Challenges for newspaper editorial in 2008

In 2006 and 2007 many things have changed in the newsrooms around the world. After years of thinking and talking about the “digital challenge”, online, mobile, audio, video and communities were finally taken seriously by many of the publishers and editors around the globe. In some areas this happend earlier, e.g. In some part of the USA, UK, the Nordic region or Asia, in some areas the “shot was heard” little later. However, as a consequence, concrete measures were finally taken and multiple media strategies with products and services that use the available channels and utilise new formats were developed and formulated, even sometimes not very thoroughly.

The new strategies lead to a variety of new, not typical newspaper offerings such as Webvideo and webTV, Podcasting, communities and social networks and mobile services. Looking for instance at Germany, a dramatic increase of digital offerings with new formats on websites and features in the print edition could be observed: Compared to 2006, the amount of video content and podcast offerings in Germany as doubled, statistics about most-read articles is displayed on four times more sites than in 2006 and Welt kompakt offers so called Quick-Response codes in the newspaper, that allows the reader to jump to articles on the website with his mobile by simply taking a picture of the code.

Internally the development on the product side required quite considerable changes in terms of new thinking and a new organisation, infrastructure and technologies and skills. Newsroom layouts were rearranged, specialist for new and digital media were hired, new systems that support multiple media publishing, were purchased and print editorial received training so that they could provide a certain content quality outside the “paper box”.

In Europe the Telegraph Media Group became a orientation boye not only for UK newspaper publishers for a media integrated media house and started recently TelegraphTV. The Financial Times UK brought print and online much closer together and produce video content for their target audience. In Australia the Fairfax group with the Sydney Morning Herald and the The Age in Melbourne presented their concepts of a multiple media newsroom and the Axel Springer Verlag in Germany even integrated not only different media but also three different titles in one newsdesk environment. The Gannett group in the US started a group-wide reorganisation initiative and in South Africa the Sunday Herald also presented their new newsroom that works across the different channels.

Regional and local papers were also very active: Examples for Europe are the the Northcliffe Media group in UK who launched the reorganisation of the first three newsroom to migrate into a multiple media publishing operation and the Manchester Evening News, who moved into a new building and operate newspaper, online and a broadcasting station from a Newshub. In Germany the Koelner Stadtanzeiger and the Suedkurier connect online closely to the print operation and expanded their product offerings.

There many more examples around the world and there is clear evidence that this development will continue. More publishers and editors will realise that not to implement substantial change is not an option anymore and that embracing the digital media is a huge opportunity for journalism and their newsrooms.

For those who have already done the first step, i.e changing the way of thinking and working in the editorial operation, also 2008 has a lot of challenges, or better: offers a lot of opportunities.

Firstly, content and journalistic quality on digital media will become more important. The audience puts up with poor quality only a certain amount of time and grants the beginners mistakes and clumsy trials. Now, after experimenting especially with audio and video, it is time now to recall the quality standards that make newspaper editorial products different to other media. For instance, quite a lot of video content that is published on newspaper websites, to put it nicely, could benefit from improvement. Poor selection of suitable topics, poor meshing-up and integration with print and online content as well as lack of shooting, visual grammar, recording and production skills can jeopardize in the long run the editorial reputation and newspaper brand.

It should not be about achieving technically perfect audio and video material in high end broadcast quality, it’s more about finding the right stories and the right angle to stories that where audio or video can enrich the that written story with stills in the paper and online. If of course a newspaper publishing house does Television rather than video on the web, then certain “broadcast standards” in the sense of presentation and production quality apply.

The second focal point should be the monetisation of the multiple media editorial offerings. It is imperative that the commercial units buy fully into the new world of print and digital opportunities, especially since the editorial products and services attract a constantly increasing amount of people on the digital channels.

Of course, the main advertising revenues will still come for a foreseeable future from advertising in the printed edition, no doubt about that. But that does not necessarily mean that the digital platforms should be neglected. It is not news that the audience / consumers spend more time are in the digital space and that consequently the advertisers want to be where their consumers are. If the newspaper can’t offer an attractive package across print and digital and take full advantage of the editorial content then the danger arises that the advertisers don’t perceive the newspaper as a competent advertising partner anymore.

Taking over responsibility by building clever campaigns and conceiving innovative communication packages with a clear understanding of the needs also of the consumer and by using the whole print and digital portfolio increase the value for the advertiser.

The third focus area is a strategic performance management of the entire staff in the publishing houses. The changes have put and will put a huge pressure on the people. More uncertainties, new demands on flexibility and skills, new roles and responsibilities and new way of working require a comprehensive support for the staff by the management.

Unfortunately, the importance of this aspect of management is still underestimated and therefore very often underdeveloped. Publishers, who are still in the thinking and planing phase need to make people understand why the change is important and in what direction the change will go as well as trying to generate a positive perception of the change. Publishers, who have already started to implement new products and services, new workflows and structures and new technologies, need to double check if their staff is well enough trained to produce the products and services on the level of quality that is required.

The focus on quality standards, generating revenues out of the new products and services and bringing the people up to speed quickly to deliver the quality that is required to generate revenues are only three challenges that need to be tackled in 2008 and beyond, and the are closely connected.

My view on cross-media communication for newspapers

Trends in the worldwide media industry have clearly shown that in order to guarantee long-term success with the audience in the future, it will be vital to change from a single product-oriented to a multimedia, content and user-oriented approach. Newspaper publishing houses will be most successful if they are in a position to distribute their content in a synchronised manner via different media and guide their audience from one medium to the next in order to generate brand loyalty. The co-ordinated and cross utilisation of print products, online and mobile services as well as the use of radio and TV technologies (such as podcasting and videostreaming) enable a newspaper publishing house to make contact with its audience in a comprehensive and cross-media way. As a result the newspaper publishing house will be able to satisfy their audience’s information and service requirements. For this, it is important that the individual media should mutually support one another, for example by cross-referencing. It is also important that content should not simply be copied and transferred to a different medium, but that they should complement each other and offer an additional use.

To realise this basic concept, major changes in the way of thinking in newspaper newsrooms are necessary. This starts with understanding of the print edition as part of a larger communication package that makes best possible use of the strengths of media with regard to speed, interactivity, local presence, individuality and storage capacity. Take, for example, mobile, online and print media. Here it is possible to describe a communication process that binds the audience to the brand of the print product and leads them from one medium to the next.

Obviously, mobile telephones are especially well suited for transmitting brief messages and contents to defined receivers (e.g. subscribers) directly and independent of their whereabouts. The possibility of the receiver to react equally quickly and send a message to the newspaper (voting, queries, a photo, etc.), can be the beginning of communication in the sense of a mutual exchange of information. The nature of the printed newspaper means it is less suited for this type of communication mainly because of a lack of speed and interactivity.

On the other hand the online medium has strengths in relation to speed and interactivity. Although at present the flexibility of location does not, as yet, match that of mobile phones, online is destined to change rapidly with the development of mobile receivers. One significant advantage compared to mobile phones is the available storage capacity that is almost unlimited. Also, the transmission of multimedia contents, such as audio files and above all video files, is technically simpler due to the available transmission bandwidths, at least for as long as the mobile networks do not offer high bandwidths.

Online therefore seems well suited for a next step in the communication process, namely the high-speed transmission of large data volumes of information including photos, videos and audio elements as well as extended possibilities for motivating the receiver to interact (blogs, forum, voting, etc.). Here also, the print product continues to lag behind; limited storage capacity, i.e. number of pages, and the absence of a possibility to transport motion images and sound, limit the suitability. However, the ongoing development of ePaper and e-ink respectively, will soon eliminate these limitations.

So where can the print product apply its strengths in this example of a communication process? What are the strengths of the print product compared to the aforementioned media? These strengths include the very simple method of consumption without the use of electronic devices; trust in the newspaper brand and in the printed word, the greater capacity of people to absorb printed information as well as the reading experience itself. These factors ensure that the information which is printed on a non-electronic medium have and will continue to have a fixed place in the communication process. Additionally the content contributed by the public via other media can constitute an important part of the printed edition (e.g. user-generated content or citizen journalism).

Generating brand loyalty by means of the synchronised and co-ordinated use of the individual media enables newspaper publishing houses to increase their total reach among consumers and therefore also remain attractive as an advertising medium.