You might recall that in a previous post (Sept 23, 2003), OfcomWatch coined the term �Celebrity Regulator� for use in the nothern hemisphere. At the time, I wrote: �I think Stephen Carter actually has a great chance of being the UK’s first Celebrity Regulator.�

Now, as Ofcom approaches the conclusion of its first year as the media and communications regulator, we thought we would revisit Carter�s celebrity status. Is he making the cut? So, using a popular online news database, we searched �all U.K. newspapers� (excluding wire services and press releases, and OfcomWatch for that matter) for the terms �Stephen Carter� and �Ofcom� appearing in the same article. Here�s the results:

January 2004 � 19 articles
February 2004 � 10 articles
March 2004 � 12 articles
April 2004 � 30 articles (possible BT break-up in the news)
May 2004 � 25 articles
June 2004 � 16 articles
July 2004 � 19 articles
August 2004 � 7 articles (Emily Bell on holiday?)
September 2004 � 20 articles
October 2004 � 15 articles

Total: 173 articles. Not bad! That�s one article about every other day.

Compare: Callum McCarthy of the FSA, with 140 articles. On Ofcom�s website, you need to do a good deal of clicking (six by my count) to find a bio and grainy thumbnail-size photo of Stephen Carter. On the FSA�s website, it�s only three clicks to find McCarthy, and the photo is of a higher quality. Another reason to trash the Ofcom website in favour of something more useful.

I think we need to undertake more empirical research before we can draw any final conclusions, but I would tentatively say that Stephen Carter has all the makings of a Celebrity Regulator.