Welcome to the new BMC website. Whilst we squash bugs, here's BMC VP and journo Ed Douglas with his thoughts on media, the outdoors and milk.

Tell people you’re a journalist right now and they’ll say one of two things, and sometimes relate them to each other. Either they’ll make a joke about not hacking their phone, or they’ll say that newspapers are finished. Sometimes they’ll say newspapers are finished because the media has lost the public’s trust over phone hacking.

Things are never that simple. Next month, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Centre for the Digital Future will release a report predicting that almost all print newspapers in America will be gone in five years. The report predicts only the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Washington Post will still be left to make your fingers inky.

I’m willing to bet a fair amount of cash that prediction is wrong, but there’s no doubt that the sprint from print is quickening, as newspapers and magazines rush online to take advantage of tablet computers. Those climbing magazines that come up with the best tablet format the fastest will prosper.

The BMC isn’t immune from this process and has worked hard over recent months to update its online presence and meet some of the challenges facing all organisations trying to keep pace with the publishing revolution that is transforming the media. Our new website is just part of that process.

But there’s more to this than how we publish. I’m guessing there’s a carton of milk in your fridge. I’m also guessing the milk in your fridge is pretty much the same as the milk when you were young and your mum was buying dodgy cereals with too many additives. The big difference now is how it arrives – from a supermarket rather than delivered by a bloke who whistles too much and looks a lot like your younger brother.

Information is still pretty much the same. Just as we still needed politics after the expenses scandal, people will always want to know more about the world as it is, no matter if those stories are delivered on paper or on a screen. The BMC’s new website is really just a starting point in making what the BMC does more visible. Enjoy.

« Back