Presentation made to the annual forum of Marketing Group, Jeddah 2011

1. How journalism can meet the challenges of digital content Professor George Brock Head of Journalism City University London Saudi Research & Marketing Group annual meeting Jeddah, January 2011

2. My approach today Human knowledge and communication are changing in fundamental ways Analysis Toolkit Q&A

3. “Zoom out” from journalism A thought experiment: please imagine yourself in the German city of Mainz in 1458 You are conducting market research on the effects of a new invention: printing. We are at the beginning of long-lasting, multiple waves of change. The future will confound expectations. Repeatedly. Get used to it.

4. Consumers of news think differently Digital is not just a new publishing platform Ideas and definitions of “news” and “journalism” are up for grabs Perceptions of value are changing Not only journalism is changed: privacy, democracy, money, handwriting, books, maps, teaching, music, culture, society, communication Information is now in glut

5. Journalism’s context now New problem: information overload Journalism was decoupled from distribution: locating it is now harder Every news outlet can be compared with anything Online news is exploring story-telling Audiences are changing shape, fragmenting Content is king, but collaboration is queen The web is going mobile

7. Basic issues Digital ends the dominance of one-to-many publishing (but does not end newspapers) Journalism’s audience may (or may not) be captivated, but it is no longer captive The perceived value of mainstream journalism is in question What value do journalists add? How can that value be monetised?

8. Back to first principles If anyone can publish, what defines journalism? What is journalism for? To establish the truth of what matters to a society 4 components of journalism that Are best done by people with practised and accumulated skills Can’t be done by algorithms

9. The “core” of journalism Verification Sense-making Eye-witness Investigation

10. Journalism:a SWOT analysis

11. Strengths Service to society/informed citizens Relied upon, trusted Independent Established brands News is not entertainment Practised, professional skills

12. Weaknesses No longer dominates supply of information Locked into newspaper “bundle” Taken for granted Reliance on written word Print has high costs and is slow Inflexibility of organisations Small number of income streams

13. Opportunities Re-invention of journalism for new age Greater reach New ways of telling stories (or new ways of cooking eggplant) Bringing more talent to bear More journalists go back to school

14. Threats Won’t experiment or adapt fast enough New competitors: if established media lose the plot, the blogosphere will take over Content is neglected because of preoccupation with platforms The idea of journalism gets lost

15. How does journalism handle this? Focus the value Journalism won’t grow or innovate in print Public service must be clear Forget “disintermediation”. Think “re-intermediation” Experiment – all the time. Throw spaghetti! Dump market research; hire anthropologists. Find the demand; supply it (feedback needed) Paywalls?

16. Managing change Involve everyone (fast, slow, senior, junior) Stress rebalancing between platforms Focus on creative relationships The importance of newsroom floor-planning is exaggerated Try not to hire consultants Set deadlines

17. Danger! Don’t… Hollow out editorial strength Neglect the importance of words Rely on broad-interest content “bundles” Develop one, big expensive plan (develop lots) Blame Google and Facebook for problems Confuse platforms with content Ever assume that change has finished

18. Do… Pay attention to younger voices Understand the pattern of the user’s day Expect consolidation Join the argument about regulations (governments rarely “get” the web) Go with the grain of the web Links with everything Promote individual items and authors Sites are encyclopaedias as well Geolocation

21. A case study

22. Hard questions Is the content original? Is the package unbeatable? Can a competitor replicate any of it? Does it meet the users’ expectations? Do you have verifiable, open data on that? Can you make money from it? Ask these question of The Daily next week Are you ahead of the next curve?

23. An iPad app is just the start “The idea of having 15 different apps constantly on my iPad screen just to occasionally read a single issue of one (or redownloading a magazine app just to get the one issue that I want to read that year) is impractical and cumbersome.” Alex Wilhelm, TNW, Jan 2011

24. In case you’re still wondering… …Journalism can – and will - meet the challenges of digital content. Thank you

25. Blog: www.georgebrock.net Twitter: @georgeprof City University: www.city.ac.uk/journalism This presentation will appear on slideshare.com