As part of Aye Write, The Herald is putting on charging for an event called The Future of Media. But when you look at the panel of speakers, it’s anything but. In fact it’s more Aye, Wrong than an Aye Write…

When you hear people talk about the Future of Media, you think of the obvious issues:

• How the media will engage and find readers/viewers
• Why has the Scottish media been so slow to engage digitally?
• How they will respond to their authority and influence being challenged by bloggers
• How the media will pay or find revenue in the future
• What formats will media take – podcasts? iPad apps? websites?
• What will the issues of the future be – especially as privacy seems to be getting chucked out the window by the youth of today?
• Will traditional TV viewing and printed models have a future?
• If there is such emphasis on original content and content creators why are the professional press being laid off at every opportunity?
• What are the skills for the journalist of the future? Do we want them all to be Spider Jerusalems?

So you would think that you may have people involved who have some idea of these areas – or at least highlighting them. So to that end you might have (off the top of my head):

• Iain Hepburn
• Neil McIntosh
• Ewan Spence
• Scott Campbell
• Stewart Kirkpatrick
• Charlie Stross
• Pete Cashmore
• Mike Wilson

What I wouldn’t expect is a panel made up of:

• Tim Blott, president of the Scottish Daily Newspaper Society and managing director of the Herald & Times Group;
• Mark Wood, former chairman and CEO of ITN;
• Sandy Ross, formerly managing director STV, now MurrayfieldMedia Ltd. ;
• Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis, the premier analytical company looking at the international media sector
• Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture, External Affairs and the Constitution

I can understand Hyslop being on it. But the rest? Why is Blott there? Send in someone from an editorial level – be a great spot for the new editor of the titles actually – and I’m not knocking the rest of them but there’s no one there in the trenches. In fact let’s be even more blunt than that: there’s no one there working in media – they are all formers.

That alone suggests to me that we’re going to get a night of ‘oh woes is me, we be doomed’ and much hand-wringing. Which is not what we need. The media sector is past that – at least the professionals trying to find the solutions are.

It’s an event I’m tempted to go along to – Ruth Wishart is always enjoyable – but in all honesty, on the basis of that line-up, there’s no point. That record has been played enough times.

One thing I would love to ask though: What does Tim Blott make of the spoof blog that was running about him?