What a year 2011 has been for us in the news industry. Internationally, we’ve covered the Japan tsunami and historic events unfolding across North Africa and the Middle East. Back in the UK, we’ve had rioting in English cities, the phone-hacking scandal and, on a more positive note, the pomp and splendour of the Royal Wedding.  

In each case, ITN journalists have delivered distinctive and compelling coverage, whether it be ITV News’s Bill Neely being the only broadcast journalist to witness the clean-up by Gaddafi forces in Zawiyah after they re-took the town or Alex Thomson’s unparalleled report for Channel 4 News from the devastated Japanese port of Minamisanriku.

Viewers have recognised this excellent coverage and on many occasions our output for the UK’s two biggest commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 4 has seen large surges in audiences. In addition, many millions more have watched our content worldwide through our international clients and partners.

Indeed, delegates at NewsXChange will know the great work done by ITN’s content syndication arm ITN Source News in supplying high-quality on-the-day ITN. This year, ITN Source News has done sterling work syndicating distinctive packages and astounding footage about all of the major stories I’ve touched upon to many broadcasters throughout the world. 

I’m particularly proud of the achievements of ITN Source News during the Royal Wedding back in April. ITN Source News supplied a wide range of live feeds of the day’s events, on-location production at key points of the celebrations, and bespoke production facilities to global broadcast partners such as NBC, CTV, ZDF and Australia’s 7 Network and Network 10. Client feedback about the provision of content and services around the wedding was incredibly positive, both anecdotally at the time and later in a formal feedback survey that found 100% of clients were Very Satisfied or Satisfied that we understood their needs and delivered the required services.

But, we’re never comfortable resting on our laurels at ITN. Just as our journalists work tirelessly to deliver fantastic reporting for our programmes, a lot of endeavour is going on behind the scenes too. We’re just completing a project to fully digitise ITN’s archive for the first time, something that no other UK news archive has achieved. And we are also relaunching the online presence for ITN Source News. These developments couldn’t come at a more important time as a busy news year beckons with continuing events in the Middle East, the ramifications of the phone-hacking scandal and the celebrations to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. At a time when the news agenda shows no signs of abating, ITN will continue to rise to the challenge – both on-screen and off it.