White Papers are one thing, the BBC's impact is another

From all the paper that's crossed this desk on the subject, perhaps the
Newspaper Society has been the least positive. Even then, its response
leaves open a route for it to be reassured by a credible structure and
composition of the BBC Trust, which is to effectively replace the
increasingly criticised Board of Governors.

Of course, any real criticism of the move could be seen to reflect a
failure to effectively lobby on the complainants' part, so it is not so
surprisingly muted. You might even think it simply reflects a job
relatively well done by the powers that be and by Mark Thompson in
particular, to anticipate criticism at the Corporation and put (often,
cost-cutting) plans in place to deal with it. But, perhaps, it may be
that we are looking at this all wrong. The thing is that the response to
the White Paper has effectively been issued on sector-specific lines. So
broadcasters think in one dimension about the BBC's impact, while
regional newspapers think along entirely different lines.

That's not unreasonable and is certainly predictable, but the BBC is
changing, as is all media. Digital media is just one way that has
brought the BBC into more direct competition against the regional press
- with its local news sites - than ever before, and in such a
fast-moving area it is almost futile to predict the future even a few
years from now.

So, looking at the media battleground of the future from the BBC's
unique position will be even more confusing. It is one thing to decide
that a move to publish a certain magazine is appropriate for the BBC -
or otherwise. It is another to draw the line separating the "invaluable"
work the BBC's online presence does in encouraging the UK to get
connected and use broadband, from the potentially market-distorting,
eyeball-hogging, power of a popular web site it has been running.

- Philip Smith is the editor of MediaWeek, philip.smith@haynet.com.