The Newsroom of the Future

1
The Newsroom of the Future Its not what you
think Martha L Stone, Director of Training Ifra
Newplex April 16, 2004
2
The newsroom of the future is NOT about

• Technology
• Multi-million dollar buildings
• Convergence

3
The Newsroom of the Future IS about

• The relationship between good old-fashioned
  journalism, and audience
• Relevant, compelling content
• Anytime
• Anyplace

4
Reasons for shift from media centric to audience
centric newsroom

• Decline in audience
• Media fragmentation
• Audience use of media, across channels and the
  time continuum

5
Decline in audience Broadcast Online on the
upswing
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Decline in audience Newspapers
7
Media fragmentation

• Digitalization catapults media industry choices
  from finite array of TV, radio and newspapers to
  a proliferating array of choices, e.g. wireless,
  kiosks, subway and hotel elevator screens,
  digital tickers surround sound news
• Variety of choices spark sweeping changes in
  media consumption behavior

8
Audience use of multiple media

• Annual Media Consumption for 12 and over
• 1,580 hours of TV
• 967 hours of radio
• 290 hours of recorded music
• 154 hours of newspapers
• 99 hours of Internet
• 91 hours of books
• 81 hours of magazines
• 61 hours of video games
• 55 hours of home video
• 13 hours of theaters
• 3,391 total hours of media, 1999

9
Audience use of multiple media

• Anecdotally, multimedia content use growing
  Examples
• Media multitasking growing
• 59.8 of males and 67.2 of females watch TV when
  they go online
• About half of males and females read magazines
  when they have radio on
• More than half watch TV and read newspaper
  simultaneously

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Journalism for the future requires

• A deep understanding of the audience, across
  channels the media company owns, and across the
  space of a day
• Media economy is audience driven, not media
  driven
• Media companies responding to new trends in
  consumer behavior by addressing their cross-media
  habits

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• Yelvingtons manifesto for future
• Let's stop trying to train customers to deal
  with us on our terms -- and learn to deal with
  them on theirs
• Let's look for ways to create new products that
  people will pay for, rather than gluing pricetags
  onto old products they won't pay for.
• Let's focus on building and managing valuable
  audiences whose attention is worth money, because
  that's why advertisers
  pay us to help
  solve their business problems.

12

• Yelvingtons manifesto for future
• Let's engage users by turning our sites into
  interactive, customizable venues where users can
  contribute their own content.
• Let's understand that community is about shared
  experience, and learn to help people share their
  experiences on our sites.
• Let's learn to be guides and not gatekeepers

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• Training and reorganizing for the
  audience-centric approach
• Convergence guides that meet audience demands
• Lessons learned from five years of convergence
  consulting and reorganizations from Europe, North
  America, Asia and South America
• Twenty of nearly 60 Convergence Guides

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1.
Co-located newsrooms
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Co-located newsrooms
1.
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Convergence
1.
Co-located newsrooms
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2.
Cross-training journalists
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Cross-promotion among media
Convergence
3.
Mid-size newspaper and market-leader local TV
station. Use paper and TV in past 7 days use
website in past 30 days. Belden, 2000
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Convergence
4.
New Roles
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Convergence
5.
Top-down management
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Convergence
6.
Grass-roots evangelism
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7.
Cross-media journalism
23
Convergence
8.
Teamwork
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9.
Backpack journalism
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Cross-Media Advertising Lessons Learned

• Best targets for cross-media advertising
  packages are visionaries
• Research is needed to prove cross-media success
• Media multiplier effect is powerful value added
  element to cross-media advertising strategy
• Sell an idea, not advertising space/time
• Incentives should go beyond individual media
  bonuses
• Dont undervalue Internet or other media in the
  multimedia campaign lineup

10.
Cross-department convergence strategies
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Cross-Media Advertising Lessons Learned

• Best targets for cross-media advertising
  packages are visionaries
• Research is needed to prove cross-media success
• Media multiplier effect is powerful value added
  element to cross-media advertising strategy
• Sell an idea, not advertising space/time
• Incentives should go beyond individual media
  bonuses
• Dont undervalue Internet or other media in the
  multimedia campaign lineup

11.
Newsgear 2004
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Software for multimedia journalism
12.
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Cross-Media Advertising Lessons Learned

• Best targets for cross-media advertising
  packages are visionaries
• Research is needed to prove cross-media success
• Media multiplier effect is powerful value added
  element to cross-media advertising strategy
• Sell an idea, not advertising space/time
• Incentives should go beyond individual media
  bonuses
• Dont undervalue Internet or other media in the
  multimedia campaign lineup

13.
Assignment and Content management software for
converging newsrooms
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Cross-Media Advertising Lessons Learned

• Best targets for cross-media advertising
  packages are visionaries
• Research is needed to prove cross-media success
• Media multiplier effect is powerful value added
  element to cross-media advertising strategy
• Sell an idea, not advertising space/time
• Incentives should go beyond individual media
  bonuses
• Dont undervalue Internet or other media in the
  multimedia campaign lineup

Incentives/Motivations
14.
30
New organisational structure
Convergence
15.
31
16.
Focus on audience
32
17.
Visual thinking
33
Constant communication
18.
34
Convergence
19.
Investment, not cost-cutting, approach
35
20.
Anytime, anyplace content
36
Convergence
21.
Project management
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23.
Integrated databases
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Convergence
24.
Efficiencies
39
Convergence
25.
Culture clash management
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Convergence
26.
One editorial philosophy, one news agenda,
one ethics philosophy
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MSNBC.
Month Video Requests August 2001 7
million September 2001 73 million October
2001 24 million November 2001 11.5
million Majority of video requests occurred
with two days of Sept. 11 attacks. Source
MSNBC.com estimates 
 
Convergence
27.
Multimedia use is growing
42
Convergence
28.
Unions, laws start to soften to multimedia
integration
43
Convergence
29.
Each media optimised more voices in tandem
encourage democracy
44

30.
Expanding futures for journalists, audience and
media companies
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Martha L Stone Training Director, Ifra Newsplex
stone_at_ifra.com