Multimedia and Hyperlocal Newsrooms:Future of News

Multimedia and Hyperlocal Newsrooms: The Future of News

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is organising two study tours in September and October to the most successful European multimedia newsrooms, and to a new ³hyperlocal² news initiative in the Czech Republic that is already drawing the attention of publishers everywhere.

The Prague study tour, on 29 and 30 September next, will examine the Nase Adresa business model, which is providing a new frontier for the newspaper industry. Nase Adresa (or Our Address), owned by PPF Media, is publishing editions that are exclusive to areas of 30,000 inhabitants or less, and are feeding their own hyperlocal web pages. The Prague project is interesting for several reasons, but perhaps the most distinctive is that local reporting teams are based in ³newscafés², or Internet bistros where they interact with readers and potential sources.

All Nase Adresa¹s seven editions have quickly become the best selling newspapers in their markets; the goal is to publish 200 different ³hyperlocal² weeklies in the Czech Republic in the next three years.

³What is interesting is that new business models are emerging from the periphery of Europe. Regional newspapers will have to reinvent their traditional business model, and this PPF Media initiative is anticipating the 21st century newspaper industry,² said Bertrand Pecquerie, Director of the World Editors Forum."

Full details of the study tour, organised by the World Editors Forum, can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/wef/studytours.php

The Multimedia Newsrooms in Europe study tour, from 4 to 10 October, will visit some of the world¹s most successful multimedia newsrooms in London, Oslo, Berlin and Vienna, including The Daily Telegraph in London, Aftenposten and VG Multimedia in Oslo, WELT Gruppe and BILD in Berlin and Die Presse in Vienna.

³In the last few years, a number of publishing houses have substantially reorganised their editorial operations. Europe has been at the forefront of this development, and we can see many successful transformations of former traditional print-focused editorial departments into modern media houses, which utilise modern platforms and formats to distribute their content and communicate with their audience,² said Dietmar Schantin, Head of the WAN-IFRA Business Unit for Editorial, Advertising and General Management.

³It is a long and difficult process, but there is no other way to meet the challenges of the markets,² he said. ³Different concepts have been developed and implemented and there is no recipe that fits every operation. Learning from others is crucial to get through the change process with more confidence².

The goal of the tour is to allow participants ¬ CEOs, managing directors, editors-in-chief and other top news executives ¬ to learn from their colleagues who have successfully integrated video, mobile, print, social networks and communities into their newsrooms. A discounted ³early bird² registration fee is available until 28 August.

Full details of the tour, which is supported by the Newsplex newsroom strategy development facility (http://www.ifra.com/newsplex ) can be found at www.ifra.com/studytours

Topics on the Multimedia Newsroom Study Tour include:

- Trends, innovations and strategies in multimedia newsrooms;

- The role of user generated content in multimedia convergence;

- The importance of staff training on the way to a multimedia operation;

- Attracting new audiences and strengthening reader relationships through multimedia;

- Increasing revenues and attracting the young through mobile marketing;

- Video as part of a multimedia production;

- Hyperlocal and multimedia;

- New technologies at work.

In the Czech hyperlocal news project to be examined on the hyperlocal news study tour, the local teams are supported by a state-of-the-art designed central newsroom, the Futuroom, which provides access to experts and equipment for multimedia production, and enriches ³hyperlocal² articles with elements of national and international news. Editors and media executives are offered expertise provided by PPF Media and its partners Google, the World Editors Forum and Atex.

More about Nase Adresa can be read in:

The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/technology/internet/11iht-papers.html?_r=1 &scp=2&sq=roman%20gallo&st=cse

The Times of London at http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/articl e6433179.ece

The Editorsweblog at http://www.editorsweblog.org/analysis/2009/05/nase_adresa.php

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world¹s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. The organisation was created by the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry.

The World Editors Forum (http://www.worldeditorsforum.org ) is the organisation within WAN-IFRA that represents editors-in-chief and other senior news executives.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, WAN-IFRA, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org

ENDS

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