Tablets are the next step in evolution of a multimedia brand

Javier Zarracina, graphic editor from “Boston Globe” spoke today during the INMA’s Oxford Tablet Summit. Read how newsmedia companies should move towards fully operational multimedia newsrooms.

Tablets are one step further in the evolution towards a multiplatform brand. Newsmedia companies need multimedia newsrooms to adjust to a new platform. According to Javier Zarracina, in order to become a fully operational multimedia newsrooms, they should think about the following:

1. Integration of the information systems . CMS is going to be the foundation of what publishers will distribute in the multimedia format. For newsrooms, CMS will become the multimedia printing platform. The kids coming to newsrooms in the future will watch CMS from the inside instead of printing plants.
2. Full and fast integration of the newsroom. There are lots of experts, but not in the area that is becoming more and more important. This area is coding. Right now, publishers need the coders willing to tell a story.
3. Developers as storytellers. Developers can build their own templates, format their own styles. Take the Big Picture Blog as an example. It was created by Alan Taylor, a web developer at the “Boston Globe”, as a personal project. It requires minimum maintenance, and is almost fully automatized. It is the most popular page on the site (1,5 million month after launch, 20 million page views in April 2010 ). This site will be launched on iPad as well.
4. New workflows are needed. Every person in newsroom is under the editor. This time graphics and developers have more important role. There should be macroeditors surrounded by different, equal departments. Newsroom should exist as a doorway, where reporters as information intake – they collect information. The information is next filtered by the superdesk. At the end comes the output: mobile, online, text, audio/video, infographics. The superdesk with macroeditors decides which information goes into which output.
5. Optimizing the tools. Those should have easy tagging and metadata protocols. They should have scalable video in HD and open formats, rich multimedia not only on Flash: usage ofHTML with CSS and Javascript is essential.

Boston Globe’s iPad App is coming early this summer. The content of Boston Globe’s website differs from the print product, and the same must happen to iPad applications. Boston Globe’s iPad application will:

• be based on the reader application
• have slower metabolism than the website
• have similar structure to the paper
• have easy navigation
• be updated four times per day

What’s next? Boston Globe is planning many multitouch prototypes, as St. Patrick’s Day App – showing the places to visit, travel information, history of the day etc. Or Boston Marathon App. Location based application, documenting the times of the runners, pictures, tweets, etc. Experimenting is the key!

“New bottles need new wine. New wines need great wineries”

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