Amitabh Revi is a senior correspondent and anchor with NDTV in New Delhi, India.

During the 2010 Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, participants were set the unusual task of predicting the future of the news industry – as a rap song. Here Amitabh describes how he and fellow journalist Misha Hussein rose to the challenge …

To get us thinking about the future of the news industry from a different perspective, we were introduced to Jon Webster, CEO of Music Managers Forum. He illustrated the revolution taking place in the music industry and the decline of the big record labels by telling the story behind MC Lars’ video Download the Song.

So when Future Leaders course leader Lyn Hartman set us the task of presenting our thoughts on the future of news as a rap song, Misha and I decided to follow MC Lars’s lead. He had, after all, borrowed a sample from Iggy Pop’s The Passenger on the track.

Jon checked with his legal team and told us that it was OK if we rapped to his music, since we were just ‘adapting’ Lars. So, we embarked on our new career in the rap world. You can buy the CD in any Wales music store. (Just kidding!)

Here’s a video of the MC Lars’ original (and a link to his Download this Song lyrics), followed by the words in our version …

… It’s called Download the News.

Download the News

It’s 2010, what’s on the consumer’s news list?
Get the latest from the net or pay cable for the gist
There already is a paradigm shift
The news revolution cannot be dismissed
£140 for the BBC,
or get on the web and get it for free

News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala

If you can google it why pay for it all?
Is the news industry going to fall?
Or will it hit Rupert Murdoch’s pay-wall

Hey Mr Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala

Broadcasters where is all your content?
All the old rules will be bent
All visuals will be on an Avid cloud
Don’t cover your heads in a shroud
The future’s here and thumping real loud

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala

Multi-skills are here to stay
Old school journalists will have pay
TV news. What do viewers demand?
Will it mean content on command?

Hey Mr. Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr. Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?

News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala

Coming up the weather in 5
But get it – now – online and live
How will news be sent?
However, whatever, it has to have compelling content

News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala
(Repeat and fade out)

• The mention of an ‘Avid cloud’ is a reference to our invaluable discussion with John Curzon, newsroom specialist with Avid. He outlined some possible future scenarios for the news industry, in particular TV news, including the potential for reporters to edit stories in low definition while in the field, using minimal equipment, with the high-definition footage stored in the ‘cloud’.

This is the future. And we have to move with it. To paraphrase a song from the Irish band U2. All journalists will have to keep Running to Stand Still.

Rap partners: Amitabh Revi and Misha Hussein

Deepika Bhardwaj in London for a Future Leaders' visit to the House of Lords

DEEPIKA BHARDWAJ, a production manager with Jain Studios in New Delhi, India, reflects on her participation in the Thomson Foundation’s Future Leaders course, 2010

I was really excited by the prospect of becoming part of the Thomson Foundation fraternity and felt lucky to have been selected for the Future Leaders course.

At first, I was curious about meeting people from different parts of the world and had high expectations for the course itself. Ahead lay a month of leadership lessons, a chance to work on my own strengths and weaknesses and, hopefully, make friends for life.

Now it is over, I have taken back a lot more than I could ever have imagined.

Apartment number 239 at Century Wharf in Cardiff was my amazingly-comfortable abode for the month and I quickly realised that the Thomson Foundation had left no stone unturned to make this the best experience of our lives.

Our journey brought us into personal contact with some of the most respected media leaders in the UK. From them we learned how to prepare ourselves to lead and avoid the pitfalls they faced. Lyn Hartman and Clive Jones from the Thomson Foundation led the course throughout and helped us get the most from our experiences.

Lyn’s helpful advice was that I should learn from everyone we met. “Imagine you are plugging a USB into their brains,” she said. A famous quote by Woodrow Wilson says: “I not only use all the brains I have but all I can borrow.” Well, we had the chance to borrow the best brains in the world … for the the rest of our lives!

Menna Richards, Director of BBC Wales, was the first leader we met. She inspired me. Menna taught me not to put limits on your ambitions. She seemed always to be striving to do more. And I feel that’s the way to go about in life. Keep going. Never stop.

Meeting David Mannion, Editor-in-Chief of ITN, was a great experience. He discussed in a very candid manner his responsibilities and the tough decisions he has faced. A major lesson I learnt from David is the fact that you grow the most when you surround yourself with people more talented than you.

He advised us not to feel daunted, but to learn from these people. I now realise that working with more talented people actually makes you raise the bar for yourself. David also stressed the importance of moving forward: “Don’t dwell too much on bad decisions you make in life. Move on. Remember you have other people to lead and decisions to make. Don’t beat yourself over those decisions. Just move on.”

From influential people, to a globally-influential organisation: Google. Their office may look more like a party space than offices, but what the media really needs to learn from Google is the art of employing the best people. Their rigorous selection procedures ensure they hire only the best.

Another great thing about the course was the way our intensive learning was interspersed by breaks to relax with friends. Our picnic trip to Monmouth was like that. Just loved the countryside!

After the visit to ITN, Press Association and Google we returned to Wales to meet one of the most creative media personalities of British television, Peter Bazelgette. He provided us with a lot of insights into the success stories of people who changed the face of television, such as John De Mol, Paul Smith and Charlie Parsons, creating formats like Big Brother, Who wants to be a Millionaire and Survivor.

He told us that all these people had brilliant ideas initially, but no one to back them. Peter explained “If you believe in your ideas and constantly work on it, you will definitely get the results. You have to be persistent and wait for the right time. And you should never, ever give up.”

Another leader I loved meeting was Vikki Keywood, Executive Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

What inspired me most about her was that, after reaching a high position, she decided to go right back to basics in management and start from scratch. Now she is transforming the Royal Shakespeare company. Vikki is a perfect example of a leader who follows their heart and doesn’t let anything get in the way – even if it means starting all over again! One important tip I remember from Vikki is that if you want people to follow you, you have to lead by example.

Last but not the least came Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC, who brought lessons not just in leadership but humanity. I will remember forever him saying: “As a leader, you have to be good to everyone in your organization. People from the bottom to the top. It’s not about the speech you delivered or the suit you wore, its all about the way you make people feel.”

Apart from the speakers, the team activities were a great experience too. The tasks we were set opened our minds to the importance of teamwork. From a personal perspective, time management was one of the things I really wanted to work on. While peer pressure helped me improve, Mona (another course participant) gave me an insight I won’t forget.

She said we should think of ourselves as an image. Whatever we do has an impact on that image. If we do good things, we love to look at our image in the mirror, and when we do things we do not like, we don’t like our own image. So the lesson: Identify the things that make you feel satisfied and prioritise them. If you stick to this, time manages itself.

Between all the lessons, workshops and visits, I loved shopping in Cardiff and meeting some amazing people. I am really going to miss the whole Thomson family I became a part of.

The Future Leaders course was an unforgettable experience for me. As the title says, it lasted just one month … but the lessons will last a lifetime.

• Thanks Tim, Lyn, Tracey, Miranda, Clive for all your support and thanks to Siko, Noli, Ghassan, Mona, Misha, ManQ, Abdul, Amitabh and Lucy for being such great friends and such great time together.

Participants of the Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, from left, Abdul Alshamery, Amitabh Revi, Manqoba Mchunu, Mona Chami, Ghassan Abu-Hussein, Misha Hussein, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Nolawi Engdayehu, Deepika Bhardwaj and Lusine Petrosyan

These ten talented journalists from across the world have every reason to smile …

They’ve just completed the prestigious, month-long Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course and are pictured at a special presentation evening hosted by the Foundation’s chairman and former journalist, Lord Fowler of Sutton Coldfield.

During the course, participants discussed management and leadership styles with some of the media’s most influential figures, including former BBC director Greg Dyke, ITV editor-in-chief David Mannion, Royal Shakespeare Company executive director Vikki Heywood, and the TV executive behind Big Brother, Peter Bazalgette.

They also visited Google’s London HQ and the House of Lords, where they met former trade union chief and Thomson Foundation trustee Baroness Dean.

The course was led by broadcasting consultant and trainer Lyn Hartman and Clive Jones, visiting Professor at the University of Cardiff School of Journalism and Chairman of GMTV. Under their expert guidance, the Future Leaders explored and developed their own leadership styles, forging friendships that will continue as the journalists reach for the top in their own countries and media sectors.

The participants, pictured below receiving their award certificates from Lord Fowler, are: Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Lusine Petrosyan, Amitabh Revi, Mona Chami, Ghassan Abu-Hussein, Abdul Alshamery, Deepika Bhardwaj, Manqoba Mchunu, Nolawi Engdayehu and Misha Hussein.

Click images to enlarge …

Sikonathi Mantshantsh was inspired by the words of Baroness Dean during a visit to the House of Lords

By SIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA

“When you become leaders, don’t forget where you came from,” said Baroness Brenda Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde.

Simple as it is, that’s quite a humbling leadership lesson. Especially so when it comes from a person of Baroness Dean’s stature.

Coming from Africa as I do, I have witnessed the plundering of resources for the benefit of the few. Too many ‘liberators’ have become oppressors; too many public servants have turned their back on their constituents. Those constituents may be sick patients queuing for service at a hospital or the electorate waiting for the benefits of ‘independence’ and ‘freedom’.

The need for journalists to start asking the real questions and keep authority in check is brought about by people forgetting where they came from.

The need for media intervention to raise the plight of sick people deprived is too often, in my view, because officials have forgotten where they came from. The need for journalists to start asking the real questions and challenge authority is greater than ever … because people forget where they came from.

It is only fitting, therefore, that aspiring leaders like myself and my colleagues at the Thomson Foundation had to be reminded early in their leadership quest by somebody like the Baroness to remember ‘where they came from’.

That the message was delivered in such a historic House as that of Lords makes it even more important and an essential leadership lesson for me.

« Back to introduction
» Misha Hussain
» Mona Farah
» Manqoba Mchunu

Mona Chami, left, finds great value in listening to the experiences of media chiefs and course colleagues

By MONA FARAH

The first two weeks in Cardiff! Ooohhhh … how would I describe them?

Meeting so many leaders is the best thing that can happen to a journalist. People like ITV editor David Mannion and former Manchester Evening News editor Paul Horrocks make decisions while working under tremendous pressure. To learn how they made those decisions was a real education.

David also made me realise that you can be both a dynamic leader and human. The way he spoke of the seriousness of his responsibilities while talking about his job with a smile and joke enabled me to relate to him as an equal.

On a serious note, his comments about the death of his staffers in Basra made me think deeply about the role of the leader, as I was myself in Basra at the time. As David explained, they are the times when you must focus on what you can still change and control; look to the future and do you best. “I had to remember I still had people in Basra to lead and a job to do,” added David.

The way he spoke of the seriousness of his responsibilities while talking about his job with a smile and joke enabled me to relate to him as an equal.

That kind of advice, coming from somebody with such responsibilities, is priceless.

David is, of course, not the only person who has taught me new things about leadership. Listening to my colleagues speak about their work challenges makes me realise that my own situation is not unique. In a broader context, I have come to see that many of us share the same concerns over human rights.

So now in we go into the last two weeks of the course. I can only hope these will be at least as intense as the first two weeks.

After all … you only get one opportunity to train as a Future Leader with the Thomson Foundation!

« Back to introduction
» Misha Hussain
» Sikonathi Mantshantsha
» Manqoba Mchunu

Misha Hussain, at the rear of this group shot with Baroness Dean, a trustee of the Thomson Foundation, at the House of Lords

By MISHA HUSSAIN

‘To be the best, you need to know the best, and the TF future leaders programme is designed to put you in the know.’ So ran the slogan for the Thomson Foundation’s Future Leaders course.

It was a tall order, and a lot of room for disappointment … so how do I feel after two weeks on the course?

Meeting people from different parts of the world was also had a great impact on me. In the words of Peter Bazalgette, one of the course facilitators, creative networks need to “have many flowers, be talent friendly and multi-cultural”.

Well, having journalists from over seven different nations and three different continents has definitely been an eye-opening experience.

The course brings together broadcast and print journalists, and I realise there is a lot we can learn from each other if the future is going to be a together on an altogether different platform – online journalism.

From a journalistic perspective it was interesting to meet Paul Horrocks, former editor of the Manchester Evening News. I found his workshop on dealing with editorial crisis very interesting. By using real life examples of difficult editorial decisions that he had to make, Paul gave us the opportunity to consider how we would have reacted under time pressure.

During the first two weeks of the course I’ve had the opportunity to speak with and learn from journalists and leaders across the British media – and it has inspired me.

I realise there is a lot we can learn from each other if the future is going to be a together on an altogether different platform – online journalism.

It seems that certain skills are common to many of the leaders, like being able to communicate and gather the best people around you.

Interestingly enough, it was David Mannion, the ITV editor in chief, who said you must never be afraid to put the best people around you, even if they are better than you.

The course also allowed me to closely analyse my own leadership qualities. Having been the frontman in companies I have worked for over the last 10 years, this course was taking the challenge of leadership to the next level. That is to say, can I be the front man of the front men?

However, it isn’t all about networking and making contacts. I’m hoping that I walk away from this course with not only a set of very influential colleagues in the media world, but also a group of trusted friends who I can rely on for guidance and advice in the future.

« Back to introduction
» Mona Farah
» Sikonathi Mantshantsh
» Manqoba Mchunu

This was a proud moment for Wamanrao Bhimrao Deshmukh.

The smiling Indian editor is pictured receiving a certificate from Lord Thomson, owner of a worldwide newspaper empire and founder of the Thomson Foundation, during a European study tour for international journalists in 1970.

Today the photograph is a treasured possession of his son, Dr Anil Deshmukh. Until the recent discovery of the picture, this career highlight had remained a family mystery. For shortly after returning from his European adventure, Wamanrao Deshmukh died, aged 42.

Now Dr Anil is appealing for help in tracing other members of the tour as he gathers together the pieces of his father’s remarkable life.

Dr Anil says that his father’s place on the trip, organised by the Thomson Foundation, was secured only after local villagers clubbed together to help pay his costs: “He virtually rose from ashes to brightest student; from the tiny village of Ugwa to to the UK.

“He didn’t have a single penny in his pocket when he was selected to join your centre. Every man from his village contributed to make this study tour possible,” wrote Dr Anil in an email to the Thomson Foundation.

Editor of the Daily Shiv-Shakti

At the time of the tour, Wamanrao was editor of the Daily Shiv-Shakti in Akola, north east of Mumbai and close to the village where he was born on a farm. Orphaned as a child, Wamanrao’s passion for words helped him progress from the local school in Ugwa to study English and achieve his dream of becoming a journalist.

When he reached the highly-respected position of editor, it seems Wamanrao dedicated his life to helping others. Dr Anil continues: “He worked for the betterment of journalists from rural areas. He formed an organisation for them, organising training camps, conferences and meetings. For poor members, he formed a co-operative housing colony.

“My father helped every person who needed it. In Ugwa, he founded a secondary school, arranged the water supply, bus transportation and encouraged the building of rural roads.

“He donated all of his farmland to the poor and needy and wanted to achieve great heights in the fields of journalism and social service.

“But unfortunately he died at the young age of 42.”

Other photographs from Dr Anil, below, show his father with members of the 1969/70 study tour and with colleagues in his newspaper office.

• If you have any more information about the study tour attended by Wamanrao Deshmukh, please get in touch »

With just three weeks to go before launch, Thomson Foundation consultant CHARLES McGHEE arrived in Abuja to support the birth of a new daily newspaper

Thomson assignments are challenging at the best of times, but when they are carried out at short notice against seemingly impossible deadlines they become even more ‘interesting’ into the bargain.

“You’ve got three weeks,” said Thomson Foundation Head of Training, Tim Rogers, “to help redesign a weekly newspaper in Nigeria and convert it into a national daily. Oh, and by the way, can you leave next weekend?”

You’ve got to be joking, right? Well, no, actually. In the event, departure was delayed by a week and then by another couple of days because of a visa wrangle, but I arrived in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, with effectively 16 days to complete the above assignment for The Peoples Daily (without an apostrophe) newspaper.

Deadlines are meat and drink to a daily newspaper professional, but many publishing ventures have foundered on timescales that proved too ambitious. And this looked like one of them. The Thomson Foundation’s client however – Peoples Media Ltd – was adamant that its deadline to switch to daily publication must be met. There was no alternative.

It was clear from the first day of my arrival that The Peoples Daily was some way short of its ambition to produce a 48-page newspaper, seven days per week.

Charles McGhee at work with The Peoples Daily team

The right technology, staffing and organisational structures were not yet in place, for a start. Nor had there been any moves to initiate a major cultural shift from the relatively relaxed style of a weekly paper to the more-focused, intense and constant demands of a daily. What was in place, however, was an enthusiastic and highly-motivated editor in Ahmed Shekarau and a team of journalists with enormous potential.

Friday and Saturday were the main production days for the weekly newspaper and this gave me one final opportunity to observe the newspaper’s production process at close quarters before its switch to daily publication. Working alongside the editor, I also started examining redesign options for The Peoples Daily.

Apart from the editorial challenges in providing a wider variety and better quality of content, this assessment revealed that the paper faced obstacles on several other fronts before it could switch successfully to daily publication. These included:

• Improving the internal computer network system
• Increasing the newspaper’s internet bandwith
• Streamlining and strengthening the page production process
• Improving picture content and reproduction quality

The Peoples Media Board approved immediate development proposals in all of these areas and, concurrently, work was started on a basic redesign. There was no time to do a thorough appraisal and provide options: it was simply a question of improving on what was there, using available typefaces and examining methods of improving picture quality.

The redesign was carried out on the ‘live’ paper, using actual content and pictures for the first daily edition which appeared on Monday, November 30th, right on deadline.

The publishers were persuaded against seven-day publication by technical and resource limitations. But the new Monday to Friday daily publication was well received both internally and externally, with considerable interest being expressed by new readers and potential new advertisers alike.

And the Thomson Foundation was delighted to have assisted at the birth of Nigeria’s newest daily newspaper.

• Charles McGhee is a former daily newspaper editor who now runs his own media consultancy.

David Seymour

It was November, 2000, in Belgrade, shortly after the fall of the Serbian President,

Slobodan Milosevic; a country wrecked by civil wars; a broadcasting centre bombed by Nato; thousands of broadcasting staff displaced and confused.

It was my first experience as a Thomson Foundation trainer. I was with two colleagues, commissioned to help the state broadcaster, RTS, cover Serbia’s first democratic elections.

On our first morning, we were ushered into a huge hall, seated behind microphones on a Soviet-style rostrum, facing around 300 journalists and broadcasters. “Let the training commence,” we were told.

Since 1992, the news journalism of Radio Television Serbia had been used as a propaganda tool by the Milosevic regime and hundreds of journalists had been fired for failing to fall into line.

Now we told them: you decide what to broadcast.

There was no government in place, no director general, or any senior editors – they’d all been swept away with Milosevic.

We conducted some formal training, but then worked with individual programme teams, advising and reviewing.

I think it helped.

But perhaps the person who it changed the most was me. I became a Thomson trainer – because I loved that first taste of helping broadcasters in a damaged land.

Mai Davies

On my third assignment for the Thomson Foundation, I was teaching the TV Talk Show Course to a group of seven men and one woman.   When I put them through their paces on their first ‘on camera’ exercise she was last to take her place.   The following day, and for every day after that, she always took her turn last.

On the second week I took her aside as she was becoming more withdrawn with every day that passed.   She burst into tears. “The men keep pushing in front of me, they think I shouldn’t be here” she sobbed.   “You wouldn’t understand, you don’t come from a culture like mine, you aren’t treated differently because you are a woman”.

I smiled and said “This happens everywhere, it’s just more obvious here”.

I told her she had two options.  I could speak to the other students, or she could pull herself up to her full height, march into the studio, and be better than everyone else.  I told her that she was the best natural presenter I had ever seen, that she had responded so well in all the practical exercises that she had nothing to fear.      “What would you do?”  she asked me.  I just smiled.

That afternoon she marched into the studio ahead of everyone.    Before the other students had gathered their thoughts she was sitting on the set, earpiece in her ear, microphone on, and ready to go.   She was brilliant.  She lit up the screen.

At the end of the course, she came up to me and threw her arms around me.   “Thankyou” she said. “You have taught me more than you will ever know.”

But she also taught me.   She taught me that passing on skills and experience is important, but training is about so much more.  It’s about instilling the  confidence in your students to be the best they can be.

Michael Delahaye

One of the exercises for the television courses I run is the ‘One Minute Movie’.  The object is to tell a story in a dozen shots, sixty seconds when edited, but without any voice-over commentary.  The participants are split into teams and I give them a choice of themes which can be interpreted in any creative way they choose.

When conducting a course in Armenia, I included ‘Creation’ as one of the themes, along with the usual ‘Late’, ‘Lucky’, ‘Jealousy’, etc…  The teams duly deliberated and then left to shoot their movies – with strict instructions to be back for editing within two hours.

All the teams returned – except one.  By nightfall I was getting anxious, the more so as there was no response from their mobiles.

Finally they straggled in and the truth emerged.  They’d gone to the maternity unit of the local hospital and somehow persuaded the staff – and a patient – to let them film a birth.  Camera, Lights, Push!

But of course they’d had to wait and, while waiting, turn off their mobiles.  Not quite what I had in mind for an exercise but a fine example of initiative and ambition.  Not a bad movie either, if somewhat ‘visceral’.

Tira Shubart

Qatar in August is a challenge if you care about your carbon footprint: with temperatures in the 40s, air conditioning is turned up and everyone retreats inside until the sun does down.

However I was working at the Al Jazeera Training Centre with a dedicated group of young journalists from across the Arab world—and filming outside in the Doha Souk would improve their craft skills.

So off we went shooting sequences, interviews and pieces to camera. As the group—who had bonded instantly—sang traditional songs as the bus hurtled through traffic, I seemed to be the only one bothered that sitting in a sauna would be much cooler.

The workshop consisted of ten students, half women and half men from across the Arab world; Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia. Highly motivated , they were intently focused to further their skills. Their different national and cultural experiences informed discussions on political and social issues in the Arab world. And these continued after hours over the special sweet coffee brewed by the Saudi students.

On the weekend the students chartered a wooden dhow and set a course to an offshore island. As the sun set, we continued discussing journalism sailing back to the bright lights of Doha skyscrapers.

The veteran Al Jazeera cameramen, Laith Mushtaq, impressed with the groups’ dedication filming in the heat of the high summer, offered his expertise in an impromptu session; tips on working with camera crews and in conflict zones.

To round off the fortnight, we visited the Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and the Al Jazeera Arabic news channel. The students never wanted to stop.  I left believing that among this dedicated group would be some of the future senior journalists and news editors of the Arab world.

“When I was accepted on to the Print Journalism course at the Thomson Foundation, I thought 12 weeks seemed a long time.

But it was only at the end of that period that I realised I needed more than that to savour the city of Cardiff and also to better understand some of my 24 colleagues.

Even though it was not an easy exercise to comprehend how each individual’s culture and background inform their thinking, it was a worthwhile experience learning about certain countries and cultures first- hand.

The experience opened my eyes about the origin of some of the debates in countries like India and Nigeria.

What also helped is that all candidates were mature individuals with a high level of intellect that came to the fore during discussions.

Solid relationships were also forged with some of them as a result of the debates and social interaction that dominated outside the classroom.
On a personal level, I was thrilled by the opportunity to analyse British newspapers on a daily basis.

Having been schooled about this industry from third-party sources, it was an eye-opener to be able to dissect most of the influential titles daily and get to follow their editorial policies and historical ideologies.

And the fact that Cardiff is a relatively small city compared to Johannesburg also added to the overall learning curve. It was easy to navigate around and get to understand some of the local cultural practices, albeit at regional level.”