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Greenslade's digital future forgets the foot soldiers

Roy Greenslade's feature (The digital challenge, January 7) is interesting and timely, but his take on how digital "integration" is affecting staff left me baffled.

He writes that every executive he met was "at pains to point out how the mindset of their editorial staffs had changed". Of course they were!

Roy seems to have swallowed this line without getting the other point of view: that of the reporters themselves. The fleeting reference to his journalist friends and their concerns wasn't enough to stop this sounding something close to a cosy PR piece planted by newspaper bigwigs. According to Roy, journalists were not being asked to do too much extra and in fact were grasping opportunities to "write more freely".

Tell that to the forward planner who has to plan for the Sunday as well as the daily paper. Tell that to subs who now have to put together a downloadable version of the newspaper as well as the first edition - all for no extra cash.

The most telling bit of all is when Roy mentions that Telegraph editor Will Lewis avoids using the phrase "seven days" for "internal political reasons". He should have been pressed on that.

Daniel Bates, London

The BBC's American bias

James Silver's interview with the new BBC Washington bureau chief, Justin Webb is a vivid demonstration of what is wrong with the BBC coverage of the United States ('I'm a real admirer of American patriotism', January 7).

Webb's love affair with the US and an electoral system that glorifies in contests between rich men and the odd woman, with barely a principle dividing them, is touching.

The BBC's eagerness to see the world from the White House's point of view and its readiness to ignore or deride any other point of view, are serious issues and ones one would expect a Guardian interview to address. If Webb seriously believes that the US retains the moral high ground when it comes to human rights questions then what need is there of a bureau chief? Surely a tape recorder would be cheaper?

Tony Greenstein, Brighton

· Justin Webb is right. British journalists have been dastardly in their comments about America, especially those from the BBC. The lack of comprehension and the degree of contemptuousness exhibited by most British journalists is disastrous; thinking people here are disgusted.

Gerald Whelan, by email

Gorilla for hire

Of course Richard A'Brook is right about the TV ad featuring a gorilla playing drums when he says that "We remember the film, but not what it was supposed to be selling" (Letters, January 7).

But he neglects to explain why this is the case, namely that the ad was written BEFORE there was a client for it. Indeed given that the ad itself does not refer to any particular product or its supposed benefits it could have been sold to just about anybody who would buy it. In other words the advertisers themselves are literally an afterthought.

Frank Desmond, London

· Cadbury's imaginative approach to recasting its brand is what rebranding is all about. Imperative to Cadbury's re-launch has been the need to revitalise its image, and retain its brand in customers' "front of mind" in a ferociously competitive market.

Dawn Prentice, Something Worth Saying Communications, Birmingham