NEWS REALITY IN THE November 2018 CHECK Using technology to combat DIGITAL misinformation AGE CONTINENTAL SHIFT NBC News International’s Deborah Turness on covering a divided Europe MAKING MONEY FROM NEWS Industry leaders across TECH THAT Europe share their views Check out the smart tools reshaping reporting Paid Post by Google This content was produced by the advertising department of the Financial Times, in collaboration with Google. Paid Post by Google This content was produced by the advertising department of the Financial Times, in collaboration with Google. Digital News Innovation Fund 30 European countries 559 Projects €115M In funding g.co/newsinitiative 2 | GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com Foreword THE FUTURE OF NEWS In 2015, Google launched the Digital News Innovation Fund (DNI Fund) to stimulate innovation across the European news industry. The DNI Fund supports ambitious projects in digital journalism across a range of areas – from creating open-source technology that improves revenue streams to investing in quality, data-driven investigative journalism. Ludovic Blecher Head of the Digital News Google asked a dozen leaders from the industry to allocate a total of Innovation Fund €150m to projects submitted by media companies and start-ups – no strings attached: all intellectual property remains with the companies themselves. To date, we’ve selected 559 projects across 30 countries, supporting them with more than €115m. But it’s not just about the money. The DNI Fund provides space and opportunity to take risks and experiment. In the media industry, many players don’t compete with each other across borders. We are Veit Dengler also proud to have fostered publishers working together to tackle Executive board member, their common challenges, through technological collaboration. Bauer Media Group Sometimes, as in the Nonio Project in Portugal, we have even helped the industry come together as a nation to provide a single sign-on for more than 70 media sites. This magazine is framed around four industry challenges: the spread of misinformation, how to support local journalism, improving revenue streams and emerging technology. Leading players from the industry tell how they have created or transformed business models in order to adapt to changing consumer and advertiser demands. Deborah Turness, who as president of NBC News International oversees content for the Euronews service, discusses the role of pan-European media in a fractured political landscape, and the importance of telling local stories in a financially sustainable way. Case studies from a selection of DNI-funded projects and infographics illustrate the technological advances that have driven a shift in media consumption since the advent of the internet, and how new tools are empowering journalists in their day-to-day reporting and investigations. We hope you find the information within this magazine useful and that it provides insights into some of the most significant forces shaping the landscape of the news industry today. GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com | 3 Paid Post by Google This content was produced by the advertising department of the Financial Times, in collaboration with Google. CONTENTS November 2018 EXPLORING NEW TECHNOLOGIES 12 Case Study Italy’s Gedi news group is tapping the BATTLING power of social media to keep ahead of MISINFORMATION the competition and reach new readers 07 13 Matters of Fact Tech Tonics How news organisations are harnessing From news games to live fact-checking, technology to combat misinformation and journalists are employing smart new tools build trust in the accuracy of their reporting to help them tell compelling stories – and get the facts right 08 Shifts in Media Consumption 16 Twenty years of technological advances A-Z of the Modern Newsroom have driven radical changes in the way we Know your dox from your memes? receive and share news and entertainment A brief guide to the often baffling new terms in the digital lexicon 11 Breaking Borders, Breaking Stories Open-source software is helping reporters collaborate securely on international TELLING BOOSTING investigations and lift the lid on LOCAL STORIES DIGITAL corruption REVENUES 18 Interview 22 TV supremo Deborah Turness explains Newsmakers Perspectives how new tech will help make Euronews Six leading industry figures share their the “town square” of Europe insights on the challenges and opportunities for news organisations in the digital era 26 Case Study Adopting a hyper-local strategy has helped Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper grow both audience and revenues 4 | GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com 08 22 13 16 18 06 00 GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com | 5 Paid Post by Google This content was produced by the advertising department of the Financial Times, in collaboration with Google. 6 | GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com Issues MATTERS OF FACT MISINFORMATION BATTLING As public trust in traditional media falters, newsrooms are turning to new technology to help them analyse data, combat misinformation and build readers’ confidence in the reliability of their reporting Turn on CNBC International’s Squawk to the fore as traditional European The EBU’s own research shows a slight Opposite page Box any weekday morning, and you news organisations, most of them improvement in the public’s trust in tra- Illustration by will see three television presenters struggling to gain a financial foothold ditional European news groups during Melvin Galapon exchanging views on the latest events in the 21st century, find themselves up the last few years. Nonetheless, this year moving financial markets. against a wave of new online operations it found that only 59 per cent of people – many objective and thorough, others in the European Union believe what Leaf through some of the UK’s leading with self-serving interests and scant they hear on the radio. For television daily newspapers – from The Times regard for accuracy. news that figure falls to just 51 per cent. to The Guardian – and you will come Meanwhile, only 47 per cent of people across columnists galore, many of them Daniel Allington, senior lecturer in believe what they read, the EBU states. flagged on the publications’ front page. Social and Cultural Artificial Intelligence In continental Europe, it is a similar at King’s College London, who has Angela Phillips, a professor of journalism story. been researching the online spread of at Goldsmiths, University of London, disinformation, says that many news says that the problem of so-called “fake News media organisations have in- outlets have embraced columns because news” (false stories masquerading as creasingly taken a bet on analysis from they are cheaper to produce than news, spread on the internet or via other their in-house experts as they seek to reported content in an era of painful media), a prevalent term since the US provide audiences with informed and cost-cutting. At a time when page 2016 presidential campaign, is not as sophisticated content in the digital views matter, columns have a better acute in Europe as it is in the US: various age. But where does analysis end and chance of going viral than a reported studies show that only 10 per cent of opinion begin? And how do reputable story, he says. news circulating online in Europe during news outlets help their audiences the Brexit campaign, for example, was understand the differentiated levels Yet he argues that the shift has only false compared with as much as 30 per of fact and viewpoint in a news flow made it harder to fend off smaller, and cent in the US during 2016, she says. that is increasingly dominated by per- often less scrupulous, rivals. “Because sonalities? These questions have come conventional news organisations have Continues on page 10 gone down the opinion route, they have made it easier for alternative media to compete,” he says. IF YOU WANT To make things more challenging for Europe’s SUBSCRIBERS, mainstream news media, all this comes as audiences around the world are YOU HAVE TO becoming more sceptical about what they see, read SHOW THEM and hear. Europe is no exception: as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), THAT YOU ARE a leading alliance of public- service media, noted this ACCURATE year, “Various national and Photography international studies come Andrew Weber/ to the same conclusion: Pexels trust in media is at an all- time low.” GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com | 7 Paid Post by Google This content was produced by the advertising department of the Financial Times, in collaboration with Google. Research SHIFTS IN MEDIA Marketcolor Content Agency Illustration CONSUMPTION Ricardo Santos DIGITAL WordPress is launched INTERNET 2000: Broadband SOCIAL launches in the UK 21 March 2006: USA Twitter is created 60M 40M GER 20M 1999 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 PRINT Sweden’s Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, regarded as the world’s oldest newspaper, goes DIGITAL online only 23 August 1999: Blog-publishing service Blogger is launched on the web MOBILE INTERNET MOBILE INTERNET 3G launches in the US 4G is launched in Europe DIGITAL Three former PayPal employees create YouTube, the video-sharing website MOBILE INTERNET WAP mobile internet is adopted in Europe 8 | GoogleNewsInitiative.ft.com Timeline DIGITAL 24 June 2018: VR eMarketer report DIGITAL 2014: Facebook acquires virtual predicts cord-cutting 25 May 2010: The term “responsive reality platform Oculus Rift; to jump by almost 33 design” is coined by web designer VR goes mainstream. per cent over the year Ethan Marcotte in the US DIGITAL The Google News SOCIAL Initiative brings 8 September 2011: Twitter €27m in funding hits 100m active users to 27 European countries MOBILE INTERNET 5G due to be live in most of the world ‘10 ‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 LEGEND Circulation of daily Total estimated circulation COMPETITION newspapers in Germany of US daily newspapers France’s Canal+ loses appeal against competition authority over its 2006 acquisition of TPS.