Newspaper & Mailroom
Multimedia Newsrooms Tour in Europe Highlights Best Practices
Monday 03. May 2010 - Many newspapers around the world boast about their multimedia publishing activities, yet a closer look inside their newsrooms often reveals a different reality.
If seeing is believing, then publishers, CEOs and senior news executives have an opportunity to witness first-hand how tried and tested multimedia publishing is paying off for some of the most pioneering publishers in the world, on the upcoming Multimedia Newsrooms in Europe Study Tour (16-21 May).
The tour, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and Newsplex, will include visits to seven newspapers, six cities and five countries. Participants will have opportunities to examine and discuss what makes these newsrooms successful and unique – both with the creators of the newsrooms and with like-minded executive-level participants.
“All of these companies are finding innovative ways to create and deliver print, online and mobile content, and use new technologies to keep pace with changing consumer behaviour,” said Dietmar Schantin, Executive Director of WAN-IFRAs Publishing, Editorial and General Management division and Newsplex.
There is still time to register: full details can be found here.
In line with the Newsplex concept, there is no “one size fits all” multimedia newsroom strategy. And while all the newsrooms on the tour may differ in organisation, they share one common denominator: catering content to their consumers. Here is whats in store for the tour:
London, UK:
The Guardian, Guardian Media Group: In 2009 the company moved into a new building featuring an ultra-modern newsroom, allowing a reorganisation that enabled tighter integration between print and digital and the generation of multimedia content for this well-established brand.
The Times, News International: With its much-publicised move to a paid-online content model, this will surely prove to be an interesting visit. The Times is one of the most established brands in the UK and its Sunday paper is the highest-selling quality title in the country.
Norwich, UK:
Eastern Daily Press & Evening News, Archant: The Archant Group has performed the delicate balancing act of integrating both a quality and tabloid title into a new, integrated newsroom that delivers content for these two papers plus weeklies and websites with various target groups. A workshop on newsroom reorganisation, led by the Newsplex team, will be also part of this visit.
Berlin, Germany:
Bild Zeitung, Axel Springer Verlag: Bild is one of the most successful newspapers in Europe in expanding its brand and reach in both print and digital. Its long tradition of embracing digital in a dynamic tabloid-style publication has set it apart: user-generated content, “user-generated promotion” and the use of branding on various non-publishing products are unique concepts in most parts of Europe.
Zurich, Switzerland:
Blick, Ringier: In a just-launched integrated newsroom, Ringier has brought three print titles and its online publication under one roof to not create a unified news team and a stronger brand.
Helsinki, Finland:
Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta Sanomat, Sanoma: They are the two largest selling titles in the country in their respective slots, Helsingin daily and Ilta evening. They feature slightly different approaches to newsrooms structures regarding print and digital integration: one title works in a fully media-integrated manner, the other believes in a semi-integrated approach.
Stockholm, Sweden:
Svenska Dagbladet, Schibsted: Embracing a cross-media publishing approach years ago, the newspaper went a step further by offering all staff specific training to embrace the crucial multimedia mindset. The result is a constantly updated news website and a magazine-style newspaper, for which it has been crowned winner of the European Newspaper Congress Award in 2009.