When COVID-19 hit, forcing lockdowns and a scary fall-off in advertising, needs-driven digital transformation happened overnight. A newfound trust in digital talent in the newsroom was born and with it, a willingness to experiment. Fortuitously for 11 mid-sized organisations from Asia Pacific, when COVID-19 hit, they were ready to think through issues of change as participants of the five-month WAN-IFRA-World Editors Forum Newsroom and Business Transformation 2020 Programme, supported by the Facebook Journalism Project.
COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the shift from print and advertising revenue towards digital and subscription-based revenue.
As newsroom digital transformation enters a more intensive reader-centric phase and revenue sources continue to be disrupted, newsroom leaders need to develop new editorial visions, find ways to engage their audiences and attract new readers and re-organise their newsrooms to deliver on new strategies.
Amid the pandemic that has crippled global economies and is threatening the future of the media industry, 10 news media companies (Bisnis Indonesia, Kompas Media, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Sin Chew Daily, Singapore Press Holdings, Bangkok Post, The Edge, The Jakarta Post, United Daily News Group) from six Asian cities have embarked on an inaugural WAN-IFRA programme led by Grzegorz Piechota (media researcher and consultant) and George Brock (Visiting Professor of Practice, Cass Business School, City, University of London).
While the news industry is witnessing crushing commercial pressures linked to the global pandemic, it is also seeing an extraordinary spike in the demand for good journalism. Here are 10 things publishers must remember as they think their way through the next few years.
Already a member? Log in to the WAN-IFRA Knowledge Hub to access this report. (link to https://www.wan-