OPEN

I wasn’t sure how the BBC’s The Editors blog would work out, but it’s looking pretty good already.

On the blog, news editors for most of its news programmes share thoughts about decisions they’ve made, comments about them in the press and everyday stories from their working lives.

Yesterday’s posts give a nice snap shot:

• Gary Smith, editor of political news, writes about how they decide what goes into news bulletins, and takes aim at a Pandora column accusing the BBC of burying a negative story about John Prescott.
• Ben Rich, deputy editor of daytime, describes the dilemma of between David Beckham’s resignation and the death of British soldiers in Afghanistan (which leads to a good debate in the comments section).
• Gary Rippon, editor of P.M., muses on the cancellation of two long-running BBC brands – Grandstand and Top of the Pops – and wonders if P.M. will be next (brave choice of subject of matter!).

One of the things I like most about the blog is the fact that the blog is taking on critics head on. It gives a mini-forum for debate around each post through the comments section, naturally, but some of the editors aren’t afraid to go out looking for trouble.

In fact on Monday there was a "BBC in the News" summary pointing to other media that have discussed BBC News as a story, or part of one. Then, as happened yesterday, sometimes an editor will give his thoughts on the criticism of his programme.

There’s maybe a lesson here for corporate communicators. Attack, or at least striding out to face your critics may be better in some circumstances.

If you’re confident about your position, and you get the tone of voice right (confident and backed by facts – not nit picky and spikey)  you can use your blog as an instant right-to-reply, corrections page, etc (note I do not say rebuttal, which carries connotations of corporate-speak, confrontational style and the illusion/lie of c-c-c-control).

This approach may go against the control/denial psychosis/complex which has gripped the media in the age of industrial media, but it is worth considering I think. Hats off to the BBC Editors anyhow, I’m keeping the blog at the top of my reading list, and I suggest other PRs do the same. You’ll learn more about blog-as-corporate mouthpiece and about editorial pressures and policies than from reading the likes of the CIPR’s Colin Farrington (according to Simon Collister’s excellent post).