Newspaper & Mailroom
Who Will Pay for Quality Journalism?
Thursday 18. February 2010 - With traditional business models for news companies under pressure, the hunt is on for alternative ways to pay for quality journalism. The World Editors Forum, to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, in June, is dedicating a session to these alternative funding models.
The conference, which runs concurrently with the World Newspaper Congress and Info Services Expo, will feature some of the pioneers who are launching news websites with non-traditional business models: journalism funded by foundations, or paid directly by the public. The session will provide an update to publishers and editors on these, and other, new business models.
Confirmed speakers in the session include Paul Steiger, Editor-in-Chief and Founder of ProPublica in the USA, who will be the keynote speaker, John Yemma, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Science Monitor, Olav Bergo, Editorial Advisor for A-pressen in Norway, and David Cohn, Founder of Spot.us and a winner of the Knight News Challenge. Patrice Schneider, Director of Development for the Media Development Loan Fund, will moderate the session.
The World Editors Forum, World Newspaper Congress and Info Service Expo are the annual global summit meetings of the worlds press. More than 1,500 publishers, chief editors, CEOs, managing director and other senior news executives are expected in Beirut from 7 to 10 June next.
For the evolving conference programme and registration information, consult www.wanlebanon2010.com.
Mr Steiger of ProPublica is the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
Mr Yemma, who spent 20 years at The Boston Globe before joining The Christian Science Monitor, has changed the Monitors publication model by moving its daily operation to the Web and converting its print paper to a weekly.
Mr Bergo has long played a major editorial role in Norway, one of the strongest newspaper markets in the world, and is now advising A-Pressens editorial operations in its multimedia evolution. He has been nominated by the Norwegian government to explore new business models.
Mr Cohns Spot.us lets the community commission news stories from professional journalists by donating small amounts of money towards the stories that they would like to follow.
Other World Editors Forum sessions include:
– “Multimedia newsrooms versus pure online players: which model is the most sustainable?”, which will offer a comparison between the two ways to organise newsrooms to help editors review and re-engineer their own newspapers. Speakers include Raju Narisetti, the Managing Editor of The Washington Post, and Wataru Sawamura, Foreign Editor of the Asahi Shimbun.
“How to break away from he said yesterday journalism,” which will focus on new ways to present the news when editors assume that readers already know the story. Speakers include Marcus Brauchli, the Editor-in-chief of the Washington Post, and Loïc Le Meur the CEO of Seesmic, which aggregates content from social networking sites.
“Why (some) newspapers are unsubscribing to news agencies,” which will look at the pros and cons of such a move — it can save a lot of money, but can newspapers provide the same level of service without the agencies? Speakers include Tom Curley, CEO of The Associated Press, Didier Pillet, Publisher of La Provence in France, Jérome Doncieux, co-CEO of Relaxnews, a news agency dedicated to leisure pursuits, and other speakers to be announced.
“The new content platforms: a breakthrough year?,” a session devoted to the new surge in electronic readers for books, notably tablets, and the multiplication of mobile devices with easy and comfortable access to news sites. These devices have given a new lease of life to the idea that wireless platforms may yet take a central role in news publishing. This joint session with the World Newspaper Congress examines newspaper experiments in publishing on such devices and takes a whirlwind tour of whats currently on the market.
“Is journalism going green?,” which will look at the new focus on environmental issues, global warming and sustainable development. Readers want more stories on these themes, which are appearing in all newspaper sections: economy, politics, even sports and leisure. This trend suggests a need to develop new skills and new ways to tell stories.
“Whats new with media training?,” which will examine the impact of more than a decade of training journalists for new media and new storytelling styles. Has the money been well spent? Are the training sessions still valid after six or nine months? Are journalists actually thinking differently after hours and hours of training?
“Using crowd-sourcing in hyperlocal news,” which will examine new forms of journalism emerging from interaction with readers. Editors-in-chief who have jumped into the hyperlocal news world will share their experiences with crowd sourcing and other methods, including Bart Brouwers, Project editor for hyperlocal news at the Telegraaf Media Group in The Netherlands.
“Our news and Google News: how can we cooperate?,” which will examine how newspapers and Google might cooperate to mutual advantage. Google made some constructive proposals to newspaper companies last year, and the relationship has evolved, with indications that Google is more willing to engage in dialogue.