the last in the series organised by the Oxford Media Society for Michaelmas Term. It was also the last for Timothy Williams as the president of the society, after a successful tenure from March - December 2011.

On the whole, it was a wonderful way to end what proved an exciting term that brought us in intellectual contact with some of the best journalists and media executives in the UK. A peep into next term planned activities shows a more loaded time ahead.

Lord Black to Speak at Oxford Media Society

By Matthew Stokes

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!

Peter Fincham reveals his success secrets at Oxford Media Society talk

By Emily Belton

The famous Hollywood saying “nobody knows anything” best summarises the process of commissioning television programmes. This sounds surprising coming from the Director of Television for the ITV network, Peter Fincham, and is even more unexpected from the man who commissioned Downton Abbey.

Nonetheless, it turns out that he has good reasons for his statement. Fincham was speaking at a talk co-hosted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford Media Society at green templeton College , November 11, 2011.

The rest of his talk reveals not only the unpredictable nature of the television industry but also the ups and downs of a career in media. His tales are exciting and are certainly worth a listen - it seems that many agree: the packed room in Green Templeton College is testament to his standing in the media sector.

Fincham draws on his experiences of a varied career to enlighten his audience about. His application for a research position in the Late, Late Breakfast show in the BBC was not successful. He tells us that he was rejected for not being “populist” enough (or in his own words, he had too much of an “Oxbridge-y air about him”). While success may have arrived late in the day for Fincham, when it did eventually come, it did so in grand proportions.

He started out as a producer of the fledgling independent production company TalkBack in 1985, and eventually sold it in 2000 in a £62m deal. He was surprised when he was asked to be Controller of the BBC in 2005: “The BBC is an organisation of insiders” and he was an “outsider”. “I didn’t work my way up in conventional television at all”, he said.

Fincham believes TV journalism is imperative given the industry’s high levels of regulation and its impartiality. When he poses the rhetorical question, “Do we want the biggest national channels to have a duty of impartiality? the answer is a resounding “Yes”. As a strategist, reveals that British audiences want wholly British productions, hence the appeal of Downton Abbey and other programmes.

What of the future of television? Even though he has heard ominous predictions of TV viewing increasingly becoming ‘time-shifted’, i.e. being watched on Sky+ or TiVos, he believes that it won’t undermine the commercial underpinning of TV. TV has a “great future” ahead of it, and any issues that do arise will have solutions. In fact, he suggests an increase in live event programming in response to this rise in time-shifting viewing. While we don’t find out which programmes Fincham would cut if he had the ultimate choice, we do learn that he thinks The Apprentice, which he worked on under TalkBack, has “turned into a fantastic show”.

Finally, his advice to students thinking of embarking on a career in media is to keep knocking on doors. There is “a lot of demand for television”, with “far more output than twenty years ago”. You just need to “get through that door”. He was involved in making his first TV programme when he was 32 years old; you shouldn’t expect to be producing “the year after you graduate”.

Overall, Fincham delivers a fascinating talk, and the audience leaves having learnt something about both the television industry and the vicissitudes of a life in media.

The next Media Society event comes up November 17, 2011 with Guy Black, the Executive Director of the Telegraph Group at 8pm in Lecture Room A, Queen’s College.

Peter Fincham comes to Oxford November 11

By Matthew Stokes

You might not realise it, but you most likely have a lot to thank Peter Fincham for. One of the most powerful people in the media sector – 15^th in the country, according to Media Guardian’s 2011 list – he has been responsible for some of the greatest television successes of the past twenty years. Whatever your taste in television, Fincham has probably been involved in one of your favourites.

Fincham will speaking at a joing event by Oxford Media Society and Reuter's Institute for Journalism at Green Templeton College on Friday, November 11, 2011 at 12.30pm. There will be drinks and light lunch 30 minutes early.

You might not like to admit it, but what would we do without Downton Abbey? (Well, I suppose Sunday night JCR meetings might get a better turn out…). Or reality TV like The X Factor, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Britain’s Got Talent, Lord Sugar or Kim and Aggie? Thank Mr. Fincham for all of them.

He’s also brought us The Jonathan Ross Show, Davina (unlikely to be anyone’s favourite, but you never know), Daybreak, The One Show, and tonnes of laughter in the form of Green Wing and The IT Crowd. And if you fancy showing your gratitude for these cultural bastions, come and see him talk this week in Oxford about his media career.

Fincham studied at the other place (Churchill College) before joining Talkback in 1985. After its move into the television sector in 1989, he oversaw productions such as Da Ali G Show, I’m Alan Partridge and The Bill, winning an Indie Award for his contribution to the independent sector in 2001. On Talkback’s merger with Thames Television in 2003, he became Chief Executive of newly-formed Talkback Thames.

In 2005 the BBC somewhat controversially – or at least surprisingly – appointed him Controller of BBC One. Over the following two years he increased the channel’s audience share and was in control of a £873m annual budget. He managed to survive criticisms for spending £1.2m on new ‘circle idents’ in between programmes, for Jonathan Ross’s £18m salary and for axing Neighbours. However, during promotion for the fly-on-the-wall documentary Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work, following criticisms for the publicity’s depiction of our beloved monarch walking out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz, he resigned in October 2007.

Only a few months later ITV hired him as Director of Television, a post he holds till today. Although he attracted controversy for axing Heartbeat and The Bill (a choice which 97% of the population reportedly opposed), he has been praised for massive successes such as Downton Abbey, as well as for bringing Jonathan Ross and Adrian Chiles to the commercial producer.

As he readily admits, there have been occasional failings: most notoriously, Davina, which was slated by critics and the public alike, and more recently Red or Black. In October, he admitted that the show would only return if changes were made to its format.

Peter Fincham is without a doubt one of the most influential and successful media personalities today. He will be talking to the Oxford Media Society at an event in conjunction with the Reuters Institute for Journalism in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College, Friday 11 November at 12.30pm.

Entrance is free, and sandwiches and drinks will be provided 30 minutes before the talk. There’s no reason not to come. Hope to see as many of you there as possible!

Confirm  your place on Facebook by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188412141240286.