Recently by New Writing North

I was delighted today to attend a discussion on creative reading (what it might be and how it might be encouraged more widely) at the new Newcastle Library.

I have been watching the new library building arise from the site of the old one and have been very excited since the scaffolding came down to see the new building.

It's a beautiful glass tower that speaks much of Newcastle's commitment to universal literacy and reading for all. It also speaks much of Newcastle's commitment to window cleaning.

I attended a preview launch of a new Business Link support programme for social enterprises on Friday. It was masterfully presented by two men in pin-striped suits who were very enthusiastic about the possibilities of social enterprise and 'third sector'.

I've never liked the term third sector, a few years ago when I participated in a Common Purpose course (which brings together people from business, the public sector and the voluntary sector to discuss how to make the world a better place) we were asked in groups to define what business, the public sector and voluntary sector actually were. Everyone spoke up highly about business, were derogatory about the public sector and then struggled to define what the third sector was. I remember a solicitor who was on the programme saying that the third sector was 'social glue and the stuff that's left'.

Anyway, the years have well and truly passed and now it seems that the banks are ready to acknowledge that the social enterprise sector (which basically describes businesses that use profit to advance social aims rather than shareholder's pockets) have great 'business' potential. Apparently RBS (which could be defined as a social enterprise now that we all own most of it) and some of the other banks are now employing new business advisors to serve our sector.

Just to be clear, the third sector encompasses most social charities (from Age Concern to playgroups), to many disability and refugee organisations right through to arts and cultural organisations (the National Trust and the Tyneside Cinema for example), so it's not a small field, and third sector organisations employ a great many people. Of course much of the third sector relies on contributions from individuals or the state in some form but as the banks and many parts of industry have also relied for a long time on European Union and State support, really the differences are getting smaller. Or really weren't that different at all. Maybe our attitudes to making profit and who should profit from profit will change with the credit crunch, I hope so.

There was much laughter at the Business Link seminar when the thorny question of if the third sector should be more 'business-like' came up. All agreed that operating in a business-like way maybe wasn't such a compelling or pervasive aim as it used to be.

The highlight of the afternoon for me came when a participant pointed out that the image on a Business Link screen might not be sending the right message. The screen carried a photograph of a greyhound on a skateboard and was captioned with some kind of vague proclamation about moving businesses forward.

"Greyhounds only have a couple of good years when they win and then they're shot!" He pointed out gleefully. "Couldn't your image be of something longer-term like a oak tree that would grow for years and years and then be cut down and the wood used to make galleons?".

There then followed one of those wonderful moments when someone who is very good at talking struggled to find the right words.

I look forward to galleon making returning to the Tyne.

On Monday night I attended a packed event at Live Theatre in Newcastle organised by Northern Film & Media to learn more about why our regional television industry appears to be disappearing. Some of this wasn't a surprise for me but it is shocking to learn how quickly and easily the technical infrastructure for making television and film in the region is slipping away. Once the productions stop, the technical crews drift away from the region and then we aren't equipped to make programmes any more and the North East disappears off the TV.

The answers to resolve all this aren't easy, in fact, I'm not sure that in the current climate, even the old things that we thought would work (coughing up more funding to entice people here) will anymore. The BBC is moving a huge amount of staff to a new media centre in Salford and relocating Radio 5 and some TV commissioning there. But of course it takes nearly as long to get to Salford from the North East as it does to London, so we are in the North, but not the 'right' North, and will inevitably lose out. And ITV's falling advertising revenues will lead to more programme cuts (Wire in the Blood and Heartbeat just recently). When it can cost over a million quid to make a drama programme you can see why it's a hard budget to balance. I for one will miss spotting the North East locations on Wire in the Blood and I wish Tony Hill and his carrier bag a fond farewell.

There were some depressing things reported at the event and one speaker told the story of pitching an idea set in the North East to a commissioning producer in London who responded by saying that he was worried that the idea was 'too cloth-cappy". That kind of stuff is very hard to stomach, especially with Lee Hall's work doing so well in London at the National Theatre and with Billy Elliot on Broadway (which is pretty 'cloth-cappy' with all those miners dancing about). Michael Chaplin a local TV writer talked eloquently about how he felt that programme makers weren't making programmes about real people any more or about how most of us actually lived. It reminded me of a programme that had snagged my attention last week. It was a Channel 4 programme which asked teenagers what they thought about how young people were portrayed on Eastenders and Hollyoakes. The kids all said that they wished the characters had 'more ambition' and could be seen to actually study hard to get jobs and go to university (rather than work on a market stall, get pregnant etc).

Like many writers that I know I am obsessed by some of the drama coming out of the US cable channel HBO, especially The Wire (which is worth getting on DVD). It may be that we ultimately 'get the telly we deserve' - if so I'd like to know what exactly we've all done to deserve Holby City? It must have been something pretty bad. The Wire, 24, Big Love, Mad Men and Lost are all great imports and remind you just how good telly writing and production can be - dense, complex, satisfying, grown up. And have you caught the US version of The Office? Hush, don't tell anyone but it's way better than the UK version (persevere after Season One to get the best of it). And 30 Rock is a gem, hidden away on Five.

As the economic downturn takes hold, those of us living in the world of books are waiting to see if spending on books shifts. The views are diverse; according to The Bookseller (the weekly industry magazine) this week, literary agents are beginning to feel a cooler response from publishers and are finding it harder so sell books.

More general research around the kind of cultural offerings that find it harder to survive in tricky economic times proposes that spending on book buying by readers will continue even as they stop spending money on theatre, music and the cinema. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.