Small news organisations, eager to offer their audience a wider choice of news, can now take advantage of a free international wires service currently syndicating in 90 languages.

Open Newswire is a feed of news, current affairs, and magazine articles written by professional journalists from around the world which editors can republish in their own news organisation’s output – subject to the conditions of various Creative Commons licences or similar public domain guidelines.

Benefits

There are several benefits for news organisations who use the service and those who contribute to the service.

• Small newsrooms can enhance their content offering and attract more page views with quality content for no charge.
• Newsrooms can reach a wider audience when their content is syndicated.
• If a news organisation, big or small, publishes content under certain Creative Commons or Public Domain licences (which require a link back to the original source) it has the potential benefit of return traffic.

How it works

A continuously updated list of news feeds can be filtered by language so that editors can browse through stories relevant to their audience.

They then select the story to copy taste, and, if they feel the article would be beneficial to their audience they can publish the piece in their own newsroom content management system so that it has the look and feel of the rest of their output.

Alongside each item in the feed is a link to the various licence conditions. All the editor needs to do is check those conditions and comply. Once those conditions are met the editor is free to publish.

Creative Commons and public domain

Some Creative Commons licences might allow the article to be edited, others might not. This is usually indicated by the letters ND (No Derivatives), which means you can use the content but are not allowed to alter it. Others might include the letters BY (who it is by) which means you must attribute the original creator of the work. Some articles have other conditions – which are all set out alongside the particular news story so that editors can be sure they comply with the terms and conditions.

The Open Newswire blog has a helpful page explaining what the different licences mean. There is also a link to easy to follow rules about the attribution of photographs.

Open Newswire is non-commercial and entirely self-funded by Australian journalist Zac Crellin – who posts updates on Mastodon and Twitter. He says the goal is not about making money, but about sharing content in order to “help small newsrooms all over the world that can’t afford a subscription” to the main news aggregators.

The post Content sharing for the benefit of all first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Is your news organisation and its output male dominated? Are women fairly represented in newsroom leadership roles and the stories covered? Do your staff and your news agenda reflect the society they serve?

A 12-point plan containing “substantive opportunities to reshape the status quo” and improve the representation and voices of women in the global news industry was published in November 2022. We look at the steps suggested and examine the possible consequences.

The report Outrage to Opportunity looks at the representation of women in newsrooms in India, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.

Luba Kassova, the report’s author, says in-depth interviews with more than 40 senior editors in the six countries revealed two areas of concern:

• The “underrepresentation” of women in news leadership roles.
• The “invisibility” of women in news coverage.

Kassova’s research revealed a “cultural exclusion” of women in news leadership roles and found that the voices of women “remain muted in a global news industry”.

However the study also recognises that progress is being made. It looks at 168 existing initiatives which aim to improve women’s representation or inclusion in news.

And it identifies practical steps that could be taken to “include the missing perspectives of women of all colours in news leadership and coverage”.

The report says that taking these steps could open up significant business opportunities and that “global revenues in the newspaper industry would increase by a cumulative $11bn by 2027 and $38 billion by 2032“.

This article looks at those 12 practical steps that could be taken by news organisations. They are listed below with the author’s permission.

The 282-page document – embedded at the foot of this article – sets out three areas which the author says “requires the news industry’s urgent attention”.

1: Inclusion

The report found that women are still on the margins of editorial decision-making in the highest-profile news areas. In the major journalistic specialisms such as business, politics, and foreign affairs, women hold as few as one in six editorial roles in the countries researched. Occasional instances of parity, for example South African political editors or US business editors, are counterbalanced by exclusively male leadership in political editor roles in countries such as Kenya and India.

2: Race

According to the report, women news leaders are subject to marginalisation in countries with multi-racial populations such as South Africa, the UK, and the US. This, the report says, is a news industry “blind spot”. In the countries examined their representation is significantly below their proportion in the working population. Kassova says that when interviewed, news leadership teams are either unaware, reactive, push back, or turn a blind eye to the problem.

3: Coverage

The report says the coverage of issues that affect women is disproportionate. Just 0.02% of news coverage globally focuses on the gaps between men and women in pay, power, safety, authority, confidence, health, and ageism. According to the report:

“Just having women in many leadership positions is not the only solution. You need women’s voices to be heard, and, when women are in leadership positions, for them to be in meaningful positions.”

Steps to be taken

The report outlines 12 solutions for:

“changing the status quo and improving women’s representation and inclusion in news leadership and creating a more balanced and inclusive news coverage that engages more female and racially-diverse audiences”.

News sector level 

1. Consolidate efforts at an industry level to enhance progress 

• Set up a body that unifies all working in this area under the umbrella of the gender equity cause.
• Nonprofits and associations working to improve women’s position in news should collaborate more and compete less.
• Develop industry-wide initiatives that aim to understand women audiences.

News organisational level

2. Conduct a comprehensive gender diversity audit across all elements of the news operation

• Carry out an audit of the existing gender balance and news initiatives for women along all the elements of the value chain.

3. Make the gender diversity strategy explicit

• Agree the goal to pursue gender balance in your news organisation and coverage and make it explicit in the organisation’s strategy.

News leadership level

4. Improve the representation of all women

• Raise awareness that male-favouring norms prevail in society and in journalism.
• Be intentional about change at all levels within your news organisation by setting targets and measuring representation continuously along the whole news value chain.
• Challenge the persistent soft vs. hard news gender stereotyping that keeps women out of editorial roles in high-profile areas such as politics, economics, and foreign affairs.
• Develop talent retention programmes, especially for mid-level managers.

5. Improve specifically the representation of women of colour

• Measure women’s representation to understand the role of race and ethnicity when overlaid onto gender.
• Review recruitment and retention processes to accommodate diverse talent.
• Establish and measure targets for representation and inclusion of women of colour.

6. Improve the inclusion of all women in decision-making

• Ensure everyone understands that a more diverse team does not automatically translate into inclusive decision making.
• Consciously tone down the competitive win-lose journalistic values inside the newsroom to create a more empathetic culture.
• Encourage support groups for women, with men on board.
• Use employee engagement surveys to measure employees’ and leaders’ perceived inclusion.
• Set up initiatives that specifically support individual women’s safety and well-being.

7. Improve specifically the inclusion of women of colour in decision making

• Beware of knee-jerk reactions to external trigger events which lead to superficial solutions.
• Educate yourself about the stressful experiences of women of colour in your news organisation.
• When considering a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, bring in experts to run it rather than allocating it to staff with lived experiences but no formalised expertise.
• Do not expect women or ethnic minority groups to lead and resolve their own underrepresentation or exclusion. Offer support.
• If you are a woman of colour, do not take on DEI initiatives if this is too emotionally draining.
• Measure and track the success of DEI initiatives. Establish baselines before the initiatives start.

Newsroom and journalism level

8. Improve the representation and inclusion of women in newsrooms 

• Implement recommendations for gender diversity in the workplace from the “Gender Parity in News Checklist” in ‘The Missing Perspectives of Women in News’ report (p. 166). The two-page checklist is embedded at the foot of this article.

Newsgathering and news coverage

9. Improve the representation of all women

• Focus on circumventing the five main biases in journalism (status quo, male bias leading to gender blindness, short-term outlook, reductive journalism, organisations’ unwillingness to report on themselves).
• Measure the impact of your women-centric journalism.
• Make your newsroom more inclusive and accessible through outreach training.
• Ensure the sustainability of interventions to diversify contributors: keep them simple, get backing from both the top and the grassroots, and, ideally, make them voluntary.

10. Improve storytelling about women of all colours

• Look for story angles that appeal to both women and men.
• Use more micro angles in storytelling, including human stories to make macro stories relevant.
• Increase news coverage of seven gender gaps (power, pay, safety, authority, confidence, health, and ageism), which are wider for people of colour.
• Introduce inclusive storytelling and encompass the perspectives of different communities and audience groups about how a particular story affects them.

11. Improve the portrayal of all women

• Recognise that the portrayal of women of all colours in the news is an industry blind spot.
• Start measuring the use of common gender or racial stereotypes in your news coverage.
• Focus on expertise rather than identity when interviewing women contributors.
• Conduct portrayal analyses to understand how news contributors are portrayed.

News consumption and impact

12. Reframe the case for change to include the business opportunity of serving women audiences 

• Develop a business plan for increasing revenue from women audiences whilst still retaining men’s readership.
• Research and develop women-friendly news products and formats.
• Track women’s engagement and consumption.
• Track the impacts of any new strategy (on finance, brand, individuals, influencers, and decision-makers).

The business case

The report says gender equality in news makes business sense. It claims that if the “addressable gender consumption gap” in the global news industry is closed there could be a potential cumulative revenue opportunity of $43 billion between 2023 and 2027 and $83 billion between 2023 and 2032. See the section of the report covering business opportunities (part 4, chapter 2).

Outrage to Opportunities

The entire 282-page report Outrage to Opportunity is embedded below.

The report was produced by the international audience strategy consultancy AKAS, and published by Internews.

The gender parity in news checklist

This checklist appeared on pages 166 and 167 in the 2020 report by Luba Kassova “The Missing Perspectives of Women in News“. It is republished here with the author’s permission.

The post Ensuring female representation in news leadership and coverage first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The Sustainable Journalism Partnership is a global network of media leaders, journalists and researchers working together to establish how journalism can be made more sustainable and at the same time contribute to a sustainable world.

The following is an attempt to define an ideal practice of sustainable journalism. It is a work in progress — additional remarks are welcome. Hopefully the following bullet points will serve as inspiration if you wish to participate in the development of the concept.

Values

The foundation is built on established ideals, where journalism:

• As its first obligation, demonstrates the presentation of the truth.
• As its first principle, remains loyal to the idea of public interest.
• Is based on fact checking, source verification, and a scientific approach, and stands in contrast to disinformation.
• Functions as an independent monitor of power, maintaining an independence from those reported on.
• Becomes a forum for public criticism and debate.
• Communicates what is significant to citizens in an interesting, relevant, and engaging way.
• Holds those in power to account.

Challenges

Besides these more traditional ideals, the sustainability challenges of our time put even higher demands on journalism; namely that it:

• Is able to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, addressing the overarching challenges of our time — environmental, economic, and social sustainability.
• Is gender-sensitive, inclusive, and conflict-sensitive. Publishing should be the result of a conscious decision related to consequences. However, publishing may well be defendable even if the consequences are undesirable, if the story contains information that the public needs to know to be able to make informed decisions.
• Avoids harmful simplifications, and steers clear of news that is meant to shock rather than inform.
• Is solution-oriented, not only describing problems but also posing questions that point to possible solutions for a future sustainable world.
• Is entrepreneurial, searching for innovative ways to ensure financial independence.
• Openly takes on the driving of positive change by reporting about how climate change already impacts people around the world, including natural disasters and extreme weather.
• Gives space to voices about climate crises, from acknowledged experts and from those affected.
• Reports on innovative initiatives for environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
• Helps users to live sustainably when reporting on issues such as food, travel, and lifestyle.
• Undertakes investigations into the economic and political structures that underpin the carbon economy, and examines the role the climate crisis plays in many other critical issues, including inequality, migration, and the battle for scarce resources.
• Uses a language that recognises the severity of the climate crisis; a language that accurately describes the environmental crises facing the world and that is scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on the urgency of this issue.
• Preferably, is developed through engagement and connection with surrounding society. Participation, interactivity, and engagement are key concepts in this context.
• Strives to find new ways of telling stories and to explain the world, not least for the younger generation. Visionary storytelling is therefore at the heart of sustainable journalism.
• Strives to connect the local with the global. Change may happen locally, but most changes are closely connected to global events and networks, and vice versa.
• May be driven by interest organisations — but if this is the case, the obligation to tell the truth and loyalty to citizens must come as a first priority. Distorted or incomplete information can never be considered sustainable journalism, even if it would serve a higher purpose or agenda.
• Requires that practitioners of sustainable journalism not only master professional journalistic skills, but also have thorough thematic knowledge of the overarching challenges of our time, such as climate change, democracy, equality, gender equity, and inclusion.
• Requires practitioners of sustainable journalism to avoid pretending that they can “stand outside reality and objectively describe it,” as if they were free of bias and liberated from their personal experiences and culture. This was not what pioneers of modern journalism meant when they invented the concept of “objective journalism.” It was out of a growing recognition that journalists were full of bias, often unconsciously. Objectivity called for journalists to develop a consistent method of testing information — a transparent approach to evidence — so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their work. This approach is also valid for sustainable journalism.

Transparency

Transparency is a precondition for sustainable journalism.

It is not just the content that determines whether journalism is sustainable or not, it is also the transparency of the company or organisation behind the publication.

Publishers should:

• Strive to never publish false content. If false content is published by mistake, it must be rapidly corrected.
• Refer to fact-checked sources, preferably first-hand information or trustworthy, credible second-hand news sources.
• Transparently account for the sources and working methods that have been used when publishing a story.
• Avoid deceptive headlines that contain false information, or otherwise do not reflect what is actually in the story.
• Not distort or misrepresent information to make an argument.
• Distinguish opinion from news reporting in a responsible manner. If the reporting expresses a particular point of view, this should be clearly stated — including who expresses the view, and from what perspective it is conveyed.
• Clearly display which content is paid for and which is not.
• Clearly and accessibly provide the names of content creators, along with either contact or brief biographical information.
• Make clear how an error or complaint by a reader/viewer/listener should be reported.
• Establish effective practices for publishing clarifications and corrections, and note corrections in a transparent way.
• Clearly disclose ownership and/or financing, as well as any notable ideological or political positions held by those with a significant financial interest in the site, in a user-friendly manner.

Sustainable production

The production process must comply with the demands of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. This could be a very long list, but, as conditions vary depending on the size and nature of the publishing unit, here are just some examples:

• Set targets (including reducing carbon emissions) in line with science-based methodology.
• Cut the use of single-use plastic.
• Develop a detailed long-term plan on how to achieve net zero emissions.
• Buy renewable electricity.
• Offer training and awareness capacity-building for staff on sustainability.
• Strive to follow the guidelines of the UN Global Compact and Certified B Corporations.

About the Sustainable Journalism Partnership

The partnership exists to:

• Define sustainable journalism as a new research area, opening up for new research projects
• Find out what kind of journalism that effectively communicates sustainability challenges
• Find out what kind of sustainable journalism the public is willing to pay for
• Communicate successful sustainable business models for media in middle- and low-income countries
• Communicate environmentally sustainable production and distribution models
• Develop knowledge on how to set up a socially sustainable newsroom
• Develop trainings in sustainable journalism reporting
• Develop a syllabus on sustainable journalism for schools of journalism

Anyone is welcome to apply for membership of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership. Once accepted you can join other media professionals around the world who are working together to take media viability to the next level. You will receive a monthly newsletter with first-hand information and resources on sustainable journalism as well as access to a community of like minded people. 

The post Sustainable journalism in practice first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In the first and second articles in this series we’ve demonstrated how to develop ideas for new products and how to create them using project management discipline.

These methodologies have been thoroughly tested and proven over time in numerous media houses.

But in the news business you do not always have time for the Gantt chart/whiteboard approach. Stories spring up so quickly you have to be flexible and find other ways of working in a planned and disciplined manner.

In this example, we were asked at short notice to help produce a televised debate between political candidates before a general election. We had three-and-half weeks to make it happen.

The importance and the risk factors were obviously high and we could not afford to spend a week or two planning.

For one thing, we needed to hire a venue and so we had to start checking availability immediately.

But we still needed to think the whole project through before making other commitments, and we decided to use the production schedule as a form of project plan.

The first step was a long meeting of all the key staff. For a show of this sensitivity and high profile, we were glad to have the Director General of the broadcaster at the meeting. This both underlined the importance of the task and gave the DG’s approval for the plan.

But we still needed to think it through before springing into action and we decided to use the production schedule as a form of project plan.

Every television programme should have a production schedule. The difference with this one was that it went into much more detail about what we needed to do to make the show happen.

Essentially it is a vertical version of the Gantt chart/whiteboard but it also identifies all the personnel, and includes all the main operational details.

Candidates debate

Staffing

• Producer/editor
• Deputy producer/editor
• OB (outside broadcast) producer
• Director of photography
• Presenters
• Candidate producers
• Scenography producer
• Graphics producer
• Titles producer
• Audience producer
• Sub-titles producer
• Picture editor
• Control room producer
• Make-up
• Internet content producer
• Floor manager
• Camera operators
• Lighting
• Sound
• Stagehands
• OB truck

Production schedule

TX (transmission) minus 25

• Discuss and plan
• Determine overall editorial remit
• Write brief overview document

TX minus 21

• Venue lined up
• Produce design brief (set, titles, endboard, graphics, captions, internet content)
• Appoint production and OB crews
• Appoint HQ-based staff
• Assign one producer to each candidate

TX minus 18

• Briefings for all producers
• Briefings for OB staff
• Briefings for HQ-based staff
• Candidate producers establish contact with candidates, arrange to meet to discuss plans
• Secure location for recording
• Reconnaissance of location
• Produce promotional schedule for TV, radio and internet

TX minus 14

• Produce technical requirements document (TechReq)
• Invite audience
• Plan titles
• Schedule internet content (web pages and social media)

TX minus 10

• Produce lighting plan
• Produce camera plan
• Define range of shots to be used throughout recording
• Source music for titles
• Record/obtain VT for titles

TX minus 9

• Edit titles and end-board
• Produce graphics

TX minus 8

• Production day off

TX minus 7

• Production day off

TX minus 6

• All-staff meeting to review progress
• Sign off titles and graphics
• Draft script
• OB crew briefing on camera use
• TV and radio promos start be aired

TX minus 5

• Script conference, approve script

TX minus 4

• All-staff meeting, final checks

TX minus 2

• 0900 – Call time for production crew and OB crew, briefing
• 0930 – Build set, dress set, install cameras, lights etc
• 1130 – Technical checks, studio, graphics, scanner etc
• 1200 – Rehearsal
• 1400 – Production and OB crews review

TX minus 1

• 0900 – iron out all remaining problems

TX 0

• 0900 – Call time for production crew and OB crew
• 0930 – Technical check, facilities check
• 1100 – Call time for HQ-based staff
• 1200 – Audience arrives, audience briefing
• 1215 to 1230 – Candidates arrive, greeted by presenter and the relevant producer
• 1230 – Candidates in their dressing rooms, make-up, final brief
• 1300 – Record debate
• 1500 – Record teasers
• 1530 – Edit teasers
• 1600 – Edit programme and insert sub-titles
• 1800 – Take clips for news bulletins
• 1830 – Take clips for internet
• 2000 – (or whenever) Debate transmits

TX plus 1

• Press release on audience figures
• Wash-up meeting to discuss lessons learnt

We circulated the schedule widely and referred to it constantly in the progress chasing. If something slipped (and several things did) we revised the schedule and re-issued it.

In this approach to project planning, you as the project manager need to keep the dependencies in your head – they are not identified so clearly on the schedule.

In the wash-up meeting we identified numerous lessons to be learned. For example, we should have included more operational detail about the arrival, on the day, of the audience and the candidates: they both came in through the same door which made filming the arrival of the candidates (for the opening sequence) problematic.

There were other lessons, too, but they all re-inforced the main point: every significant problem would have been avoided if we had planned in more detail.

The post An example of the media project management process first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In the first in this series of three articles we looked at the basics of project development for a media organisation in order to launch new products or refresh current output. That module included defining the target audience, setting out the unique editorial proposition, assessing the cost of the project, and calculating the return.

In other words, you have done the thinking. But there is a lot more thinking still to be done, if you are to turn your idea into a real-life product. To do that, you need to use the skills and techniques of project management.

Many books have been written on this subject.  There are detailed project management methodologies you could learn, if you wanted to do so.  A man called Gantt invented a useful chart that helps you manage your project.

But you can do without all that if you follow the basic rules.  Here they are:

1: Specification, time, and money

The three main components of any project are the specification, the time allowed and the money available. You want to finish the project to specification, on time and within budget

This speaks for itself, but it is vital that you understand the three components in detail before you begin work. Then you know, and everybody else knows, precisely what you are trying to achieve. Your whole project plan is based on that understanding.

The reason I make this point is that external forces often want to change the basic components after the project has started. They might (and often do) try to change the specification, bring forward the launch date or reduce the amount of money available.

They have to understand that any change in the specification, the time or the budget might mean a total re-think.

2: Planning

It is important that you plan everything before you do anything. If you forget all the other rules, do not forget this one. Your thinking time is your most valuable time. Get a complete picture of the project in your head before you allow work to start

3: Workstreams

Next you need to identify the workstreams involved in the proposed project. The workstreams are the pieces of work that all need to be done.

They might include recruitment, training, buying equipment and software, commissioning design work, writing technical specifications, producing guidelines or standards, renting space, getting permissions, booking travel, market research, rehearsing, printing, marketing, producing pilots or prototypes, testing – whatever.  You need a complete list.

4: The project plan document

Once the workstreams are in place you need to write down all the elements in a project plan document.

This can be a large piece of paper, a Gantt chart, a spreadsheet or a whiteboard in your office. Start by writing today’s date at the top of the left hand side, and the date you want to launch your product at the top of the right hand side (If you read right to left, invert these instructions).

Let’s say there are two months between today’s date and the launch of your product.  Divide the space between them into equal time segments. For example, you might have two months to complete the project, so your top line will be divided into eight segments representing eight weeks:

Below “Today’s date” you are going make a vertical list of all the workstreams – the things that need to be done.

In the row next to each workstream heading, you are going to write the critical milestones, in the week when they must be achieved.

Let’s say one of the work streams is Design. It might appear like this, showing the important milestones:

Do this with all the workstreams. In particular you are looking for dependencies: where one piece of necessary work can’t be carried out until another has been completed. Here is an example of a Gantt chart showing dependencies in an architectural project:

5: Plan for the unexpected

It’s important with any project to include a bit of slack to allow for the things that will inevitably go wrong.

Planning is the central to success, but as Mike Tyson said: “Everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth”. Things WILL go wrong. So you have to build a little slack into your project to allow for that: a bit more time than you think you’ll actually need; a bit of money tucked away in case an emergency arises that can be solved by throwing money at it; and one or more of the specifications that can wait until after launch, without drastically affecting the outcome, if need be.

6: Teamwork and collaboration

Ensure that you share the plan with your team, and let them improve it if they can.

The team will actually do all the work and they need to own the results. You achieve that by listening to them, involving them and respecting them. Make sure they are all absolutely clear and supportive of the objective. If people are doubtful about the wisdom of the project it would be better for them to find somewhere else to work.

7: Get started

Now the work can actually begin.  And you will soon notice the benefit of having thought everything through carefully beforehand.

8: Communication

Make sure you communicate with your team constantly and meet together at least weekly.

Set an example to the team by understanding what they are doing. If you are not interested in their work, they won’t be either. Know all the details of the project inside out. Be available to everyone and don’t ask anyone to do something you would not be willing to do yourself.

9: Chase progress sensitively

You need to ensure people are doing what they are expected to do, so a project manager must always chase progress, but it is important not to overwork people – that is not sustainable.

It is your job to make sure that deadlines are met and the weekly meeting is a vital checkpoint. Know exactly how you are going to react if a work stream is running behind schedule. It must be clear how any lost time is going to be made up. But it’s also your job to make sure they do not overwork.

I have seen people burn out trying their darnedest to hit deadlines. Their dedication is admirable but that way of working is not sustainable. So keep the workload within reasonable bounds and ensure they take some time off. It will be better that way in the long run.

10: Testing

Be sure to plenty of time for testing before launch.

Ideally, your product should be ready at least a couple of weeks before launch so that you can test if thoroughly. However well you have done your job, testing is sure to throw up problems that need to be addressed. Because testing is just about the last thing before launch, it is also the thing that gets squeezed most by delays earlier in the schedule. So be ruthless about getting into the testing phase on time. Otherwise the first thing you know about some problems will be when the product is launched on a startled public.

11: Learning

After launch, do a thorough wash-up, learning all the lessons from the project.

Typically, everyone is exhausted after launch. They want to go away and celebrate or lie down in a darkened room. They should have some time to do that. But it is important to do your review of the entire project while memories are still fresh. That way you can record all the lessons that have been learned and begin to schedule corrections or improvements to the product that the project has thrown up.

In the third and final part of this series we look at an example of a successful media project and the steps taken along the way.

The post The skills and techniques of media project management first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A media organisation must always remain alert to changing audience demand and behaviour. This involves continually examining what is produced to ensure that it is relevant to those who consume it. It’s easy to lose your audience if you are not adapting in order to hold their attention.

Part of this process might involve revising the current editorial process and/or creating new products to try to both retain the existing audience and attract new listeners, viewers, and readers. Such a process, done properly, can lead to increased audience engagement and loyalty.

But how can media managers be sure they are creating the right products? And what are the steps they need to take? The launch of any media product, whether it’s a new radio or TV programme, a special edition for a newspaper, or a website, needs meticulous research, planning, and, above all, justification.

In this article, the first in a three-part series, we look first at the basics of managing such a project before moving on to a how-to guide setting out what to do if you are planning a relaunch or a new product, and then look at an example of how to set up a new TV programme was successfully launched.

The following principles should be applied by all broadcasters and publishers involved in the process of creating new output. It’s best to make a checklist setting out all the questions that need to be answered. That checklist can be broken down into four areas:

• Defining the target audience.
• Setting out the unique editorial proposition.
• Assessing the cost.
• Calculating the return.

Let’s look at those four areas in more detail.

1: Define and get to know your target audience

The first question to ask is “Who is it for?”.

You are about to devote considerable time and effort in order to create something new, so you need to know whether anyone will want what you are about to produce.

This is where you need to ensure that what you are creating matches the requirements of your audience.

Our training module about “The value of thorough research for a media business” sets out the steps a media business needs to consider when establishing its position in the local media market.

And then you need to understand the audience you aim to reach with the new product. Our training module “Identifying the target audience and its information needs” will take you through this process.

2: Set out a clear and unique editorial proposition

The second question is “What are you offering?”.

Before you start you need to set out what is unique about what you are about to produce. How will it be different from what the competitors are producing? Why would anyone want to listen to your radio station, watch your TV programme, read your magazine, or visit your website?

This is about offering something different; something that not only doesn’t currently exist, but also something that is so unique, fresh and relevant that it sets your media organisation apart from the rest.

Perhaps your differential is in terms of topics covered, the way you treat news, the user engagement and interactivity you offer, the editorial and ethical values you hold dear, your focus on fact-checking, the diversity of voices you include.

Our training module “Establishing a market differential with original journalism”, sets out a way to do this. After reading that module you are ready for step three in the process.

3: Calculate the cost in terms of money and resources

Next your media business needs to know whether it can afford to pay for the new content idea.

The first question to consider is whether you can do it with existing resources. Is there a way of reorganising how you currently do things in order to be able to produce more or different content without having to hire extra staff and equipment?

You will need to look at your current production processes. In my experience, many new products can be created from existing resources if media managers are prepared to take a fresh look at how news is produced.

Our training module “Creating a converged news operation”, sets out some simple steps that will enable a news organisation to introduce efficiencies which will improve the quantity and quality of output.

This usually involves introducing new workflows and changes to what staff currently do. Our training module “Convergence, workflows, rolls and responsibilities”, shows how this can be implemented.

I have introduced successfully convergence models in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, SE Europe, and the CIS. In every case duplication of effort has been eliminated and productivity has been increased – and all from existing resources.

Once you have taken a fresh look at how your newsroom works, and you know more how you can exploit existing resources for maximum gain, you are ready to move on to the next step.

4: Understand the sources of revenue

The final point is about how to make money from the new programme, edition, or website. You need to know which advertisers / sponsors will want to be associated with what you are creating?

And, although I have listed this as point four, it would make sense to start thinking about this at the start of the process during the audience identification stage.

Our training module “How to develop a media sales strategy” sets out some simple steps which, if followed, should help you monetise the new product, cover your costs, and enable you to start thinking about how to expand your media business further.

In the second article in this series, Bob Eggington sets out a “How-to of media project management” listing the practical steps required. The third article, also written by Bob, looks at “A practical example of media project management”, in which he shares a case-study of a programme he has implemented.

The post Basics of project development for a media organisation first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In previous modules we have looked at how to identify the target audience and create a unique editorial proposition for that audience which would inform the public debate with original, in-depth journalism.

Now we look at the challenge of keeping up with changing audience behaviour, and ensuring that the content that is produced is available on all the devices the audience uses to access information.

In the past, broadcasting and publishing were fairly predictable. The audience watched TV, listened to the radio, and bought newspapers.

We worked to deadlines set by the broadcast schedules or the print runs.

The design of devices such as TV and radio changed from time to time, but the basic philosophy of broadcasting bulletins and related programmes changed very little. The same was true with newspapers.

The digital disruption of journalism

Then digital journalism disrupted the model. Content could be viewed online, on mobile and on tablets at any time of the day, on demand and on the move. Rolling, 24-hour news channels also contributed to the disruption.

I remember when I was managing editor of BBC News Online and realising when we published the first story that life would never be the same again.

We had started the continuous news cycle for the BBC. Everything had to change, including workflows, how stories were created and developed, roles and responsibilities, job descriptions, and organisational structures.

And then social media grew, and the audience became creators and curator of content, producing, commenting, sharing, adding value, beginning conversations, offering options, and participating in the news cycle. Another powerful and disrupting influence.

While all this was taking place, technology was not only matching the ambitions and aspirations of the content producers and content consumers, it was also creating new ways to do both.

Successful media businesses could no longer relax with legacy systems and known ways. They had to innovate, and to innovate they had to understand the audience, the technology, and the market.

So business development managers were hired and units set up to track the changes in audience behaviour in order to try to see what new platforms were being developed and to feed the information back into the news production and business planning departments.

Luckily, for those of us in the news management business, there also developed groups of people who made a living out of analysing the data surrounding changing audience behaviour, examining the implications for content producers and the market, and offering that wisdom to news business at a price.

One of those companies is WeAreSocial in Singapore who produce a six-monthly report on audience behaviour. The data they produce offers valuable and interesting insights into how content is consumed. Much of that data can be viewed, free-of-charge, on their Slideshare site.

Using such information can help media managers plan how their businesses need to evolve. Decision can be taken which are informed by solid business logic.

Digital first, digital parallel or digital denial

Responding to audience behaviour data will probably mean that a media business decides to introduce a digital first strategy. Digital first means that content is published on digital platforms before, or at the same time, as it’s published on traditional platforms. Please refer to the module on this site about developing a digital first strategy.

But a digital first strategy needs to make business sense. There is no point in delivering to digital platforms if they are not being used by your target audience.

And that is why you need to continually monitor how your target audience is accessing news so that you can adapt and change to ensure you are able to meet their information needs in the way they require. Otherwise you will probably lose that audience, and more aware and alert media organisations that are monitoring changing audience behaviour might take your place.

If it makes sense to adopt a digital first strategy – and it probably will, then the decision will also involve changes in how news is produced and how decisions are made.

You will need to introduce new workflows based around a news ‘superdesk’ acting as a centralised ‘command-and-control’ for the news operation. New roles and responsibilities may have to be introduced – from existing resources. Please refer to our training module about creating a converged/integrated newsroom.

Central to this will be a planning editor who will take your unique editorial proposition of original in-depth journalism and ensure there is a steady flow of high-quality news and current affairs items designed to meet the information needs of your target audience. Please refer to the module about forward planning for media organisations. At this stage you will have taken your first steps towards introducing a digital first strategy.

See our training module on newsroom evolution from digital denial to digital first.

But let’s return to the theme of the first module in this series about setting up a media business. I likened a media business to a table with four legs. Each leg having to be as sturdy as the other to ensure the table (the media business) doesn’t wobble.

Leg one is identifying the target audience and its information needs. Leg two is establishing a market differential with original, in-depth, issue-led journalism. Leg three is adapting to changing audience behaviour and monitoring the market. So now let’s move on to leg four, our media organisation’s values. Please refer to the training module about vision, pledge to the audience, accountability, transparency.

The post Adapting to changing audience behaviour first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The corporate plan is the most important tool in a media chief executive’s toolbox. Without it the media organisation can become lost and directionless. But with a strong corporate plan, staff and management are brought together, become a positive focus for change, and drive the media business forward. So it’s important to get it right. This is how to do it.

Writing a corporate plan should make running your media operation easier not more complicated, so don’t make the process complex.

The corporate plan should set out the vision for the media organisation, identify the target audience and its information needs, clarify who does what and why they do it, and set clear objectives that are cascaded down through every department and unit and which include every individual.

Corporate plans should be for a specified time period – too short and they don’t allow you to identify core and long-term value; too long and, over time, they become outdated and irrelevant. Five years is a realistic time-frame.

The more comprehensive and inclusive the discussion about the corporate plan is, the more likely it is that it will be realistic and achievable.

However, it’s not possible to include every member of your staff in the drafting process, so make sure the people you invite to discuss and draft the corporate plan are representative of a wide variety of views in your news organisation.

Select a moderator for the process who is a friend of the organisation, but does not have a vested interest in one part of it or another.

A corporate plan sets out your unique differential

Start by doing a realistic market scan so you know who your audiences are, what competition you have, the values your staff and mangers need to demonstrate, and what your unique market differential is.

Then distil all of that into one readily-understood, easy to communicate sentence which you can use as the basis of your corporate plan.

This sentence or phrase is essentially a mission statement, so make sure every word merits a place in it, and that the mission statement covers everything you do or would like to do.

Make sure the mission statement is ambitious enough to be challenging, but realistic enough to be potentially achieved.

An example of such a statement might be “To make appealing content for the people with a well-trained, well managed staff using a variety of funding sources”.

Next, expand each part of the phrase and explain what it means in practice.

In the example above, describe what “making appealing content for the people” actually means in bullet points. Identify targets for each of the bullet points which can be measured with a time frame.

At the end of this process, you will have established what you hope to achieve over the lifetime of your corporate plan and a framework for how to measure your progress against it.

Making your corporate plan relevant and useful

Now you have a corporate plan it needs to be translated into an action plan.

Your senior management team should identify the resources (human, material etc.) they need in order to deliver the corporate plan on a divisional or directorate level.

This document should also contain a more detailed description of the major activity to be carried out in the first year to support the corporate plan, and an outline for the second and third years. Each director now has an individual work plan.

The document should also describe what each of the units plans to do along with measurable targets for each unit and the resources needed. Each unit manager now has an individual work plan.

You now have a divisional plan. Each unit manager now discusses with each member of staff a work plan with measurable targets and objectives for the year ahead. This can also be linked to performance related pay if required.

Each member of staff now has an individual work plan which is directly related to the corporate plan with individual, unit, divisional and corporate objectives

The post Preparing and introducing a media corporate plan first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Fear, a lack of vision, laziness, and a failure to recognise and keep up with changing audience behaviour, are among the most common reasons for media organisations becoming irrelevant and struggling.

Continually monitoring how content is being consumed by the audience, and responding quickly to technological and market opportunities, is essential.

There are four typical scenarios facing media organisations

The four attitudes to digital news production, news gathering and news dissemination are digital denial, digital parallel, digital enhanced, and digital first.

Some media managers refuse to accept that there is a digital audience which needs to be served.

Others become digital evangelists who make production decisions that are not always backed with firm business logic.

Some prefer to focus on the old ways of working, and give little consideration to the digital audience and market.

Of course, each newsroom will have a different approach, based on local business logic, legacy issues, and political and cultural factors.

However, one fact is clear; without a converged/integrated newsroom, it’s difficult to make the most of the digital opportunities that might exist.

And although the essential elements of newsroom convergence might be similar for all news organisations, each solution has to be crafted according to local needs, based on solid business data that informs and justifies every suggested change.

Please refer to our training module “Creating a converged/integrated newsroom delivering content to multiple devices”.

Let’s look at the four typical scenarios. As you do, try to work out which scenario best describes your media house.

Digital denial

This is when there is no clear vision from the senior management about why newsroom convergence/integration is important, which often results in there being no buy-in from senior editors, and resistance from many.

There will have been a failure to invest in the digital technology required to produce content for use on multiple platforms/devices, and there will be little awareness of audience needs and changing audience behaviour.

Management and staff are stuck in a time warp, bogged down with legacy issues, doing what they have always done, and living in a false comfort zone.

Digital parallel

This is where management acknowledges the digital needs of the audience but fails to realise its importance.

They will usually ask a couple of people to build a website and upload video from its main TV shows.

This operation will often not be connected to the newsroom. It might even be on a different floor. There might be little to no editorial supervision.

At times the online version will be a copy and paste version of what was broadcast, there will be no added value in terms of interactive assets that help explain the stories. There will be no user engagement.

The result will be a rather dull repetition of the TV output, often text heavy, updated once or twice a day, and offering no compelling reason for the audience to visit or return.

Digital enhanced

In some cases there is an online, multimedia and social media team embedded in the newsroom made up of trained journalists who are part of the news operation. In these cases the on-air, online and mobile versions are all linked.

There will be an attempt, often made during the morning meeting, to select the top three stories that require some added value online in terms of timelines, interactive maps, infographics, fact boxes, comments etc.

The source content will be much the same, but the user experience will differ depending on the platforms used by the audience.

Social sharing and encouraging the audience to comment will be a central part of this strategy.

There will be a healthy buzz in the newsroom. Journalists will be keen to see how the audience responds, and, after monitoring that interaction, will use the material to build on the interest generated.

As a result new angles will come to light and be developed. The output on all platforms/devices will feel fresh, relevant and timely.

Digital-first

This is where the newsroom operates around a central superdesk or hub acting as the main command and control unit for all output.

There will be shared forward planning. Stories will be created in advance for all output areas with carefully planned cross-promotion.

Interactivity will be dynamic, meaning that it will be controlled and updated from the newsrooms central database.

It will be built into detachable, shareable and embeddable multimedia assets, rich in links to background information, which the audience can take away to their own preferred social media space in order to extend the conversation.

That total user-engagement will be monitored by the social media team and fed back into the news production process so that the output continually reflects the changing needs/concerns/questions posed by the target audience.

The digital-first converged newsroom will work closely with business development, technological development, and sales and marketing to ensure that any opportunities are fully exploited for the benefit of both the audience and the brand.

Digital evolution

All four models exist today in varying forms. Some media organisations, sadly, make a start on introducing convergence and then give up.

They sometimes blame the technology rather than their own inability to adapt. And there will be those who take comfort in retreating back to the known and dragging others with them.

But the challenge for media managers is massive. To survive they need to ensure that they have a plan for remaining relevant to changing audience demands while protecting their existing business.

The best strategy for survival and prosperity is a fully converged/integrated news operation delivering content to whatever device the users turn to for information.

The principle is clear – but news organisations should accept that there is no quick out-of-the-box one-size-fits-all solution.

Yes, it is possible to learn from what other organisations have tried successfully. But every media business has its own particular problems and opportunities.

They will need a bespoke strategy, tailored to their exact situation, in order to meet the changing needs of their own target audience.

The post Newsroom evolution from digital denial to digital first first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Knowing your audience, understanding the issues they face, and being aware of what they think about society – and your media organisation in particular – are important factors for fine-tuning what you offer in order to better inform the public debate.

In the module about “Identifying the target audience and its information needs”, we looked at why it’s necessary to be thorough in researching who we aim to serve with our content.

In the module entitled “Establishing a market differential (with original, in-depth journalism), we touched on the need to set up focus groups to help us learn how to improve what we produce and find out what worked and what didn’t work.

Both steps require talking to the audience asking their opinions on our output, finding out about the issues that we might have neglected, and then analysing the results and feeding all the information back into our overall strategy.

The purpose of audience research is five-fold.

1. It helps us produce better content that is more focused on audience need.
2. It helps us continually improve what we do so that we remain relevant.
3. It generates new ideas for producing audience-related programmes and material.
4. It offers our sales and marketing team the information they need to try to monetise the content we produce.
5. It highlights new business development opportunities which can help ensure we are more accessible to more people.

Surveys need to be factored into our overall strategy and plotted on a calendar so that we can make regular comparisons about our performance and how the audience is changing.

Some media organisations have the luxury of being able to afford research teams whose job it is to plan campaigns to monitor the audience response, but for many the research has to be provided using existing resources.

For example, the news department might be set the objective to break seven original news stories a week.

To achieve that objective, each reporter might be set the objective to break at least one original news story a month. Please see our training module on “Managing people and setting objectives”.

To help both the journalists and the news department achieve their objectives, the editor might decide to carry out audience surveys to try to find out more about the issues that most concern viewers, and explore ways of investigating those stories.

It might be that a monthly survey, carried out during the busy rush-hour by reporters with clipboards, will produce a list of stories that have not been covered before, or which have been inadequately covered in the past.

You might want to invite members of a focus group in for coffee and cake, show them items you have published in order to remind them what was broadcast, and then ask them what was missed, what worked, and what could have been done better.

You could also set up an online survey using one of the many free online tools.

It doesn’t really matter how you do it, what matters is that you continually assess your performance and measure it against audience appreciation.

Asking the right questions

Research is not about asking closed-ended questions, it’s about asking the right open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions can be answered with ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Sometimes such answers are useful. However open-ended questions, which require the interviewee to expand their answers are better for our purposes.

For example, you might ask a closed-ended question such as “Did you like the in-depth news item about the flooding?” The answer will probably be yes or no. However, if you ask “What did you like and what did you dislike about the in-depth news item about flooding?”, the answer is probably going to be more helpful.

You might ask the closed-ended question “does our news output meet your needs?” to which the answer will probably be yes or no. Or you could ask the open-ended question “what issues could we cover better and why?”, to which the answer will probably be a list of issues that you can follow up on behalf of the audience.

These issues can be used in your content planning strategy, please see our training modules on establishing a market differential and forward planning.

The information gained from asking the right open-ended questions is essential for developing your media strategy and ensuring you are on the right track. It will also help you grow your audience.

Ideally, you want your news output to be their preferred source of information, and you want to create a dependancy and loyalty that makes the audience members you talk to ambassadors of your brand.

Getting the scheduling right

You might want to ask the audience about scheduling.

Perhaps farmers and agricultural workers are an important segment of your target audience. You might have some great programmes that have been well-researched, are based on earlier feedback, and address the needs of those working on the land.

However, if that programme is broadcast at a time when the farm workers are in the fields, or late at night when they have already gone to bed, it’s been a waste of effort.

the right content is fine, but if it is not delivered at the right time it’s not being strategically delivered.

Getting the platform right

You might have some great TV programmes aimed at teenagers and young adults. You might have decided that such programmes are best broadcast late in the evening when, you think, they will be watching.

But an audience survey or a focus group might reveal that the audience you have identified no longer watches scheduled TV. They might be out socialising and using catch-up services for the media consumption.

It could be that they want news and information on-demand and on the move. You might conclude that you need a YouTube channel to be able to deliver your content to smartphones so that this important segment of your target audience is able to access the information they need, when they need it and on the devices they are currently using.

All this information is invaluable as you develop your strategy for the evolution of your media business.

It’s also valuable for being able to focus resources better, identify internal training needs, and spotting new business development opportunities.

Usability and accessibility

Most broadcasters have websites.

Some are sophisticated offerings which add real value to the material broadcast on TV and on radio. Others are fairly basic sites with video and some text often mirroring what was broadcast on air. Whatever format you have, you must test it with audience focus groups.

One way of doing this is to invite representative from your target audience groups in to the TV station to test the website. Ask their permission to film them.

Try to find someone who is new to the web, someone who is comfortable using websites, and someone who is an expert in the field.

Sit them down in front of your website and ask them to click around, talking out load as they do. Film them and then watch the film.

You will learn a great deal from this, and the information will help you improve the usability of the site and the quality of the content you produce.

Maintaining standards

Another important function of focus groups is to help journalists to remain true to their pledge to deliver accurate, fair, objective and impartial journalism produced with integrity. Please see our ethics training section for more on this.

The audience might ask some searching and, at times, uncomfortable questions about why a story was covered, why we asked the questions were posed, why a particular group wasn’t approached for comments, and why how those interviewed were selected.

This is all extremely valuable material if we are to be transparent and accountable.

We can’t find that information if we sit in the newsroom looking at the world through computer screens. We have to talk to people.

And who better to talk to than representatives of our target audience groups on who we depend for our validity and our survival.

The post The value of thorough research for media organisations first appeared on Media Helping Media.