Technology Guide & Directory 2020/21
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TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2020/21 HELPING PUBLISHERS CONNECT WITH TODAY’S INNOVATORS CONTENT READER REVENUE NEWSPAPER MANAGEMENT TECH STACK PRODUCTION Luc Rademakers on what Recent report highlights Production, distribution publishers should look tech considersations lessons learned during for in a CMS needed for success the pandemic 6 8 16 Protecmedia1page210x297.pdf 7 04/12/2020 14:39:15 Your editorial solution, now in the cloud SUBSCRIPTIONS C WEB CMS M Y EDITORIAL A.I. CM MY CY AD PLANNER CMY K SMART DATA AD BOOKING SYSTEM AUDIENCES Milenium Cloud is Protecmedia’s new service in the cloud Reduce operating and infrastructure costs, paying for for the edition and publication of multiplatform content, the use of a platform that is scalable, flexible and on based on the technological efficacy of Oracle Cloud. demand. Maximise your productivity within a secure and Optimise and evolve your workflows and the result of customised virtual environment that is easy to implement, your business model through a solution that is highly with the guarantee of Protecmedia’s solidity and quality. available and uses cutting-edge technology. Strengthen your editorial strategy with advanced functionalities for the management of multichannel content. www.protecmedia.com EDITORIAL WAN-IFRA TECHNOLOGY GUIDE 2020/21 3 Our ‘Silver Linings’ Playbook By Dean Roper, Editor-in-Chief of WAN-IFRA The fallout of the ongoing pandemic for the news media industry As more publishers move to an audiences-first focus, their ability remains a bit of a mystery. But its initial impact is clear and has to leverage quality data (increasingly first-party) will pave the way been well-documented: a brutal decline in advertising revenue (al- toward a more sustainable business and future. As our report ready tipping that way pre-pandemic) – particularly in print. about the tech associated with a reader revenue strategy clearly So we won’t dwell on that in this publication – that would be revealed (see page 8), a comprehensive, coherent data strategy is too easy. Instead, here we will talk about the silver lining(s) that al- imperative. And that is critical not only for reader revenue strate- ways emerge during a crisis. gies but across the board. That strategy will inform every part of It is true that the “Change or Die” or “Now or Never” pleas the business. from news executives and media analysts during the pandemic Product development has taken on an even greater impor- carry more weight and urgency than they have in the past years. tance during the pandemic as newsrooms and publishers some- And I would say those pleas are not falling on deaf ears; in times need to pivot to the right product at the right time, or fact, it looks like most news publishers around the world are “an- tweak something that can prove a game-changer. To be able to swering the bell,” so to speak. do that, culture is the key, says Anita Zielina on page 12. As we have heard from hundreds of news executives and ex- Increasingly, new technologies like AI are playing a role for perts during our virtual events over the past nine months, their publishers – whether it be for content creation or helping to sur- newsrooms, businesses, production facilities have been tested like face content for digital subscriptions or predicting churn. But it is never before. But for the most part, they not only adapted quickly also being considered in production. Check out page 14 for the during the crisis, they proved to be agile, innovative, increasingly latest hype vs. reality advice. experimental and resilient. That’s just a few examples of recommendations we have in It has also brought more of a singular focus to their core pur- the Guide part of this edition. Finding the right technology part- pose, strategies, content and products. And as always, technology ners has never been more crucial, and this Directory of our mem- has played a central role in all of that. ber suppliers should prove invaluable in choosing yours. IMPRINT: TECHNOLOGY GUIDE & DIRECTORY 2020/21 WAN-IFRA Advertising All rights reserved. Republication, duplication or Chief Executive Officer: Vincent Peyrègne E-mail: [[email protected]] distribution of any article, image, graphic or media contained in the print or ePaper edition Director of Insights / Editor-in-Chief: Dean Roper Tel. +49.69.240063-261 or of any material posted on [www.wan-ifra. Editorial team: Brian Veseling, Advertising rates and terms and conditions pub- org] is prohibited without permission. Michael Spinner-Just, Simone Flückiger lished in Media Information 2020 are applicable. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited Design and production: Copyright and imprint manu-scripts. Viewpoints and signed contri- Gordon Steiger, www.gordonsteiger.com The Technology Guide & Directory is published butions do not necessarily express the opinion Editorial once a year in English. of WAN-IFRA. E-mail: [[email protected]] Copyright 2020 WAN-IFRA CH, Rotfeder-Ring Tel. +49.69.240063-0 11, 60327 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 4 NEWSROOM MANAGEMENT WAN-IFRA TECHNOLOGY GUIDE 2020/21 10 big ideas for newsroom trans formation and digital revenue growth COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the inaugural WAN-IFRA programme led by 1. News publishing was industrial; shift from print and advertising reve- Grzegorz Piechota (media researcher and now it is a service: When news was nue towards digital and subscrip- consultant) and George Brock (Visiting confined to only print, it was essentially tion-based revenue. As newsroom Professor of Practice, Cass Business School, an industrial process, but now it is a digital transformation enters a more City, University of London). service business. Publishers must worry intensive reader-centric phase and Brock and Piechota joined WAN-IFRA’s about the reader in every possible as- revenue sources continue to be dis- virtual Digital Media Asia 2020 conference pect from UX to subscription mes- rupted, newsroom leaders need to de- to take participants through a checklist of sages. Every aspect of a publisher’s re- velop new editorial visions, find ways key actions to guarantee success in digital lationship with each reader matters. to engage their audiences and attract publishing. The duo is training and leading Not every company that has moved new readers and re-organise their the five-month-long Newsroom and Busi- into digital has understood that the newsrooms to deliver on new strate- ness Transformation Asia 2020 (NBTA switch to becoming a service business gies. 2020) programme co-organised by WAN- affects the newsroom and its journal- IFRA and the Facebook Journalism Project. ists just as much as other departments. Amid the background, 10 news media While the news industry is witnessing 2. Think hard about style and “voice” companies (Bisnis Indonesia, Kompas crushing commercial pressures linked to online: Digital has changed journalism Media, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily In- the global pandemic, it is also seeing an to become less formal. Print language quirer, Sin Chew Daily, Singapore Press extraordinary spike in the demand for and visuals do not work as well in the Holdings, Bangkok Post, The Edge, The Ja- good journalism. Here are 10 things pub- digital medium – one of those discov- karta Post, and United Daily News Group) lishers must remember as they think their eries that only a few publishers have from six Asian cities have embarked on an way through the next few years. successfully been able to make. NEWSROOM MANAGEMENT WAN-IFRA TECHNOLOGY GUIDE 2020/21 5 In digital, the publisher-reader relation- tion and share their competencies experiments with new editorial and ship is much closer, which means that throughout the organisation. Further- commercial products that can produce the publication’s editorial personality is more, these talents should be inte- insights for the lowest possible cost, crucial because the tone, pitch and grated into the company, and one such and then scrutinise and learn from the voice will influence every step of the method is to develop cross-functional (audience) data gathered through reader’s journey. An example of an ex- teams around top talents. those experiments. Don’t: Use experi- treme combination of a traditional title 8. Use data to understand audiences ments as an excuse to haphazardly effectively adjusting its voice on a digi- deeply and be customer-centric: “throw things on the wall to see what tal platform is The Washington Post on Publishers should leverage granular sticks.” TikTok. digital audience data to understand 10. Audits to cut resource-wasting 3. Digital change before reaping digi- and build deep relationships with read- habits: Regularly performing digital tal revenue rewards: Holistic, com- ers, especially their most valuable ones. content audits can help publishers pany-wide digital change in culture Publishers should also communicate more effectively understand the types and operations must be implemented directly with their audiences, such as of articles that their audiences are before digital revenue ambitions (both through email newsletters, and most interested in and channel their advertising and subscriptions) can be develop processes and products with resources to cover those topics. In es- actualised. In other words, breaking audiences in mind. sence, this would garner higher returns down silos between editorial, commer- 9. Facilitate innovation through on their investments and eliminate cial and technological functions to real- quality -controlled experiments – practices that inhibit growth in digital ise common digital transformation ob- Do: Meticulously design and supervise readership and subscription revenue. jectives is crucial. 4. Holistic change must be driven from the top: Senior management must provide a transformation roadmap with clearly communicated “North Star” goals; incentivise good “change ideas” and allow them to bubble up from anywhere in their or- NEWSROOM ganisations; and remain steadfast in the face of challenges.