The Convergence Project at the National Arts Festival ‘07
Report by Peter Verweij
27 August 2007
Grahamstown, South Africa
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Table of contents
1. Some history and the start of the Project 3-6 1.1 Convergence and its Significance 1.2 The Start of the Convergence Project 1.3 The Festival Blog Production Team 1.4 2. The Project at Work 6-9 2.1 The NIKA Workflow System 2.2 TV and Radio Production within the Workflow System
3. Production of the Festival Blog 9-14 3.1 A Summary of the Statistics 3.2 Production Set-up 3.3 Examples Highlighted 3.4 Experiments with Story Telling 3.5 Experiments with Skoeps and Citizen Reporting 3.6 Cooperation with Grocott’s Mail 3.7 Advertisements and Business Models
4. Lessons Learnt and a Look at the Future 14-16 4.1 Production Issues 4.2 Other Issues 4.3 The Future
5. The Convergence Project in Perspective: Experiences at the Mail & Guardian, The Times, and Die Burger 17-18
Supplement 1: Overview of the Productions 19-24 Supplement 2: Google Analytics 25 Supplement 3: Article about the Convergence Project for Africa Interactive 26-28 Supplement 4: Article about the Convergence Project for MediaNews 29-32 Supplement 5: Convergence at South African Newspapers 33-40
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1. Some History and the Start of the Project
From June 28 to July 7 the National Arts Festival took place in Grahamstown, South Africa. For the 20th time Cue, a daily print newspaper about the Festival, was produced by Rhodes University journalism students. It was the first time that the newspaper was printed in full color.
Cue is at the core of journalistic production during the Festival. But nowadays, what is a newspaper without pictures or without an online edition? Cue Pix, run by the photo department at the School of Journalism and Media Studies in the AMM (African Media Matrix) provides the pictures. Cue Online is run by the NML (New Media Lab) in the same building and is mostly shoveling print content online. Cue Radio and Cue TV take care of the audio and video, and broadcast during the Festival.
Up to 2000 copies of Cue newspaper were printed daily with the number of sold copies around 1600. The newspaper was sold in the Grahamstown streets for 3 Rand. The number of pages of Cue ranges from 16 to 20, including advertisements.
Cue is produced by students and lecturers of the School of Journalism and consists of about 50 student-reporters, 10 sub-editors, and 2 editors (who are generally University staff). The productions’ layout is taken care of by a group of design students. Twenty students from the photo department take care of the pictures and rework them with Adobe’s Photoshop. Cue TV and Cue Radio (with a total of about 10 students) brought their reporting skills to the Festival as well.
Reporting about the Festival by Cue is a major happening that has been growing over the years. From print to TV, to radio and online. This is fantastic, but also reflects equal problems in the media industry: each media platform runs their own show. Print, TV, radio and photography: they all have their own targets, content production, and some coordination. In order to take full advantage of the different possibilities of all the media platforms, convergence is the keyword.
1.1 Convergence and its Significance
Convergence is a topic much discussed in journalism and it generally means ‘blurring the lines between media’. Within a converged newsroom all journalistic production will be published over different platforms; taking into consideration the benefits of each: the emotion 4
of TV and the depth of print. Publishing over different platforms is called ‘cross-media production’.
This also means that journalists are not distinctly producing content for print, TV, or radio but are working for all platforms at the same time. Their job is centered on getting the news in different formats or concentrates on just one format in which the news is best presented. A multimedia news desk combined with a database that stores all formats of content will be the axis of this new system of production or newsroom routine.
A team of assignment editors and multimedia producers run the total newsroom production and decide where the content will be published. In this way it is possible to combine the strength of in- depth reporting for print with the directness or emotion of TV.
In order to feed the database with content, a production system or workflow system is needed to store all different formats of production like audio, video, print, and photographs.
These ideas about convergence and the situation of separate production at Cue media, inspired to set up this convergence project during the National Arts Festival.
1.2 The Start of the Convergence Project
Guy Berger, Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes, wrote a proposal for the project in September 2006 and an application for funding by NiZA (The Netherlands institute for Southern Africa) was approved in January 2007.
Peter Verweij would run the project as a consultant, funded by NiZA. A workflow system called NIKA would be tested to the limits during this convergence project. A converged newsroom that includes print, TV, radio, photography and online would take care of production.
In April 2007 the first preparation meeting took place. It already became clear that a totally converged newsroom would be one step too far.
Convergence is not only about merging media technologies and routines but foremost about attitude and the willingness to cooperate within a converged newsroom.
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The atmosphere during that first meeting was that cooperation would be fine; convergence was welcomed as an interesting idea. However, at the end of the day each newsroom or each medium wanted to run their own show.
Secondly, it was observed that the NIKA workflow system would only be able to handle audio, video, and photographs in a limited way. On top of this NIKA was still under development and could not be tested before the start of the Festival.
In April it became clear that the convergence project would be more limited in scope than intended: there would not be a complete converged newsroom but there would only be experiments with convergence.
The best solution was to set up an independent medium and production system to enable convergence. Using Wordpress MU (Multi User), a multimedia blog was created online. This blog became the medium for converged production during the Festival.
Now that the convergence project had its own medium it was possible to use content of the other newsrooms for additional productions or to initiate joint productions by multimedia teams. Bringing all Cue newsrooms under a general commander and force, convergence from above would not make sense. Also, without a production platform the convergence project would be powerless. This was the basis for the creation of the National Arts Festival Blog: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog .
1.3 The Festival Blog Production Team
The next step was to set up a production team for the multimedia Festival Blog. The School of Journalism in Utrecht, The Netherlands, got interested in this project, and it was decided in May 2007 that one TV lecturer (John Driedonks) and two multi-skilled students (Sander Knura and Dennis de Vries) would join the project. HANA (Highway Africa News Agency) would provide staff of about 8 reporters with a background in print journalism.
Two other Dutch institutions were interested in the project as well: Skoeps (a photo blog based on pictures from citizen reporters) and Africa Interactive, a news site with African news. Both institutions provided limited funding but together with funding from the School of 6
Journalism a budget was created to cover the expenses for the students and TV lecturer to travel to Grahamstown. Skoeps provided a cell phone with an excellent camera and good sound qualities to experiment with citizen reporting from Africa on their photo blog.
During the preparations for the project, all by e-mail, it was decided that print would produce Cue and that the NML would copy their content on the website Cue Online. Cue Pix would produce photos on their website. Cue Radio and Cue TV would produce news items during the Festival.
The Festival Blog, http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog , would produce their own Festival-related content. Coverage of the Festival itself, like the shows and performances, would be covered by the Cue media. This means that the Festival Blog had the specific aim of producing multimedia news about the Festival and town. Another aim was to re-purpose content from the Cue media as much as possible and to do either additional reporting or to combine the different media online.
2. The Project at Work
Within the convergence project it is important to make a distinction between re-purposing and pre-purposing content. Re-purposing is re-using existing content on another platform. It is a one-sided initiative because editors take content that is independently produced by the other media. The other media did not intend to use the content anywhere else besides their own medium.
Pre-purposing involves a joint project of a multi-skilled team of reporters to cover a certain news item. This implies a planned and joined multi-media production from the perspective of convergence. Pre-purposing is therefore not a one-sided but a multiple-sided way of cooperation between newsrooms.
The aim of the convergence project could now be described in the following way:
- to independently produce multi-media news items during the Festival - to re-purpose content from Cue productions - to pre-purpose content in joined and planned projects 7
- and to cooperate with Grocott’s Mail, the local print newspaper in Grahamstown, that was interested in news around the Festival as well.
At the beginning of the festival it was decided that each newsroom would run its own daily meetings; a joined convergence meeting was planned in the morning in order to exchange information about content production, discuss re-purposing and initiate pre-purposing.
2.1 The NIKA Workflow System
The NIKA workflow system was up and running the last day before the Festival. It was used and tested during the first day. The production of news was organised around a three-step workflow: reporting, editing, and final. Word processors and agenda’s were part of the system.
However, to publish the content the files had to be copied to the layout system in order to make it ready for lay-out and print. It also had to be copied to the CMS (Content Management System) for publication on the website of Cue Online.
The advantage of NIKA is that it uses a database and moves away from folder based production. However, audio, video, and pictures can not be handled, and digital rights are not implemented. Apart from this, there was no real introduction to NIKA for the reporters and editors, and no tests were done in advance.
After one day of operation, which worked fine for the Festival Blog, NIKA did not collapse but was put aside by the print newsroom. The main argument of the print reporters and editors was that it was ‘too slow’ and did not help them with production. They argued that ‘it doubled production because one had to copy to other systems for publishing on different platforms’.
Anne Taylor (the coordinator of the New Media Lab) does not agree with the print reporters and editors. She states that “the technology behind NIKA was solid and strong”. Furthermore she argues that “it worked without problems for a full day. We had to leave NIKA behind because of resistance from older editors.” She adds that “they were not accustomed with the system and they felt handicapped. Next time we need more time for a proper introduction and training”.
Taylor continues by saying that the experience with NIKA was very valuable. NIKA has a bigger scope than being just the workflow system 8
for Cue. It is intended to be an open source workflow system to be used in African newsrooms. “This was just the first test and we are working on a new version.” Adding that “what we learned is that we need to introduce the concept of an online workflow system better”.
Therefore, it was not the technology but the attitude and the lack of an appropriate introduction that caused the end of the NIKA system after the first day.
Brian Garman (lecturer Design and directing Cue newspaper) continues mildly: “It is a pity that we had to leave behind NIKA after one day, but the system could not properly be tested because it arrived late. Secondly, technically speaking, the system was not perfect. For example, editing copy in a small screen proved to be very tiresome.” Garman adds that it is “more important that training on the system did not take place. With training the reporters and editors would have become acquainted with the workflow and they would have also developed a common attitude towards a new way of working in the direction of convergence”.
2.2 TV and Radio Production within the Workflow System
Cue TV and Cue Radio production were not included in NIKA. The end of the use of the workflow system therefore did not affect the cooperation. Paul Hills (TV lecturer) states that the interesting issue in this convergence project was not technical, but social. “Although nothing was planned explicitly, students started to cooperate and engage in common production for TV and the web. The result of this ‘social convergence’ was a common attitude towards producing video for TV and the web”.
Of course in the future more planning is needed: “we need to especially look at the professional standards of journalism production. Our main criteria must be: could a production be marketed? Does it fulfill the information needs of a public?” Hills adds that “convergence is an end product, the result of cooperation between various media that is tested on the market. Secondly, we have to look at our educational goals: the whole production is part of a learning process. In this process the idea of development journalism is leading”.
Conclusion: after the first day we were back to scratch again. There was separation between the media platforms and their newsrooms and folder based production in stead of one workflow system.
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However, the relationship between the various newsrooms from the perspective of convergence was good. Not at least because there was one newsroom, only divided by sliding doors. In this way the convergence editors could easily connect to print, photography and Cue Online. Online was sharing the room with the convergence group.
Communication with TV became very good when both sides got the impression that one could share content and create common production. Running one floor down to the studio was not a hindrance for good communication.
In the end, because of close contact during production, the convergence meetings were not scheduled anymore. However, meetings are still an important part of a converged newsroom to set up and plan joint productions, to check deadlines, etc.
3. Production of the Festival Blog See supplement 1 for an overview
Looking at the outcomes of this project from an ideal convergence perspective (one newsroom, a multimedia desk, one workflow system, adequate training) the results were small. However, the limitations were clear from the start of the project. And as explained these limitations were enhanced when the NIKA system was discarded.
It was still possible to first try and re-publish content from the other newsrooms by adding content of our own. Or the other way around: to add content from the other newsrooms to our own news productions. This would simply be re-purposing content.
More exciting for the Festival Blog is to try and initiate stories based on common production by a multi-skilled team. The content could then be published on the various platforms and combined on the Blog.
3.1 A Summary of the Statistics
Content - 56 Stories in 10 days with an average of 6 postings per day; - More than half the stories included multimedia; - 15 (25%) Of the stories had at least one element of re-purposing; - 2 Stories were pre-purposed (1%); - 4 Stories were re purposed on an interactive map; 10
- There were 4 advertisements in the sidebar; 1 advertisement in a video; - 2 Final video productions: one of them was for a Dutch audience (about the township of Grahamstown) which could be published on the web or TV.
People involved Number of HANA reporters: 8 Editor: 1 Video editors: 2 Producer: 1 Assignment editor: 1
Cooperation The Festival Blog worked closely with Cue Pix, Cue TV, Cue Radio, Cue Online; but less intense with Cue print and Grocott’s Mail.
Media coverage 1 story for Africa Interactive See Supplement 3: Convergence and Multi-Media at National Arts Festival - 13 July 2007; By Elvira van Noort, Grahamstown, South Africa. 1 story for MediaNews See Supplement 4: Convergence and Multi-Media at National Arts Festival - 26 August 2007; By Elvira van Noort, Grahamstown, South Africa.
Linked by Mail & Guardian AfricaNews Skoeps
Total views 1883, max. 404 individual readers
Best read story HIV/Aids story: 24 comments See Supplement 2: Google Analytics
In general it can be concluded that the Festival Blog was successful. Production was high and it contained a variety of different media: ranging from text to slide shows, to audio and video. But from a convergence perspective the result are limited. However, given the constraints, it was successful in the sense that 25% of stories had at least an element of convergence (generally re-purposing). 11
Also, it was an important experience because it provided the team with insights into the practical works of convergence which can be of help in the future.
3.2 Production Set-up
In the first days of the convergence projects the topics of productions where decided about in early morning meetings. In that same meeting yesterdays’ production was discussed and evaluated. Peter Verweij chaired the meetings and played the role of assignment editor.
Decisions about today’s topics included the type of story and the media involved. Therefore, a story written by the Festival Blog team could become a multimedia story by enhancing with photos from Cue Pixs, an audio file from Cue Radio, or using content from Cue Online.
John Driedonks from the School of Journalism in The Netherlands played the important role of producer in this process. Some of the stories became a topic for Cue TV and video was exchanged. Generally this type of re-purposing was done during story production on the same day, and on a more ad hoc basis (without prior planning).
At the end of day the Festival Blog editors were just looking for content from other platforms that could enhance their own production. In other words: our production on the Blog was used as a framework for adding other content.
Elvira van Noort, graduate from the School of Journalism in The Netherlands and now a Master student at Rhodes (writing a thesis about newsroom convergence), was responsible for all the sub-editing. Dutch students Sander Knura and Dennis de Vries took care of video production and video editing. The reporting was done by the HANA (Highway Africa News Agency) journalists.
3.3 Examples Highlighted
Multimedia stories • ‘African Dancers’ is a text based story with a slide show that has background music: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=164
• The story about the ‘Little Amateurs’, was produced in the same way, but also included video: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=151 12
Re-purposed stories • The story about ‘Police and Security during the Festival’ was a text based story, which was later enhanced with audio from Cue Radio: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=119
• The review about Pieter Dirk Uys’ show Evita was enhanced in the same way. After the review was written, a slide show of pictures from Cue Pix was added. It was then linked to Cue Online, and the story was later published in local newspaper Grocott’s Mail: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=199
• The ‘Jazz’ story was not more than a slide show based on photos by Cue Pix and a recording of a session: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=271
Worth mentioning are the photos in the masterhead of the Festival Blog. These were taken from Cue Pix on a daily basis and added into the Flash application. This made the Blog more dynamic, but also provided a basis for closer cooperation with Cue Pix.
Pre-purposed stories The ‘Hiv/Aids’ story was an example of a planned production by a multimedia team that consisted of Festival Blog reporters and Cue Online students. It aimed at a total production including: text, audio, and video, to be published all together on the Blog. At the same time all individual elements could be published on distinct platforms: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=364
The news flow and re-purposing Re-purposing happened on an ad hoc basis. The Festival Blog had its own production schedule and added new elements from other newsrooms to the productions while working on it.
In order to do that, communication between the different newsrooms is vital. The converged newsroom meeting was a good starting point for exchanging information about the productions of each platform.
Communication lines became more direct later in the week. Running to the TV newsroom, situated on the floor below, to have a short discussion about the production and exchange of content proved to be easy. What was very helpful to improve communication were the 13
sliding doors between Cue print, Cue Pix, and Cue Online. For example: producing a slide show based on Cue Pix photos, or a cooperation with Cue Online, or referring to an article in Cue.
Important to note is that most contacts initiated from reporters and editors of the Festival Blog. Again, convergence in this experiment was a one-side initiative. It worked in this way but it has important limitations: it is not planned during production and was not based on common production ideas.
To conclude: within a convergence project, not only the technology but also the organisation and communication between the newsrooms are determining factors. Even when NIKA was discarded, re-purposing continued. Above all, even with a perfect workflow system, communication and planning are still vital.
3.4 Experiments with Story Telling
Two ideas were implemented on the Festival Blog for a new way of story telling: an interactive map and 90 degrees panorama views. The map can be viewed here: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/wp- content/uploads/2007/07/gtownmap1.php It is still rudimentary, but the idea can become more interesting and a prolific example of interactive journalism. The map uses Flash software to integrate text, audio, video, and photos onto the map.
A second idea where the 90 degrees panorama views. With a good camera and the software production is easy. The photos are arranged in a panorama to create the idea of a video, and that one is looking around in a space. An interesting next step could be to make the panorama clickable to be able to display a video or to link to a text or slideshow. The following panorama gives an impression from the Arch over High Street at the entrance of Rhodes University: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=358
3.5 Experiments with Skoeps and Citizen Reporting
One of the cell phones used by the Festival Blog production team was sponsored by Skoeps, a popular photo blog in the Netherlands. The cell phone had a high quality camera to take photos, video and record sound. The idea was to make pictures during the Festival and to publish them on Skoeps. But this appeared to be impossible for technical reasons: the MMS protocol for sending pictures did not work 14
over international lines. Photos were therefore sent to Skoeps by e- mail. Experiments with citizen reporting were cancelled because of the above problem but the cell phone was used as an excellent mobile reporting tool.
3.6 Cooperation with Grocott’s Mail
The Festival Blogs’ main objective was to produce news around the Festival and the city. This means that from a content perspective the Blog was closer to Grocott’s Mail then to the printed Cue, which reviewed shows only. Cue Online, under the heading @fest, had news stories around the Festival and the city. For the future it could be interesting to intensify the cooperation with Grocott’s Mail.
3.7 Advertisements and Business Models
During the production of the Blog advertising was tested on a small scale. Using clickable icons in the sidebar on the right of the page or adding a 10 second advertisement to a video proved simple. The story about ‘Rubbish at the Festival’, starts with an advertisement for the Old Gaol, a backpackers in Somerset Street: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/?p=342
More research is needed whether this could become a source of income to cover expenses for further cooperation. The ads that are currently published in Cue newspaper could also be published online. Studies using various business models should make clear what the possibilities are. The business model of Cue (the paper is completely financed by advertising) could be an interesting example.
4. Lessons Learnt and a look at the Future
From our observations one can safely conclude that convergence is more then a one-sided initiative towards re-purposing content. Joint planning and production by multimedia teams, based on close cooperation, is vital. Technologies like a workflow system and a central database are certainly an important element but the attitude of reporters and editors towards convergence is equally important.
4.1 Production Issues
Planning a next convergence project should therefore start from this perspective. Brian Garman stresses: “the important lesson for the 15
future is that we have to work on a common editorial view for converged production from the start. That is more than planning production and using mixed teams for production. I think, this will be an important step towards convergence, but in this production, the newspaper will still lead”.
On top of this, it is important to have a small group of so called ‘early adapters’ in each newsroom. These early adapters can push cooperation and help with technological obstacles. There is also the issue of introducing and training staff about new technologies, software, and a workflow system. One simply cannot expect that print journalists will work with a technological new way of production.
Equally important are the lines of communication and deadlines for production. Joint converged newsrooms meetings, in which representatives from each newsroom take part, are an essential part. It informs each platform about the content production of the other newsrooms and there will be time to plan joint multimedia production.
Each newsroom should have a multimedia editor that reports and communicates with the other platforms and attends joint meetings.
Deadlines, although they could become rolling, are important to check on the status of production. Morning and afternoon meetings in a converged setting seem to be necessary, although there could be additional contact during the day. Professional communication and organisation is therefore an important issue to pay attention to in planning the next step.
4.2 Other Issues
Another issue is the multiple languages spoken in the South African newsroom. English would be the first choice because it is also the language used on the platforms. Some reporters and editors got annoyed with people using other languages; these should in the future only be used in private.
Finally, from the start of the convergence project we were struggling to find an identity for the Festival Blog. This was a problem because of the unclear relationship with Cue. Although our aim was to experiment with convergence if one wants to continue this project the identity of the publication must be clear.
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This question of identity is closely related to our audience. For whom is the Festival Blog? Is it for the internet user, for visitors of the Festival….? If one aims at visitors or the inhabitants of Grahamstown, it could be worthwhile to experiment with SMS.
While the number of internet connections in Grahamstown is limited the number of cell phone users is not. Headlines from the Blog could be sent to subscribers by SMS and paid for by advertising. The subscribers can, on demand, ask for photos, text or even audio and video on their cell phone.
4.3 The Future
From this first convergence experiment at the AMM we can think of new ways of running this project in the future. For example, one could think about intensifying the cooperation with the School of Journalism in The Netherlands.
Brian Garman adds that “making the Festival production a highlight of cooperation” can be possible in the future. Much planning and funding is needed to get this started, but it would certainly focus the exchange program of Dutch student to Rhodes University.
Anne Taylor: “convergence is one thing, but content wise one could say that the content of the Cue productions is a good training ground for arts writing”.
Citizen reporting was one of the targets of this project as well. It did not get off the ground. The next step would be the have a moblog or photo blog to which visitors of the Festival can sent their own cell phone photos with a short caption using SMS.
Personally, based on my experiences during this project, my outlook for the future is optimistic. All students and lecturers showed great interest in the convergence project and fully cooperated. This was the basis for the success of the Festival Blog and the experiment with convergence. And last but not least for the good time we had during the production. I am sure that this atmosphere of understanding and cooperation is a firm basis to build on for the next year, and make a new step towards convergence at AMM and at the School of Journalism in The Netherlands.
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5. The Convergence Project in Perspective: Experiences at the Mail & Guardian, The Times, and Die Burger See Supplement 4
Theory and practice never meet completely, but from discussion at three South African Newspapers it is clear that the theoretical pre- suppositions are a valid condition to get convergence working.1
From the ideal perspective a converged newsroom is firstly based on one production or workflow system. One database stores the whole production, accessing is structured by various digital rights. Secondly, there is one central multimedia desk or news hub, where decisions about news selection and productions are taken.
Journalists and reporters are working in multimedia teams for production. Journalists are not working for print, audio, video or strictly online anymore: their job is to get the news. Convergence means that together they are able to tell the news story for different platforms.
Die Burger takes the most advanced position, and it seems that they have realised a work setting and technological environment which comes closest to the theoretical suppositions of a converged newsroom.
The Times, although lacking a unified production system, understand that team production is vital. Both newspapers work in an open newsroom with short communication lines.
The Mail & Guardian, found an interesting way to bring the blogosphere in journalism and enhance interaction with readers.
The convergence project at the National Arts Festival should take these experiences into account when planning production for the future. First of all: the newsroom should be open; the sliding doors in the media lab proved to be operating well in this respect.
1 See Convergent Journalism. An Introduction. Writing and Producing Across Media by Stephan Quinn and Vincent F. Filak. Elsevier, Focal Press 2005. ISBN 10: 0-240-80724-3. Esp chapters 1, What is Convergence? Chap 2 Multimedia Assignment Editor and Producer and Chap 10 Multimedia Journalism: Putting It All Together. And online: Tim Hallower’s book ‘Inside Reporting’ introduction into journalism focusing on convergence: http://www.timharrower.com/PDFs/convergence.pdf . 18
Secondly, a well tested production system is very important. Although NIKA will in the near future not be able to handle audio and video, at least handling text and photos for Cue print and Cue Online must be implemented.
Third, working with teams of reporters, in which each has an assigned role is the only way to pre-purpose stories off the ground and also the first step towards converged journalism. Joint newsroom meetings were decisions on news selection and production takes place are essential; not only once a day but continuously, because of the rolling deadlines of production.
Fourth, the creation of a central multimedia desk or news hub is an important visible sign and center for converged production. Fifth, all reporters must be well trained in the workflow or shared production system, but must above all be aware that they are working for different news platforms and not for a single one. Six, training of reporters must not be on the level of technology or ICT skills but on story telling for different platforms so that they can shift between mediums and show journalistic skills on all.
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Supplement 1: Overview of the production
Date Headline/reporter Type of story Convergence: medium and type (re- or pre-purpose)
6/28 Lunch 1 / Elvira Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=97 Where are students? / Emrakeb & Trishni Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=107 Rhodes playground/ Emrakeb & Trishni Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=111 Police and security/ Remmy Pics Audio from http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text Cue Radio festivalblog/?p=119 Audio Nigerian home movies/ Remmy Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=122 Weather/ David Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=112 6/29 What’s in Cue?/ Elvira Text Cue http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pic festivalblog/?p=126 Festival night life?/ Zachary, Mao, Levi Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=131 Lunch/ Elvira Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=141 Little amateurs/Emrakeb & Trishni Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Video festivalblog/?p=151 Slideshow Audio African Dancers/ Elvira Slideshow Audio http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=164 Vox pop / Joyce Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pic festivalblog/?p=153 Cell audio Eye of vultures/ Levi Cell video 20
http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=157 Police/ Remmy Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=165 Buy Cue/ Joyce Pics Cue Radio http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=176 Audio
6/30 Lunch/ Sander Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=156 Accoustics/ Levi Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=196 Township noctural/ Mao Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=193 Festival in the township/ Levi Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=195 Evita/ Peter Slideshow Cue http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text Grocott’s festivalblog/?p=199 Mail Cue Pix Lone sharks/ Emrakeb & Trishni Slideshow Audio Cue Radio http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=202 Vender and vending/ Sander Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=216
7/1 Lunch/ Elvira Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=213 Traders party/ Remmy Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=219 Audio Weekend price drops/ Joyce Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=221 Text Nightlife condoms/ Mao Pic http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text 21
festivalblog/?p=218 Festival night life/ Levi Slideshow Audio http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=234 Vox pop/ Joyce Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=246 Drizzle and sunshine/ David Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=247
7/2 Mutisse plays/ Dennis Slideshow Audio Cue Online http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=250 Steve biko/ Elvira Slideshow Cue Online http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=255 Lunch/ Emrakeb & Trishni Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=251 Languages/ Emrakeb & Trishni Video x2 http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=254 Festival empowers G’town/ Remmy Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=261
7/3 Capt Naidoo/ Remmy Text Cue Online http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics Cue festivalblog/?p=269 Jazz/ Peter Slideshow Audio Cue Pix http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=271 Eskom strike/ Emrakeb & Trishni Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=275 Beaufortstreet/ David Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=280
Sengal Lunch/ Joyce Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=283 22
360 degrees/ Dennis Panorama http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=286 Condoms/ Mao, Zachary, Levi Video Cue TV http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=284
7/4 Maxwell/ Levi Pics Slideshow http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=301 Lunch Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pic festivalblog/?p=293 Crime fighters Slideshow http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=318 Botswana dance/ Remmy Pics http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Text festivalblog/?p=329 Stunning colors/ Elvira Slideshow Cue Pix http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Cue Online festivalblog/?p=337
7/5 Lunch/ Levi Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pic festivalblog/?p=340 Rubbish/ Sander Video Ad for Old http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Gaol festivalblog/?p=342 backpackers Vox pop most liked/ Joyce Text Video from http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics Cue Online festivalblog/?p=346 Artist parade/ Remmy Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=357 360 degrees Arch/Elvira & Peter Panorama http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=358
7/6 Vox pop most liked/ Sander Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=365 Steve Biko/ Elvira Text Cue Online 23
http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Video Cue TV festivalblog/?p=366 Lunch Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=345 HIV/ multimedia team Multimedia Radio http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ TV festivalblog/?p=364 Pics Text Lunch/ Remmy Text http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ Pics festivalblog/?p=379 Home brews / Investigative team Text Video http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ undercover festivalblog/?p=380 & investigative GM 3 final stories/ Sander & Dennis About the township: (video) http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=387 Next year: (pics) http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=390 Popular act: (video) http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/ festivalblog/?p=391
Quantitative Summary of Production Date Production Re- & pre- multimedia purpose 6/28 5 Re-purpose: Cue 1 Radio Cue Online 6/29 9 Re-purpose: Cue 5 Radio Cue Online 6/30 7 Re-purpose: Cue 5 Pix Cue Grocott’s Mail 7/1 7 3 7/2 5 Re-purpose: 3 24
Cue Online 7/3 7 Re-purpose: 4 Cue Pix Cue 7/4 5 Re-purpose: 3 Cue Pix 7/5 5 Re-purpose: 3 Cue Online Pre-purpose: Cue Radio Cue TV Grocott’s Mail & Investigative Reporting 7/6 6 2
Total 56 Re-purposed: 13 29 Pre-purposed: 2 Masterhead Re-purposed: Cue Pix About Re-purpose: Cue TV Final 2 Video Cue TV
Conclusion from statistics • 56 stories in 10 days with an average of 6 postings per day • More than half include multimedia • 15 (25%) stories had at least one element of re-purposing • Two stories were pre-purposed (1%) • 4 stories were re-purposed on an interactive map • ads in the sidebar; 1 ad in a video • 2 final video productions
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Supplement 2: Google Analytics
Login Google Analytics: [email protected] / smeerkaas https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/dashboard?id=3936049& scid=1464353
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Supplement 3: Article about the convergence project by Elvira van Noort. Published on the Africa Interactive website: www.africanews.com
13 July 2007
By Elvira van Noort, Grahamstown, South Africa
Convergence and multi-media at National Arts Festival
“We are blurring the lines between different media newsrooms and pushing cross-media to the limit,” says Peter Verweij, professor of online journalism at the School of Journalism in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Verweij is at Rhodes University’s Journalism and Media Studies department in South Africa to run a weblog during the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.
Together with eight Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) journalists, two Dutch students and cross-media lecturer John Driedonks from the same School of Journalism, Verweij produced a Festival Weblog that incorporates newsroom convergence and multi-media publishing.
Cue newspaper, Cue Online, Cue TV, Cue Radio and Cue Pix [pictures] are all produced separately at Rhodes during the Festival. So far, each Cue platform runs their own show: with their own goals, production systems, and business model. But this year, the Festival Weblog aimed to bring these media together onto one platform.
Converging, or integrating, these media platforms onto one Weblog can culminate in better journalism. It integrates the best of each media platform: the emotion of TV and radio combined with in-depth reporting from the newspaper and the reach of online is just one example.
“This is a new way of multi-media publishing for a cross-media product, and readers of this kind of blogs can choose the medium they want”, explains Driedonks.
In ten days time the Festival Weblog was able to produce 56 stories, more than half used multi-media. This proved to be quite the experience for some of the HANA journalists. “We are getting to learn new skills and we made good use of ourselves so far. Most important was the picking up of new skills, like TV, I’ve never done that before” 27
says Ugandan David Musoke, editor of the Rwandan newspaper New Times and HANA correspondent.
Levi Kabwato, HANA correspondent and journalist for the Malawian newspaper the Daily Times says that “my presence here will also benefit the many colleagues and friends I left in Malawi as I’ll have a chance of imparting the knowledge I’m gaining here. For African journalism, I think that’s awesome.”
Multi-media convergence The Convergence Project at the Festival follows a worldwide trend in the newspaper industry to converge newsrooms. This move towards convergence is relatively new for the African media landscape. Looking at South Africa, it is only since last year that media companies like the Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times have put convergence on top of their agenda’s and made multi-media part of their daily routine.
To do so there are many hurdles to overcome, like changing the attitudes of the reporters and editors at work. These attitudes have to change in order to enable convergence. An atmosphere of equality between the media needs to be created: a reporter is not just working for the newspaper but for all platforms.
Lessons learnt from the Convergence Project While the earlier attitudes of the existing Cue platforms towards the Festival Weblog where not so positive their mindset changed within three days. Once journalists and editors noticed that the Weblog offers additional space for their content, for a wider audience, they started to visit the Weblog newsroom on a more regular basis.
To improve the works of convergence the difference between re- purposing and pre-purposing content proved vital. As Verweij explains in his report about the Project, there is a sharp distinction between the two terms. Re-purposing is re-using existing content on a separate platform like the Weblog while pre-purposing means a joint project of a multi-skilled team of reporters to cover a certain topic.
Only two stories were pre-purposed in the final days of the Weblog because this type of story takes longer to prepare and produce since all media platforms are involved.
The future of the Festival Weblog In the future the Weblog will look at approaching so-called ‘early adapters’ within each newsroom who can help spreading knowledge 28 about working with multi-media. Another idea is to have a multi-media editor who concentrates on convergence and tries to link stories together at each platform. The Weblog also needs a business plan that incorporates an advertising strategy.
Other possibilities include incorporating cell phones as a media platform. This is not only to spread the Weblog’s content to a wider audience but to also attract citizen journalists who can submit pictures and stories.
“Personally my outlook for the future is optimistic, based on my experiences during this project. All students and lecturers had a great interest in the convergence project and fully cooperated”, comments Verweij. He adds that it is sure that “this atmosphere of understanding and cooperation is a firm basis to build on for the next year”.
This project was made possible with financial assistance of: Africa- Interactive, the Dutch Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA), the Utrecht School of Journalism, Skoeps.nl, D3Media and DrieCom & Partners.
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Supplement 4: Article about the convergence project by Elvira van Noort. Published in the MediaNews newsletter.
26 August 2007
By Elvira van Noort, Grahamstown, South Africa
Convergence and multi-media at National Arts Festival
By Elvira van Noort
‘We are blurring the lines between different media newsrooms and pushing cross-media to the limit,’ says Peter Verweij, professor of online journalism at the School of Journalism in Utrecht, in the Netherlands. Verweij’s comments follows a visit to the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa to run an exciting project on integrating TV, radio, print and photography.
The convergence project, of which NiZA was one of the sponsors, was held during the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.
Together with eight Highway Africa News Agency (HANA) journalists, two Dutch students and cross-media lecturer John Driedonks from the Dutch School of Journalism, Verweij produced a Festival Weblog incorporating newsroom convergence and multi-media publishing. Newsroom convergence integrates formerly separate media into one newsroom to encourage cross-media cooperation. Within this converged newsroom the different media, staffs and media technologies (from online video to newspaper workflow systems) are combined. This means that all staff equally work for the newspaper, radio, television and online site or whichever media platform is involved.
For years, Cue newspaper, Cue Online, Cue TV, Cue Radio and Cue Pix [pictures], were all produced separately at Rhodes during the Festival. Each Cue platform ran their own show with their own goals, production systems, and business models. But this year, the Festival Weblog aimed to bring these media together onto one platform. Reporters of the Festival Weblog used text, audio, video and photographs to publish about the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.
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Converging, or integrating, into one weblog can culminate in better journalism because it integrates the best of each: the emotion of TV and radio combined with in-depth reporting from the newspaper.
Worldwide trend
Although the initiative follows a worldwide trend in the newspaper industry to converge newsrooms, convergence is relatively new for the African media landscape with South African media such as the Mail & Gaurdian, Die Burger, and the Sunday Times only last year including convergence in their agenda’s and incorporating multi-media as part of their daily routine.
The Festival Weblog was able to produce 56 stories in just 10 days and more than half of these used multi-media. The experience proved valuable for some of the HANA-journalists.
‘Most important was the picking up of new skills, like TV; I’ve never done that before,’ said Ugandan David Musoke, editor of the Rwandan newspaper New Times and HANA correspondent.
Levi Kabwato, a fellow HANA correspondent and journalist for the Malawian newspaper The Daily Times said that he would share the new skills learnt. ‘My presence here will also benefit the many colleagues and friends I left in Malawi as I’ll have a chance of imparting the knowledge I’m gaining here. For African journalism, I think that’s awesome.’
Changed mindset
To enable an atmosphere of equality between the media platforms, a reporter within a converged newsroom needs to be aware that they are not just working for a newspaper but also for online, TV and radio.
While the earlier attitudes of the existing Cue platforms in Grahamstown towards the new Festival Weblog where not very positive, their mindset changed within three days. Once journalists and editors noticed that the Weblog offers additional space for their content for a wider audience, they started to visit the Weblog newsroom on a more regular basis.
According to Verweij it is important for journalists in a converged newsroom to understand the sharp distinction between the terms ‘re- 31 purposing’ and ‘pre-purposing’ news articles. Re-purposing is re-using existing content from for example TV or radio on a separate platform - such is the Weblog -while pre-purposing means a joint project of a multi-skilled team of reporters to cover a certain topic. The latter includes combined diary meetings and planning a story within a multi-media team. This is where a converged newsrooms’ power lies: by working together and combining the best of all platforms.
Only two stories were pre-purposed in the final days of the Festival Weblog because this type of story takes longer to prepare and produce since all media platforms are involved. However, once the journalists accepted working together within different media platforms – which started to happen after five days or so – it became easier and quicker to combine their content onto the Weblog.
Way forward
In the future, the Weblog will consider to have a multi-media editor who concentrates on convergence and tries to link stories together at each platform.
Other possibilities include incorporating cellphones as a media platform. This is not only to spread the Weblog’s content to a wider audience, but to also attract citizen journalists who can submit pictures and stories.
‘Based on my experiences during this project, my outlook for the future of this convergence project is optimistic,’ comments Verweij. ‘All students and lecturers had a great interest in the convergence project and fully co-operated. There is an atmosphere of understanding which contributes to establishing a firm basis to build on for the following year.’
He adds that ‘the Weblog can in the future include more pre-purposed stories, generate advertising revenue, look at adopting a simple but effective workflow system, and establish a converged newsroom culture within the School of Journalism so the students can learn about the newsrooms of the future.’
Elvira van Noort ([email protected]) Elvira van Noort is a freelance correspondent and Master 32 student in Media Studies as well as a Teaching Assistant in Print Journalism at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She is currently organising the NiZA-sponsored Digital Citizen Indaba 2007 (http://dci.ru.ac.za) at Rhodes University.
Links The Festival Weblog: http://www.schoolvoorjournalistiek.com/festivalblog/ Convergence website: http://www.convergencejournalism.com/
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Supplement 5: Convergence at South African Newspapers
Notes from a visit to the Mail & Guardian and The Times on Friday the 2nd of August 2 and a visit to Die Burger on August 25.
By Peter Verweij
From my experiences of the convergence project one can conclude that convergence is not an easy task. Integrating different newsrooms and different ways of working in journalism, in order to create multi- platform publishing presupposes not only technological issues like, a workflow system and a central database for storing production, but also social and organisational issues like a common attitude towards convergence and working in multimedia teams or a central organised newsroom in one space in order to have short lines of communication.
The Times and The Sunday Times
Newspapers are struggling in the same way with these problems, as becomes clear from the practises at the Mail & Guardian (http://www.mg.co.za/ ) and The Times (http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/home.aspx ).
The biggest problem in moving from a print newsroom to a converged newsroom is the social and organisational issue. Ray Hartley of The Times states: “We started from scratch and build a total new newsroom, with a new workflow system, database and a new organisational structure. We left the problems of the print newsroom behind, and that is our biggest advantage”.
The Sunday Times, a weekly on Sundays and a classical print paper, started in April 2007 with a new online edition, which was produced together with a new daily, The Times. This news daily is only available to subscribers to the Sunday Times, and is not for sale.
An important step of The Times was to create a new newspaper based on an online edition. The Sunday Times was left behind: no one tried to change that newsroom in the direction of convergence.
The Times and the Online edition are a good example of a new converged newsroom. Entering the newsroom already creates the impression of a new direction. In the middle of the large room is the central desk where editors and sub editors are working. In front of 34
them are work islands for each beat, producing content about sports, politics, and crime on a daily basis. Each production unit consists of writing journalists, a photographer and a multi media journalist.
Important to note is that The Times sticks to classical specialisations in journalism and did not choose for multi-skilled journalism, where anybody has to do everything, and often nothing is really accomplished. Here every member has his or hers task or specialisation and together they produce the content.
Working together with a common attitude is the buzzword here. Not working separately or forcing journalists into cooperation needed for convergence. This working process presupposes of course that one is informed about each others specialisation. During production each team has to do its own research, Hartley says, there are no researchers added to the teams.
Of course that would be a perfect idea, but that would also enhance the cost of production; and they are producing a newspaper and not an investigative paper like the M&G.
The central desk, consisting of editors and sub editors, meets three times a day: monitoring the production process and taking editorial decisions for the newspaper and the online edition. Although production of print and online is integrated, print takes the lead and has priority: “Print is the engine” is what they say.
At midnight the newspaper is put online, and updated when there is breaking news.
The Times has a separate section for real multimedia stories or digital story telling, integrating text audio and video. Three former Rhodes students are now working as specialised multimedia journalists, Colin Daniels, Gregor Rohrig, and Carly Ritz, using, for example, Windows PhotoStory software to create a slideshow with audio.
Flash is also used for content production, but integrating this in the daily production is a big challenge. A problem is that for production are two different databases used: one for text and photographs and one for audio, video and multimedia productions. PC’s are used for text and print; Mac’s for multi media and video. A new CMS which integrates all production would be the next step.
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Important in the process of production is the decision making around integrated stories. Hartley says this is decided case by case and introspective, looking back at what worked well and what not. “We are trying to extend integration of audio and video with text as much as possible, but we do that step by step, and decide for each news issue how to run the story”.
Mobile reporting – or backpack journalism - is not much practised because the quality is too poor. Pictures made by cell phones and audio recordings are not used at the moment, also because sending over audio and video by telephone connections is too slow, 3G coverage is too poor in South Africa.
The focus at The Times is not on social media like blogs and moblogs or citizen journalism production. It is there but it is not one of the main targets. The Times tries to position itself in the market as a multimedia newspaper with a strong presence in online and the hardcopy edition.
The Mail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian has a totally different strategy. M&G is the oldest online newspaper in South Africa. It is a weekly with news stories and investigations, opinion, comments and analysis. Matthew Buckland, the publisher of the M&G Online, says “we are a newspaper and we don’t have audio and video. Perhaps we are going to publish audio and video feeds in the future, but we have to buy that from the newswires. At the moment the online edition is text based with pictures, and our daily news comes from the wires.”
The content of the weekly is published online during the week. Visitors of the M&G Online, can find full documents and reports, which were used in the print edition. Online also includes a photo gallery, sent to the newspaper and website by citizen reporters, Podcasts, and the Guide which is an overview of events and exhibitions during the week. Finally the blogs of readers and Thought Leaders are very popular to the visitors.
For the M&G it is important to generate income from the website. Either using multimedia or exploring the blogosphere. Buckland has chosen for the last option and Vincent Maher, who directed the Rhodes New Media Lab, and is now the Chief Technological Officer at the M&G Online, implements this strategy by creating new interactive 36
applications. From the convergence perspective this means that at the M&G Online and print are still separated newsrooms, also physically.
Print and online have almost nothing in common and there are no joint operations. Buckland agrees that an interesting strategy could be to do more computer assisted research and reporting, as the M&G is an investigative paper. Maps with data, spreadsheets and graphs could be an interesting interface for new ways of digital storytelling. But because of limited resources this does not seem an option.
Instead the strategy of the M&G starts at the other end of the convergence process: interaction with the user. The photo gallery consisting of photographs sent by users and the blogs are an interesting example of convergence.
Since his start at the M&G Maher has created several applications to enhance the interaction with users. The photo gallery, based on citizen reporting, is searchable by keywords and has a tag cloud. Blogging is more interesting because Maher developed an application called Amatomu, “ which rants the blogosphere”.
Every user can create his own blog at the M&G, but the question is: where is the overview? Who is writing what and what are the leading topics? Amatomu, summarizes the South African blogosphere; it creates a front pages with the latest ‘news’ on the blogs. Blogs are thus viewed as a news source on its own. Amatomu does more than summarising or aggregating, it also creates statistics by analysing the log files.
The interaction between blogs and print is weak in South Africa, as is the same as in The Netherlands. Some blogs, high up in the long tail, are picked up by print but only rarely and mostly not on hard news issues.
Convergence at the M&G is therefore limited to the integration of blogs and online, by treating blogs as a source and news in itself. M&G also creates blogs for journalists, the ‘Thought Leaders Blog’. These blogs are written by journalists and experts, highly opinionated and informative. The idea is to use Thought Leaders Blog to create a closer relationship between the newspapers and online, because journalists of the M&G can use the blogs to write down notes that did not make it into print.
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At the annual Highway Africa Conference in Grahamstown the Thought Leaders Blog will be used to blog live from the conference. Here the same techniques will be used as at the Festival Blog during the National Arts Festival.
The M&G’s case shows convergence from another angle. The digital revolution created a new medium which blurs the lines between the media and forces journalism to cope with it. However, the digital revolution also change the process of mass communication from a one-way street into a two-lane highway: interaction with the users.
This interaction with the users and user content is researched by the M&G. Convergence is not so much about multimedia content and digital storytelling, but about the communication with the user, and the aggregation of user content.
Convergence at Die Burger
Die Burger is one of the oldest white newspapers in South Africa and made a remarkable change from a conservative white elite newspaper, to a liberal and open multimedia newspaper for Afrikaans speaking readers. (http://www.dieburger.com/ ).
Die Burger is owned by Naspers which was established in 1915. Its first product was the daily newspaper Die Burger, published in the same year as the company was founded. A monthly publication, De Huisgenoot, saw the light in 1916. A modest printing plant was established, after which several book publishers, magazines and numerous other titles were either launched or acquired.
In the decades since it was established Naspers has grown to become an integrated multinational media group focusing on the media and publishing industries, digital products, television and the internet. In August 2000 Media24 – the former Nasmedia – became an independent company with its own comprehensive infrastructure. As a result of the restructuring Naspers moved all its print media interests – newspapers, magazines, printing plants and related internet interests – under one umbrella with a single identity, an independent executive and its own vision, operational strategy and board of directors.
Willem Pretorius, senior assistant editor, says that “the end of apartheid was a blessing for Naspers, because it finally could spread its wings and develop form a print company into an international multimedia company, aiming at large audiences in South Africa”. 38
Exactly the diversity of media in de Media24, makes Die Burger, as being part of Naspers, “perfectly positioned for convergence over the next 50 years”.
The structure of news production at Die Burger is an excellent example of multimedia production and convergence. “Internet is first, and print follows”, says Pretorius. Our online news is updated directly, with text audio and video sent out by SMS, and later it will be printed. In order to do that two things are of great importance: the workflow system and the organisation of the newsroom.
The organisation of the newsroom is an open space, with a central desk or hub, were all the different platforms come together. At rear are large screens showing the news on the various platforms. During my visit a story broke about a murder; immediately a team of video reporters, a photographer and a writing reporter went to the venue where it happened. The writer sent the story over the phone and later photo’s and video where added to the story and the text story was updated.
‘News is leading’, says Pretorius, and ‘for a mayor news event we sent a multimedia team directly, and later at the hub we can decide on which platforms and how it will be published. The channel editor, who works like a producer, plays an important role in the decision making’.
This way of working, this organisational structure, was the result of experiments over a number of months. “This is the structure that works for us”, says Pretorius, and he stresses the importance of the open space, with short contact lines between two various beats and sections of the newspaper and online.
“We started with a selection of our best reporters and editors and asked whether they would like to work in a multimedia environment. We trained them and helped them to get the job done in this new multimedia environment. They liked it, and understood that with the new technology you can reach more readers and inform them better. Now we have trained the whole newsrooms and we are in full multimedia production.”
“Our intention is to roll out this model to our local newspapers as well, and transform them towards converged media. In fact: we had no choice, only print is no option, we need to be in this business, although it does not make the money. Die Burger, as a newspaper is still the flagship. However, if you want to change the directions of this ship you 39
have to change your bearings long in advance. And that is what we are doing in this converged newsroom”.
Pretorius stresses the interaction with readers; most online stories have the button ‘Praat saam’, welcoming comment and response. We don’t use blogs of the public, generally speaking they are to poor on journalistic standards and content. The blogs we are publishing are written by journalists or by invitation.
The second condition for success in convergence is the workflow system. De Waal Steyn, the multimedia editor at the news hub of Die Burger, took me on astonishing demonstration. The system is called ‘Eidos’ and produced by an Italian company. It has one database for text, audio, video, info graphics; the output database is connected to different platforms like print and web.
In one screen and with a few mouse clicks we moved from editing a video, put it online, change a photo caption, and took it to a newspaper page, for publishing later. The system is based on various folders or baskets, for the various platforms and within each basket are sub folders with different colors that reflect the stage of production, ranging from production to final editing. Of course to each basket, folder or sub folders different digital rights are attached.
De Waal says that for Die Burger the web, during the week, is leading “we have 80% office users, because of the lack of broad band in South Africa, and therefore we update constantly”. Print is still important, but not leading anymore. The content is derived from the online news, rewritten in depth, adding document-details.
In order to work here De Waal underlines that “we need reporters and editors, not technology geeks specialized in Java script or Flash. You must be able to work with it in a journalistic context. The technology becomes easier too handle, demanding less technological background”.
“We need less technology and more journalism, people who know how to write and publish for various platforms”. And of course multimedia reporting is team work, it is impossible that one journalist will do writing, photography and video or audio by its own.
But it could happen that a writer also takes a camera and shoots some footage. “The camera has only one button, automatic, and you have to get the picture in the center, that is all and everybody can learn that”. 40
Mobile phones are not used for reporting purposes, because of the lack of quality at the moment.
De Waal Steyn, concludes: “it took us quite a long time to get the workflow system trimmed and fine tuned, but now it works flawlessly. And of course we did a lot of experiments with the organisation of the newsroom so that it would works smoothly with production system. I think we are there now and that we could roll out this way of producing to our local newspapers and production units as well. And then we will have direct online access to local news”.