6th International Newsroom Summit - ntSummaries, day 1
19-20 April 2007, Hotel Ambassador, Paris
More than 180 participants from 30 countries
Multiblog: www.ifra-nt.com/multiblog/newsroom
Thursday, 19 April 2007
Keynote: The monumental challenges facing the newspaper industry today
Murdoch MacLennan, CEO of the Telegraph Media Group
(read in his absence by William Lewis, the editor of the Daily Telegraph)
Last autumn the Daily Telegraph embarked on a daring re-engineering of its news operation after group CEO Murdoch MacLennan declared that "the do-nothing option is the surest way to decline and fall" and urged papers to embrace change. Today his speech forcefully reiterated that message and gave some pointers on practical areas.
MacLennan started with the threats facing papers as the main providers of news, noting that "foretelling the death of papers has been the consistent pastime of the business since I entered it in the '70s and if I'd listened to the naysayers (then saying commercial television would mean the end of papers) I would never have joined."
MacLennan observed that for an industry in 'terminal decline', "we appear to be in pretty good shape" with global circulation rising by 5 per cent per annum, a total of 1.4 billion paid-for paper copies sold and free circulations that have doubled in four years to 28 million.
That does not, however, mean that the "maelstrom of the digital revolution – the biggest since the birth of printing press" can be ignored. The challenge is there to reinvent the newspaper against a background in which people increasingly seek news online and the future "is no longer as imposers of information but as agents of dialogue".
The implications of which are dramatic and the business model of the passive audience will be replaced by participating audiences – a change that should be embraced.
For the Telegraph the focus of that change revolves around four principal challenges; training, brand, copyright, and regulation.
1. Training.
Lamenting the traditional lack of attention paid to training journalists, MacLennan noted that blogs and podcasts are now key ingredients for correspondents following stories both far afield and close to home, hence a familiarity with the new media landscape is essential for editors. At the same time journalists need renewed emphasis on the skills of sifting and discerning. He concluded that the media companies that succeed will not be those who simply add more media to the maelstrom, but those who stand out and are trusted for reliability, accuracy, and honesty.
2. Brand.
That in turn leads to the issue of branding, with quality and accuracy the defining features which will distinguish papers and by which they will be judged.
3. Copyright.
Google and Yahoo are undermining this by building a business model based on access to this content without either payment or recognition. Success will therefore be based not only on a healthy advertising base, but on the rigorous enforcement of copyright.
4.Regulation.
Describing cyberspace as "the most anarchic environment ever created", MacLennan rounded off with a call for laws to protect those quality products and brands in order to maintain and preserve media and the freedoms that go with it.
Readers determine editorial content
Bharat Kapadia, Executive Director, Divya Bhaskar, India
"Can you launch a paper which is number one from day one?" was the question posed by Bharat Kapadia, before answering boldly that "nothing is impossible". Kapadia is executive director of the number-one newspaper in Gujarat, and it soon became clear that he was talking from experience when he described the process of creating a readership from scratch.
In 2001 the Bhaskar Group decided to enter Gujarat – a completely unknown market for them, complete with a different language.
It wasn't a decision lightly taken, but an evaluation of the market suggested a wide scope of readership, and the circulation growth of comparable cities (Delhi has seen a rise of 262 per cent over the past decade) made it a tempting prospect despite the fact that it meant going up against two principal rivals that had been in place for half a century. Most importantly of all, focus groups looked at satisfaction levels with those two entrenched titles and the results suggested they had grown complacent.
The strategy was to involve the people of Gujarat themselves and make them realize their latent need for a good paper, for which an ambitious plan was drawn up, featuring no less than 48 focus groups and even more astoundingly the decision to visit 800,000 households in person. All within a 40-day period. That's including an intensive training programme of presentations and body language to prepare canvassers for 20 days of knocking on doors.
At the same time a teaser campaign began with the simple slogan "now your wish will prevail" airing on radio and featuring on billboards and inserts. A second phase of the campaign led with the mildly less enigmatic slogan "Bhaskar is coming to know your wish."
In the meantime those 800,000 households were each visited three times: firstly to ask what kind of newspaper they would like to have, secondly to find what they did or didn't like in their old paper, and thirdly to be shown a dummy and an order form for a three-month subscription.
What they found was that people wanted local news rather than national or international news; family reading; and better business coverage (Gujaratis are known for business acumen). The answer to that was a daily supplement featuring women, children, etc.
The fact that adverts dominated the front page of existing papers also turned out to be unpopular and so was avoided. There were cultural issues for the editors and journalists, not least 'unlearning' the idea that only major political news constitutes the big story. It also transpired that readers wanted 'spicy' language – fun but not frivolous.
And the result? A simultaneous launch in four cities saw the paper take over as number one in all of them with a combined circulation of 1.15 million copies. That increased the readership base by 50 per cent, a massive leap with the unexpected knock-on effect of increasing readership even for the competition.
Audience focus: developing content for mobile services
Henrik Pålsson, VP and Head of Consumer & Enterprise Lab, Ericsson, Sweden
Ericsson's ConsumerLab is the point where an intensely engineering-focused company comes into contact with the world of the people it serves, and, as Pålsson pointed out, those engineering ideas may be great, but they are nothing if they fail to connect with the aspirations and everyday lives of consumers. His job is to feed his organization with the insights of the consumer perspective, to see things from the other side, and above all to involve the consumer in decisions – all of them growing concerns for media companies trying to come to terms with changing consumer behaviour.
The problem is that while some consumers know what they're going to be doing in 12 months' time, most live for today. Ericsson's reply is to analyze, then design, then most critically to follow through and find out how the consumers react, because while they prove happy to take the products, their use of them is often not what engineers expected. The earlier consumers are involved in the process, the more likely the project is to succeed.
The other key to success is to look beyond simple demographics and not to lump together different consumer groups because they are perceived to be the same. Fifteen-year-olds and 18-year-olds, for example, may both be teenagers but they are hugely different. Today's 15-year-olds are much more focused on consuming media on their phones than are their 18-year-old counterparts. Pålsson also warns against placing too much emphasis on teenagers, because the 25-to-35 year-old group turns out to have a great deal more power when it comes to influencing people both younger and older than themselves. Word of mouth is the most powerful driver there is, and the internet has vastly accelerated that.
Finally, when taking questions, Pålsson observed that of all the teenagers in focus groups in Sweden he knows none for whom paper is an important medium, and he doesn't see that changing as they reach their 20s. In a reference to the Long Tail theory he noted that paper has its place in the long tail part of the equation (i.e. dealing with niche interests) but doesn't see its future as being in the head (mass consumption).
Afternoon session
Convergence on a hyper-local level
Skip Foster, Editor, Shelby Star, USA
Skip Foster is the editor who has 'blown up his newsroom', according to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, and since he famously describes the paragraph as a 'dinosaur', it's perhaps not too much of a surprise to find that today he goes a step further and announces its death.
The reason for the Shelby Star's newsroom explosion is that the parent company, Freedom Communications Inc., chose it as a test site for innovation and so, with the help of Newsplex, the local paper (30 minutes west of Charlotte in the Piedmont region of North Carolina) with a 15,000 daily circulation acquired an 'I-team' and took on some very big aims. The three key goals were:
- To go multimedia - "because people want to experience the news, not just consume it";
- To overhaul the print version; and
- To serve new customers with targeted products.
Print and web were fused with interactive folks ("though we got to stop referring to them as that") moved into the newsroom and a very online approach - "the paragraph is dead" - equally applied to the paper version. In practice that meant that traditional writing style was reserved for stories with a strong narrative element ("yarns") while reducing information-based stories to a 'digest' form of 'why, what, where, why?'.
Journalists were told that they were all, in effect, multimedia journalists now, and cell phone cameras, amateur, and surveillance video were all pressed into service. Notable scoops included a surveillance video of a robbery in progress, a to-camera confession after a high-speed chase, and even front-page pictures straight from mobile phones. In a grim but highly relevant aside, Foster added the tale of a local boy studying at the university in Virginia now famous for the student killings. In a self-recorded podcast that local told of how sleeping in had prevented him from finding himself in the firing line -- potent and poignant material for a small local paper.
And the first year results?
- shelbystar.com page views up 84 per cent - 22.1 million
- 1,804 reader-submitted photos
- 451 registered content contributors
- 1,701 breaking news subscribers
- 3,300 requested message board users (in a town of 27, 000)
- 5,260 average number of video downloads per week
While concluding that they had yet to turn a profit from the online/multimedia presence and that he himself had 'flown coach' to Paris, Foster found it unlikely that the print version of the paper would be the dominating form in the long term.
Print, online, TV - all are equally important at NT!
Bengt Engwall, Head of Editorial Development, Norrköpings Tidningar (NT), Sweden
"Can a local newspaper build up a television station and make it a success both outside and inside the company? Yes," according to Bengt Engwall.
In 1998 Norrköpings Tidningar decided to evolve from a newspaper company to a media house to better reflect media usage patterns and advertising trends. The goals were to intensify the activities on the Internet and to start a local television station as soon as new technology made it cheap enough.
That moment came in October last year, when the 250-year-old paper became the first local newspaper in Sweden to launch a local TV channel: 24nt.
Key to this was the formation of a new media department – Teknomedia – and the adoption of a technique called 'TV when you have time' pioneered by Danish newspaper Nordjyske.
The result is a rolling broadcast 24 hours a day, with a 20-minute format consisting of news, one six-minute programme, weather, and two one-minute commercials. A total staff of 13 take care of it, mostly hired from commercial TV. Interestingly while web/print integration had proved troublesome, the integration of TV worked well, which was ascribed to a number of factors:
- The 10-year web struggle had paved the way for the television project.
- The television station was such a big and well-prepared project that it became THE major issue in the company.
- New management with clear assignments.
- All three channels – television, newspaper and the web - were declared equally important. The newspaper doesn't have monopoly on publishing first.
- The television staff was placed in the newspaper newsroom and the television editors at the desk placed together with the news editors for the paper and the web.
- Television - unlike the web - is not really a new medium.
- Television stimulates your ego. It's easy to fall in love with the camera.
- The television channel is run by professionals, and the newspaper journalists are not forced to work with television (but so far 30 of the 70 newspaper journalists have participated in television).
- And last, but not least: massive education.
Only six months after the launch, the reach of 24nt is 49 per cent of the people in Norrköping. And that's through cable only. Seventy percent of the persons in households with cable TV watch 24nt 1.6 times a day. The channel is expecting permission to broadcast on air to the rest of the population later this year, a reach which is, naturally, very positive for ad sales, with TV sold as stand-alone and in packages together with the newspaper and the web.
Convergent newsroom strategy at the Daily Telegraph
William Lewis, Editor, The Telegraph Media Group, U.K.
William Lewis is no stranger to rapid changes, having advanced from business editor to joint deputy editor and from there to becoming one of the youngest editors of a national paper -- all in the space of around a year and a half. On the way he was made managing director (editorial) with responsibility for an office move from Canary Wharf to Victoria and a whole new editorial direction with greater emphasis on the Internet. Pausing only momentarily to draw breath after that, he addressed the summit "not to preach, but to share experiences".
Before creating the Telegraph's converged newsroom, the first issue to be addressed was getting recognition of the need for change from senior managers. Evidence of the changing patterns of advertising revenue and media usage helped sway managers, but the key was instilling a sense of urgency that if the paper didn't become platform-agnostic and make a move now, then it would get left behind.
The owners agreed, but with the stipulation that the print version itself had to maintain quality (or improve) while keeping a close eye on costs.
There followed an audit of how the paper was currently produced, which revealed that really it was a collection of mini-papers, with each department convinced that it couldn't work the same way as any other. It also became clear that up to 40 people could affect a piece of copy before it went to print, which made it hard to either blame or congratulate individuals.
A core team was formed of people intent on change but previously unempowered to implement it and they were moved off site (the entire paper was due to move to a new location) to act as a pilot. Dummy web sites and video were produced, different seating locations tried out, and every day pages were sent to proof to see what level of mistakes were made compared to the real edition. It started badly, but got better.
One revelation was that whereas Lewis expected it to be the young who led the way, he found that better results came from senior journalists -- when offered the right training. Another lesson was that "you can't communicate enough in a project like this; you may not agree or like what we're doing but you can ask any questions and we will let you know what we're doing".
By studying the peaks of data demand during the day, they overcame the initial problem of a lack of hard deadlines in the online world by fixing them based on consumer demand.
The first section to make the move was business. It started out with the new way of working, including a 'hub and spoke' seating arrangement with everyone in sight of each other, in stark contrast to the old 'offices and closed doors' tradition at the paper. The fact that the business section appeared as usual went a long way to reassuring the rest of the paper and proved that:
- seating people differently works;
- core team commitment was essential;
- training was a key change agent;
- workflow changes are essential to enable the move towards a multi-media future;and
- communication is essential – widely and often.
And the feedback? Lewis notes that at first the response from staff was typically defensive, but with the entire move completed and a buzzing multimedia news room in place, the feeling now is "tremendously positive".
The information center -- the convergence strategy of Gannett
Michael Maness, VP of Strategic Planning, Gannett, USA
With 85 daily newspapers including USA Today, 22 broadcast stations in the U.S., and more than 300 dailies and weeklies in the U.K. Gannett is a giant of the business -- so when it announces that it is replacing 'newsrooms' with 'information centers' it is time to take note.
Michael Maness typified the whole process as accommodating the move from customers taking a 'lean back' approach to absorbing information to a 'lean forwards' approach of interacting with it and generating material. Most tellingly, he pointed to the digital music business as proof that where industries are slow to react to consumer demand, piracy fills the breach – the implication being that established media must move fast or be pushed aside by usurpers.
While the new system features a significant amount of user-generated content, Gannett avoids the terms 'network journalism' or 'citizen journalism', preferring to refer to a 'Pro/Am' approach where professionals and amateurs mix democratically. The approach was founded on the following:
"- Strong watchdog function across all platforms (although communities proved largely self-policing);
- Vital local effort that reconnects to our communities (hyperlocal);
- Data that includes rich calendar listings and high utility for customers;
- Community conversation that moves us to the center of local dialogue;
- Custom content that responds to customer need and targets key demographic groups;
- Multimedia that evolves our coverage to include the new tools of video and audio; and
- A digital nerve center that accelerates our speed and volume of news postings."
The converged approach was tested with three newspapers initially -- one each small, medium and large -- and the principles of the process were:
- Pro/Am
- ask, don't say
- listen, don't tell
- raw is good
- screens will rule
- microchunk – squeeze information down to easily digested servings
- tasks before culture – culture will adapt if tasks are properly addressed
- polylogue – moving from monologue to multiple community dialogues
- the experience matters; watch the lean forward and how easy is it to use, etc.
- constraints actually help
All of Gannett's newspapers will be information centers by 1 May -- there will be no 'newsrooms' two weeks from now.
There was resistance in some areas but the fact that the test sites grew 40 per cent faster than the others made a forceful argument and editor's forums proved an effective way of spreading the word and sharing the experience.
> To the summaries of Day 2
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