© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Media EvolutionAdapting to the challenge

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

David Brewer's guest lecture for Ukrainian journalists in KyivNov 16-17, 2009 

 Organized by Internews Ukraine and the European Journalist Center

within Medianext, a New media Initiative for Ukraine 

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Media Evolution

Changing audience behaviour

The broadcast/publish at model

Traditional model

The engage with model

The participate in model

The participate in model

Nine hours looking at a screen

Only 1.5 of those hours are TV

Remainder computer, games and mobile devices.

Changing audience behaviour

Snacking on rumourFeeding on fact

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Following the audience

Engaging and embrace

Gate crashing the party

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Creating a content factory

Platform neutral

What can media offer?

Sources

Planning Editor

Interactive Editor

Intake Editor

Resources Manager

Newsroom Secretary

TV Editor

Intake & Output

All key editorial

decisions are taken

here

Radio Editor

Print Editor

Sources

PlanningEditor

I/AEditor

IntakeEditor

ResourcesManager

SecretaryTV

Editor

Intake & Output

Work FlowOut to production

teams

All editorial decisions

made here

Production

TV

Print

Radio

InteractiveRadioEditor

PrintEditor

Work FlowBack to Super desk

Output

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Roles and responsibilities

Who does what and why

• The eyes and ears of the news organisation

• Alerts all to external sources

• Monitors competition

Intake editor

• Quality control of all output

• Defender of the brand's reputation

• Accuracy, impartiality, balance, fairness and truth

Output editor

• Owns the forward planning schedule

• Ensures stories are followed up responsibly

Forward planning editor

• Ensures there is no duplication of effort

• Manages all resources for maximum impact.

Resources manager

PlanningEditor

I/AEditor

IntakeEditor

ResourcesManager

Secretary

TVEditor

Intake & Output

All editorial decisions

made here

RadioEditor

PrintEditor

The challenge

• Reaching new audiences• With a compelling content offering• Dealing with their concerns• Respecting the values they hold dear• Created from existing resources• Delivered to every platform/device• In a way that generates revenue.

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Creating an online offering

From existing resources

Website measurements

Bounce

Website measurements

Churn

Website measurements

Retention

Website measurements

Dwell

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Minimalist high-impact offering

Less is more

Media Business

EditorialProposition

TargetAudience

Sales&

Marketing

Values

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

A minimalist website

Important

• Not all stories need to go online

• Offer a minimalist but rich offering of only the top stories and features

• Don’t try to do everything

• Start small and grow

• It’s all about sustainability.

Workflow

• Morning meeting decides top stories for web based on

–Target audience–Ability to add value–Opportunity for interactivity–Possibility of video

Work out a daily quota

• One top story

• Three secondary stories

• One feature

• One poll or vote

• Think value to the audience, shelf-life and whether the story makes excellent reference material.

Weekend cover

• Small staff, perhaps just one

• Only the top story

• No video

• No clips

• No features

• A look back at the week’s top stories and a look ahead to events coming up.

Work out a daily quota

• Work ‘as live’ for two weeks but do not display to the public

• When the systems prove to work, the quality is good and the workflow is sustainable, make it visible to the public

After two weeks

Work out a daily quota

• Remember, if you launch this way the stories you choose to do must

– Have a long shelf-life

– Be stories you would want to archive

– Likely to be revisited and referenced in future

Story 1

Story 2 Story 3 Story 4

Question of the day

Call to actionInteractivityVote or Poll

Video of day

Keep it simple

End of 2009 = 25m active users

End of 2010 = 100m active users

End of 2013 = 1bn active users

Wired Magazine November 2009

Influence

find more followers

make a few more friends

engage others in conversation

get others to engage you in conversation

write more frequently

convey more "signal" in your updates

Signal

References to other people - use of "@" followed by text

Links to URLs you can visit

Hashtags - "#" followed by text

Retweets of other people, - the use of "rt", "r/t/", "retweet" or "via“

Generosity

“Astonishingly high" based on retweeting other people 54 times in the last seven days.

Velocity

“Low" based on your publishing 81 updates in the last seven days.

Clout

“Very low" based on your being cited 90 times in the last seven days.

© Media Ideas International Ltd 2009

Changing audience behaviour

Adapting to the challenge

Sources

PlanningEditor

I/AEditor

IntakeEditor

ResourcesManager

SecretaryTV

Editor

Intake & Output

Work FlowOut to production

teams

All editorial decisions

made here

Production

TV

Print

Radio

InteractiveRadioEditor

PrintEditor

Work FlowBack to Super desk

Output

Story 1

Story 2 Story 3 Story 4

Question of the day

Call to actionInteractivityVote or Poll

Video of day

Keep it simple

The participate in model

Final thoughts

• Is there a middle ground yet to be populated• Making sense of the noise• Structured and focused• Issue-led, people-focussed journalism• That informs the public debate• So that people make educated choices

Contact details

Media Helping Media & Media Ideas International Ltd

• David Brewer runs Media Helping Media www.mediahelpingmedia.org to help media in transition and post-conflict countries and areas where freedom of expression is threatened.

• His business site is Media Ideas International www.mediaideas.co.uk• He tweets @helpingmedia and @mediaidas.

MediaNext• MediaNext has a blog on LiveJournal - medianext_ua• And is on Twitter - @medianext_ua