Industry Meets Press At Nolan Partners #sibc
An expert media panel who have worked on a cumulative total of 30 FIFA World Cups took to the stage at Wednesday morning’s Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club, hosted by BT Sport.
Facilitated by the former Executive Director of the FA, David Davies, the panel included the Daily Mirror’s Chief Sports Writer, Oliver Holt; Patrick Barclay, the London Evening Standard columnist and author of a host of acclaimed football biographies; Marcus Christenson, Football Editor of the Guardian, Observer and the guardian.com; and Adam Sills, who as Telegraph Head of Sport oversees the stable’s sports coverage.
- Watch the highlights at Sport Industry TV
They spoke in front of a packed room at The BT Centre, discussing subjects as diverse as the impact the rise of social media has had on journalism, safety concerns ahead of the competition in Brazil this summer, and the prospect of sport’s biggest competition heading to Qatar in 2022.
In a hotly contested debate, the panel discussed whether or not social media was good or bad for the quality of journalism. “It means reporters are producing a lot more journalism, but I doubt there will be many examples of top-class journalism, and that’s a consequence,” said Barclay. “There’s more good football writing than ever, but there’s hardly any great football writing.”
Holt disagreed, insisting: “For better or worse really, it’s different. There’s no respite really. But I think people will write some great stuff in Brazil. It sounds pretentious, but in the same way that players step up, journalists step up at World Cups.”
Christenson added: “It’s changed everything, and it’s very important. If we send out an article (on Twitter) people will read it. However, it’s also a danger because you can work on a story for two days and within minutes it could be out there anyway, so you lose ownership and within an hour no-one can say who it came from, and who spent the time on it. But we mustn’t let that detract from investigative journalism.”
Sills concluded: “Our average circulation is 550,000, Henry Winter’s following is over 650,000, so if he puts out a story the numbers speak for themselves. That’s the power of Twitter.”
Social media, Holt noted, was not the only thing that had changed when covering a World Cup. Though he praised the FA’s media team, he pointed out: “In 2002 you backed yourself to speak to someone in the mixed zone. Now the FA earmark one or two players who will stop and talk to everyone, but nobody else will,” he said. “It’s the fear of a rogue player saying something – it’s the desire for control, and that desire is growing and growing with every World Cup.”
Looking further ahead, Barclay noted that his view on Qatar had changed significantly since it was awarded the competition in 2022. While recent developments have swayed his opinion, he was adamant – in principle – that the venue could be good for the sport: “The idea of having a World Cup in the temperatures that you’re likely to get in mid-winter in Qatar would be the best thing that has ever happened to the World Cup, from a technical point of view.
You’d see the best football, and it would also be the most fan-friendly in that it would allow fans to watch two, even three, games in one day because everything would be together. Unfortunately, I think I’m rather talking about a fairy tale.”
Throughout 2014, the Nolan Partners Sport Industry Breakfast Club will continue to pair high-profile speakers with high-quality audiences to provide the UK sports market’s number one networking opportunity. For more information or to join the Club, click here.
