Francois Nel

Director: MA Journalism Leadership

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Greenbank Building 258

+44 (0)1772 894758

fpnel@uclan.ac.uk

François Nel is an award-winning journalist, educator and textbook author with experience in the US, South Africa and the UK. The founding director of the Journalism Leaders Programme, he has initiated three on-going studies into the impacts of technology  newspapers, including the “World Newspaper Future & Change Study” in collobration with the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

François Nel is an award-winning educator, journalist and researcher who thinks of himself as having been made in Africa and raised in the world.

Born in Zimbabwe, François spent more than and decade in the United States where he earned his BA and MA degrees and gained experience in radio, television and worked as a reporter  at The Charlotte Observer newspaper before heading to South Africa at the end of 1991. The following year, Francois joined the faculty of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, where he taught media courses, developed new programmes and became a head of department.  Throughout, he has remained an active freelance journalist, member of professional bodies, such as the South African National Editors Forum, and has authored two Oxford University Press texts and a number of academic papers.

In 2000, he was invited to the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, where he developed and runs the Journalism Leaders Programme as well as coordinating the Digital Editors Network and Journalism Leaders Forum series.

The first academic invited to join the World Editors Forum of the World Association of Newspapers & News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), François initiated the World Newspaper Future & Change study, which he runs in collaboration with WAN-IFRA and the Norwegian School of Management.

He is currently also conducting  two other research projects, ‘Laid Off: What do UK newspaper journalists do next?’ (in collaboration with journalism.co.uk ) and ‘Where else is the money? A study of online revenue models at newspapers in the UK’s 66 cities’. 

Teaching

Teach components of business strategy, leadership and writing in the multimedia context to editors and other senior journalists who participate in the professional development courses offered by the Journalism Leaders Programme, which includes the MA in Journalism Leadership, as well as seminars, postgraduates certificates and diplomas.

Publications

Books & Book Chapters

Nel, F, Ward, M and Rawlinson, A. (2006).  “The future of online journalism” In Anderson, P.J. and Ward, G. – The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, Aldershot, Ashgate.

__. (2005). Writing for the media, 3rd ed. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
First published in 1994 with the 2nd edition in 1998, this book has become a standard text in South Africa and is prescribed by leading universities, including Cape Town, Rhodes, Johannesburg and Pretoria.  A fourth edition is due in 2011/12.

Nel, F. ed. (2000). The South African Style Guide: a usage and reference dictionary for the media. Cape Town: Oxford University Press
Nel, F. (2010). “Where else is the money? A study of innovation in online business models at newspapers in Britain’s 66 cities.” Journalism Studies, Vol 4, No 3, 2010, 360-372.

Journal articles and published conference papers

Nel, F. (2010) “Learning from Layoffs: what the experiences of laid-off journalists mean for journalism education.” 2nd annual World Journalism Education Congress:  Journalism Education in an Age of Radical Change, 5-7 July 2010, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.

Hunter, A and Nel, F (2010) “Equipping the Entrepreneurial Journalist: An exercise in creative enterprise.”  2nd annual World Journalism Education Congress:  Journalism Education in an Age of Radical Change,  5-7 July 2010, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

Nel, F. (2010) “Fighting Back: How UK news publishers are battling to rebuild their revenues online”. Presented to Journalism’s Next Top Model: Meeting the Cost of Journalism Tomorrow, 8-9 June. School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Westminster, London 

Nel, F. (2009) “Where else is the money? A study of innovation in online business models at newspapers in Britain’s 66 cities”. A refereed paper presented at Future of Journalism Conference, Cardiff, 9-10 September 2009. 

Nel, F and Singer, J. (2008). “Cultural Fluidity: Weekly Newspaper Editors’ Strategies for Building Knowledge and Managing Change”, Proceedings of the Media Management and Economics Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference, August 2008, Chicago, USA

Ashman, I., Singer, J. and Nel, F. (2007) “New Media in the Twenty-First Century:  The Beginning of a New Ethic”.  Presented to European Business Ethics Network /  UK Conference on Ethics and Human Resource Management  Cheltenham, England, April 2007

Nel, F. (2004). “Using Desktop Video Conferencing (DTVC) to enhance social presence”.  Proceedings of the Conference On Information Technology in Tertiary Education (CITTE 2004), 1-3 September 2004,University of Cape Town, South Africa

Nel, F. (2002). “Relationships between media organizations and their commercial content providers in a society in transition: a discussion of a South African experience”, European Public Relations Education and Research Association, 9th annual conference proceedings, 6 July 2002, Bled, Slovenia

Industry reports and articles

Nel, F. (2010). Laid Off: What do UK Journalists Do Next? Report published in collaboration with Journalism.co.uk, September 2010: http://www.scribd.com/doc/37088778/Laid-Off-What-Do-Journalists-Do-Next

__(2010) “The credibility crunch is upon us;  Change-averse company executives are the biggest threat to the local news industry”. The Media magazine, Johannesburg: South Africa, May 2010:

__ (2010). “Building Employee and Organisational Development.” In Stone, M., ed.  (2009), Charting the Course for Newspapers; Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Strategy Report 9.3, December 2009, pp 31-36.

 __ (2006). Dive into digital exposes need for modern skills. Press Gazette: Journalism Training 2006, 27 October 2006, pp 12-14: http://tinyurl.com/divedigital

__ (2005). The importance of logging in:  the use and usefulness of Instant Messaging as a space of opportunistic interactions an online learning community. Presented at the 10th International Telework Workshop and the 2nd ITA Conference organised by the International Telework Academy (ITA), held at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, 29th August – 1st September 2005.

__. (2003). “Power - who has it, who should get it?” Rhodes University Journalism Review, Issue 22: 14-16 (Summer 2003).

__“Paywalls: Charting the route from free to fee - and beyond.” 9th International Newsroom Summit, World Association of Newspapers & News Publishers, London, 8-9 September, 2010

 __“What UK newspaper journalists do next”, Journalism and Higher Education Seminar, Association of Journalism Educators (AJE), Leicester, 21 May 2010

__“Paywalls: cents or common sense?” Society of Editors, Northwest Branch, Preston, March 2010.

__“World Newspaper Future & Change Study 2009”, co-presented with Martha Stone, 62nd World Newspaper Congress, Hyderabad, India, 2 December 2009.

Invited speaker and panellist: “How do we get money from new platforms established by editorial departments? Focusing on the initiatives in news media of all kinds and at all levels where there could be potential for revenue. What is worth pursuing and what might be best let go?” Society of Editors (UK), Annual Conference London Stansted, November 15-17, 2009

Presenter and panellist: “Paywalls and Partnerships,” Digital Editors Network,  Preston, UK,  29th October 2009

Panel Chair: “Pay Walls – build em, break em - or look beyond them?” 13th Journalism Leaders Forum, 29th October 2009, Preston, UK. Panellists: Gordon Crovitz, Martha Stone, Robert Andrews and  Frédéric Filloux.

Presenter and panellist: “Digital media training for the new newsroom” 15th World Editors Forum, Gothenburg, Sweden, 3 June 2008.

Presenter and panellist: “Balancing ethics, transparency and independence in the newsroom”, 14th World Editors Forum, Cape Town, South Africa, 3-6 June 2007

“From e-Learning to i-Learning: the case of the Journalism Leaders Programme” Pedagogic Research Forum, UCLan, Preston, October 2006.

Presenter and panellist: “The converged newsroom”, South African National Editors Forum,  East London,  13 September 2006

Presenter and panellist: “Quality Journalism is the Digital Age”, Highway Africa Conference, 14-15 September 2006, Grahamstown, South Africa.

Research

Key research interests are:

- The impact of new digital technologies on the practice and management of news organisations
- Innovation and the development of new online business models for news organisations
- The use of digital technologies to enhance learning and teaching of students online and on campus
- Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship

Current studies include:

Where else is the money? A longitudinal study into the online business models of newspaper publishers in the 66 cities in the UK. Data collected in July-August, 2008, 2009 and 2010 (ongoing).

World Newspaper Future & Change Study.  Project initiator and researcher for the annual global study currently conducted in 10 languages in association with the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) (ongoing).

Laid Off: What UK journalists do next? A study into employment and employability in the journalism industry. First report published September 2010 (ongoing). The study is expected to be repeated in 2011.

Equipping the Entrepreneurial Journalist. A study into the attitudes and competencies required by media innovators, 2009-10.

Other

Francois blogs at http://forthemedia.blogspot.com and on Twitter @francoisnel

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK  (Ref:21331)
Executive Member, World Editors Forum
Co-founder and co-convenor, Digital Editors Network, UK
Member, South African National Editors Forum