Debate continues over the lowering of publication standards within mainstream media newsrooms, as coverage of the MH17 catastrophe and the war in Gaza are illustrated by shockingly graphic images. Is the creeping influence of social media partly to blame for the shift? And what are the potential impacts? World Editors Forum and WAN-IFRA Research Fellow Julie Posetti considers the issues.
“I do not think journalists take their basic mobile and data security seriously enough,” Director of the International News Safety Institute, Hannah Storm, told the World Editors Forum: “It seems to be over the last six months there has been a greater number or almost a greater excuse for people to say ‘Let’s target the journalist,’” she said. So, how can journalists better protect themselves from cyber attack? Lucy Dean and Krysten Dawes report.
Marcos Foglia is Argentina’s digital whizz-kid at Artear, Clarín’s TV enterprise, and he has news for the media industry: “Traditional companies have to give power to the digital arena.” If they don’t do so now, he warns, it will be very difficult later.
“You barely think of video as a separate thing anymore, it’s just a way of telling a story,” incoming Editor-in-Chief of TheGuardian.com, Janine Gibson told the World Editors Forum. Douglas Grant reports on the rise of online video news and the challenges of making it profitable in this sixth instalment in our Trends in Newsrooms series.
Mobile has changed how, when, where, and why we access content. If our development process neglects this paradigm shift, then our customers will make their voice heard in the worst way. UX design seeks to fix this, but to call it a new practice all together is disingenuous. My definition of UX doesn’t rest at the claim that mobile is different than desktop, instead I place importance on finding out when those differences matter.
Digital megastories are heading back to the future with a growing trend in interactive online reports inspired by historical data. Sydney Pead reports on the most recent retrospective stories and upcoming collaborations that will explore the past.
Russian media tycoons Alexander and Yevgeny Lebedev have invested £100 million into the London Evening Standard and Independent titles, while launching the fledgling hyper-local TV station, London Live. And the investment is paying off, according to financial reports released late last month, with the shift to a ‘free and cheap’ business model, in combination with sharp cost-cutting, causing losses to be slashed.
“The new blood [in our newsroom] is coming from the J-schools in the US. We almost exclusively hire J-school graduates.” That was the encouraging message for journalism students from Editor in Chief of USA Today, David Callaway, during a World Editors Forum panel on newsroom innovation in Turin last month.
The announcement of the new members of the Color Quality Club was awaited with great anticipation. The list of winners includes many “old friends” who have already secured their place in the Star Club, alongside a series of new names who join the ranks of the winners for the first time.
Who is your audience? Is your content actually reaching your audiences? How are they engaging with your content? And what impact is your journalism really having? These are the questions individual journalists are now being encouraged to respond to as newsrooms realise that stories no longer end when the author hits “publish.”
Affordable rent and the cool vibe of Berlin make the capital of Germany a top destination for European startups. After the success of our startup tour at last year’s World Publishing Expo 2013, we hooked up again with local experts Kindai Projects to explore the German startup landscape and visit two truly innovative newsrooms. Editors-in-chief from Norway, Switzerland and The Netherlands joined us on the journey.
A Newsquest-owned Scottish regional daily claims to have more than 10,000 paying subscribers to its metered-paywall site. Separately, the editor of the U.K.’s largest-selling regional paper says a metered paywall is the best business model for newspaper websites.