Page 169 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015169were designed to support our existing editorial channels: to serve specific communities of the Guardian’s readership, for example teachers or students, more directly – delivering relevant content to them in familiar formats, via chan- nels they use and at times they are most likely to read and engage with it.In the case of CPN, our mission is simple: to be a living, breathing online community and resource for arts and culture professionals across all verticals and artforms.But at the heart of that mission is and will always be strong content. The Guardian’s arts and culture coverage is unrivaled. It’s one of the few national newspapers to employ such a large team and cover such a wide range of cultural verticals and artistic forms.What the paper sees in CPN is an opportunity to augment its coverage, by giving a complete 360degree view of arts, culture and heritage.To put it simply: if the core culture editorial team was going to cover the next big film to hit UK cinemas, review it and interview its bigname stars at the red carpet premiere, CPN would want to find out and write about all the work going on behind the scenes: the funding, management, direction, production, press, marketing, audience engagement, technological innovation and so on. For example, while an interview with Electricity star Agyness Deyn might interest all Guardian readers, featureson any of the film’s professional elements – its funding, scientific connections, its medical- educational mission, its multicompany production – would most certainly interest andbe relevant to the arts professional community, while not excluding more general film/arts fans.The community publishes articles on professional elements of cultural issues such as funding, scientific connections, educational mission or production.That last point about not being exclusive is important. CPN may be a separate entity to core Guardian culture editorial – with its own team, strategy and output – but it’s still joined up to the paper’s core missions and values. As a branchedoff community site, it would be easy for CPN to be selective about the rules it follows and stray from the path to which the Guardian walks; after all, it doesn’t serve the paper’s majority readership.But it’s in Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger’s vision of open journalism where you can find the real essence of what CPN does. It’s a vision he sees for the whole organisation. When asked in 2012 by online journalism resource site, the Nieman Journalism Lab, about the concept of open journalism, he replied:7“The simplest way I explain it is to think of the theatre critic. The Guardian’s got a wonderful theatre critic whose been doing the job for 40 years, and no editor I can think of in his right mind would get rid of Michael Billington or not have a theatre critic. If you asked the question: what about the 900 other people in the audience next door to Michael? Is it conceivable no one else in the audience has an interesting opinion that could add to your understanding?Matthew Caines