According to the speakers, regional newsmedia companies should focus on:

1. Local marketplace. The readers have the same needs today as before. What has changed since then was brought by the rise of Internet.

One of the examples given was the city in Poland – Koszalin. The publisher, Media Regionalne, still publishes there a traditional printed daily, and a free weekly. Rest of the products are online, reaching 8,32 million unique users today (rise from 1 million uu in January 2007)

2. Newsroom concept. This should always be analysed in terms of transformation. The marks of a transformed newspaper are:

• websites that are not being republished printed content but they should have new and more content
• websites that are offering content in new formats
• cross promotion and cross reference between newspaper and website
• users who want to participate and contribute own content : text, photos, videos
• editors and sales peoplewho work together

Media Regionalne has changed its newsroom model totally. There are new roles in the newsroom: radar (checking what’s going on – competition, institutions etc.), community manager, marketing representative, media conductor, print publisher, online publisher, multimedia grapic, photo-video editor – they all are connectors. Second group of people creating the newsrooms are the collectors: Citizen journalists, multimedia reporters, photo video reporters, citizen photographers, bloggers, database providers, local govt, companies, users, institutions, ngo’s freelancers, and readers.

3. Newsroom in action

85% of all journalists from Media Regionalne work for two platforms in terms of writing. 30% are work with videos. This was a giant step. All of these changes are a process that was started in 2007 and is still developing.
The path of the news is simple. The first online version of news is a two sentences one – answering the basic questions: what, where and when. This should be produced within 5 minutes from any incident. Secod online version brings more facts – several sources that are checked, plus some quotations, maybe gallery. The third online version is the basic of the print material – it is a developed story with checked facts and videos.

4. Recruitment.

Young people are recruited by Media Regionalne through web 2.0 tools. What is important is the constant transfer of knowledge and competences. Integration process in some of the Media Regionalne’s newsrooms required:

• Reset of positions, creation of new functions.
• 30% reduction of teams
• Work system developed by working team
• Newsroom guide for the editorial team
• profiles of users and readers.

5. An open newsroom
Doors of a newsroom should be opened for users and readers – it is a great opportunity to exchange opinions and ideas. Media Regionalne are encouraging the readers to interview different people together with the newsroom. The newsroom is as close to the users as it can be, using social tools like facebook, twitter etc. But web is not enough, there are also real life events like poker tournaments, common bicycle trips, and walkarounds.

At the end of their presentation, Artur Karda and Tomasz Krawczyk gave 10 tips and tricks for the news publishers:

1. At least 50% of the time in managers’ meetings should be dedicated to online
2. Editors in chiefs should have no offices – they should sit in newsrooms, by the local desks
3. Experienced journalists should be transformed as they are the motor force of the changes
4. Fresh minded young journalists should be involved into newsrooms operations
5. Groups of local trainers should be building central training programmes
6. Every employee should have a goal for every year
7. News publishers should develop a central digital team and local market teams
8. Detailed profiles of all the products should be determined
9. Constant monitoring developments of any processes are very important
10. Every year an internal journalist competition should be announced

The process of integration is not about changing chairs, but about changing mentality and changing the mind. Only in that way the change will be real.

That morning Wroclaw, the fourth largest city in Poland, became a stronghold. Defenders were not soldiers, nor fire-fighters. They were people like us armed with their mobile phones.

• Michal: “Kozanow district is fighting. 9 lorries with soldiers, 4 diggers, hundreds of people try to make the river embankment higher.”
• Marta: “They told us to evacuate the sick and old. We are so worried and now we’ve run out of sand.”
• Pawel: “Is there anybody from Piesza street? I can’t contact my grandparents. What’s up there?”
• Kajetan: “I am back from Kozanow. Working all night. Neighbors brought us strawberries.”
• Gosia: “I can’t help you as I am in France now, but I am following you and wish good luck!”
• Kiepas: “Fog over the city. Temperature: 13 degrees. Humidity: 93 per cent. No rain at the moment.”
• Kasia: “In Kozanow water is pouring through the embankment.”
• Magda: “What’s the source of this information? Put here only checked info. Don’t repeat any media bullshit.”
• Ziomek: “Confirmed: water really broke the embankment. Kozanow in panic!”.

That morning — on May 22, 2010 – I was not there. I followed all this fight with the river on the Internet blog wroclawzwyboru.blox.pl.
Its editor, 29-year-old Pawel Andrzejczuk, a small company owner, estimated he cooperated with some 300 contributors who fed his blog with over 3000 news items and uploaded 4 GB of photos and videos.
One amateur video captured the river breaking the embankment in Kozanow district of Wroclaw. One could see the crowd running away and hear them swearing to God.

The floods and media: from 1997 to 2010

Watching streets under water I could not stop thinking about another flood that had hit the city in 1997. That time I was a young reporter at a local newsroom of my newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
Our editorial office was under water as well as the offices of the other three local newspapers. In the early days of the flood I lost my car driving through the water, so I could only sail across the city to collect information.
Fixed line phones were down. Mobile phones were big like handbags and very rare. Internet was still a toy for geeks.
The flood of 2010 was so different. It affected much smaller part of Wroclaw, destroyed many less houses and brought no casualties. But it was a bigger news event, as professional journalists were joined by amateurs who dared to provide independent 24-hour live news coverage on the Internet.
Everybody’s got a mobile phone with a camera now. Becoming an “accidental reporter” is just one click away.
Pawel’s blog directly competed with all the TV news channels, radio newscasts and newspaper portals. In just 5 days it attracted 157,000 unique users in a city of 630,000 inhabitants. It’s about one third of what our established local news portal of Gazeta for Wroclaw is attracting monthly.
50 per cent of users found Pawel’s blog when googling for “flood in Wroclaw” and similar keywords. They chose a link to an amateur news site instead of official sources, or professional media.
Official sources were in disgrace as it was a mayor who kept repeating Kozanow was safe. Professional media — a bit slower than a real-time web, more confident of the official version, cautious of the unconfirmed amateurs’ accounts — turned down some audiences.
An amateur news feed had also its flaws. Reading it I had to cut through the jungle of revealing witness-accounts and simple rumors, but at the same time I felt as a reader that I participated in something big. Such a rare feeling in our individualistic world of “Me”.
Pawel might not be a professional news editor, but over last 5 years he has built online a strong community: over 560 websites link to his blog, his Facebook profile got more than 2,600 fans and become almost as popular as our local Gazeta’s one. It all paid off during the flood.
Finally, Dan Gillmor’s “We the Media” manifesto reached its point in my part of the world.

So, how does it feel to be challenged by own readers?

Not so bad, as we have brought it in a way upon ourselves.
My newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza was founded in 1989 by anti-communist opposition to bring independent journalism to the country and support underground Solidarity’s bid for the first partly free elections in Poland.
Today Gazeta is the best read quality newspaper here with an average paid circulation of 347,000 and 4,2 mln readers reached in total every week in print. Our online portal Gazeta.pl, the fourth largest website here after Google, a Polish clone of Facebook and a TV-owned portal, attracts 11,8 mln users in a month. It’s 66% of all 17,8 mln Polish Internet users (Poland has 38 mln inhabitants in total.)
Gazeta’s publisher, Agora, is one of the most successful media groups in Central and Eastern Europe. Its offer includes magazines, books, record and movie productions, cinemas, radio stations and out-of-home advertising.
21 years later Gazeta still believes its mission is broader than just delivering honest news. Since its launch it has been a voice of “modern Poland” — supported democratic reforms, joining NATO and the European Union. It has been helping to build an open society by providing platforms for debates and inspiring people concerned with a common good.

Embracing new media

We have embraced new media as they make our efforts easier and more effective.
Our online boards (Forum.Gazeta.pl) let people discuss over 5,900 different topics ranging from politics to education and health-care to hobbies and over years our users shared there over 113 mln posts and 2 mln photos.
Our blogging platform (Blox.pl) became the biggest in Poland as it hosts over 184,000 individual blogs. Pawel’s blog on the flood in Wroclaw is one of them. When water broke embankments of that city, it became the best read blog on the platform. So in fact we have been sharing all his traffic successes.
We’ve been even ready to share some revenues! Pawel’s blog is a member of our online advertising network (AdTaily.com). This network helps to turn visitors of blogs and niche sites into advertisers and provides funding to independent voices in the society. Until today it has attracted in Poland over 13,000 amateur and professional online publishers.
(Recently, AdTaily.com was named by CNBC as one of the Europe’s 25 most creative companies. If you want to learn more, please come and listen to their story at the INMA/OPA Europe Newsmedia Conference in Kraków, Poland, on September 29-October 1, 2010.)

This post is a chapter of an article I wrote for the upcoming report on the future of journalism to be published by the International Press Institute in September 2010.

Forum4Editors: What is “Redaktionen” (please describe)? How long is it on the market?

Louise Abildgaard Grøn: Danish tabloid “Ekstra Bladet” created “Redaktionen” (The Newsdesk), an internet-based editorial platform where schools (students in school, age between 13 and 17 years) produce their own newspaper. Today most schools produce newspapers as part of the education — using a variety of standard graphical software. With this revolutionizing platform from Ekstra Bladet, the students follow a process and produce their own newspaper with online support and help from editors, journalists, photographers, layout etc. The aim is to get the student to understand both how to write and edit a newspaper but also understand how photos and layout works. 2–3 days after deadline “Ekstra Bladet” delivers 1,000 colour prints of the paper — directly at the school. This award-winning campaign has built intense loyalty with young people. The project is two years old and was launched october 2007.

How many newspapers have been produced since the start of Redaktionen? How many copies have been distributed?

Since launch, October 2007, more than 400.000 papers has been distributed.

Did Redaktionen help Ekstra Bladet with its recognition from the readers?  Has it influenced the sales level of Ekstra Bladet?

„Redaktionen” is a product of a long term strategy to involve youngsters in our brand. The point is to get them involved in our brand much before they actually become potential customers. Therefore we do not expect the launch of ‘Redaktionen’ to have direct influnece on our sales just yet. This is a long term investment to build strong relations to our brand.  But we have seen an increased traffic on ekstrabladet.dk in this target group.

Do you have any other ideas for establishing the connection with young readers?

We have two other succesful products for our future and young reader:
1. The Front Page (FP) can be seen close related to “Redaktionen”. FP is an internet-based interactive game where students in high schools produce their own Front Page through a series of dilemmas. It can be accessed anywhere and is free of charge. During FP students realistically experience the necessary role that Ekstra Bladet plays in a modern democracy. In FP students are exposed to some of the same dilemmas, time constraints, adrenaline rushes and the ups and downs experienced by journalists, photographers and editors during a normal (or maybe an exceptionally exciting) working day. The FP is a case-based interactive dilemma game in which the students deal with four different fictional cases all based on real life cases from Ekstra Bladet’s front page. This gives FP its authenticity by transforming something abstract into something concrete which the students can relate to. This form of storytelling involves experience and scenario based learning to reinforce the learning process.
2. The worlds largest football-tournament for schools is the biggest in the whole world. The tournament was established in 1961 by Ekstra Bladet. It’s a big success with 1,000 (out of 1,500 total High Schools in Denmark) participating schools and more than 1,700 school teams. Finals are played in the Danish national stadium – Parken – and are broadcasted live on national TV.

Redaktionen is a great learning tool about journalism and newspaper production. Forgive me this strange question, but what’s really a point to teach readers how the newspaper is being made? Nobody who wants to drive a car needs to learn how the car is being produced.

I think there is a small misunderstanding here. ‘Redaktionen’ teaches students about why we have newspapers, journalism and secondly how to create a newspaper. On the other hand we believe that if you understand the newspaper, what it can do for the society and how it’s been made students may be much more likely to develop a life long tradition using newspapers. You can say that we intend to trigger an interest for reading newspapers, that the students otherwise would not have developed. Also this gives us a chance to interact with students in a way, much more relevant  to them. The target group for “Redaktionen” are students (pupils) in the age 14 to 17 years. That’s why they need both to learn how to drive a car and also need to learn how it is produced.

Thank you very much for this interview.

”There are over 3 times more mobile users than internet users. There are more mobile phones than TV units, more phones than cars. Mobile devices are more than a part of our live”, says Marc Vanlerberghe from Google.

Mr. Vanlerberghe, global director for mobile products marketing at Google, spoke at the Web Goes Mobile seminar in Grimbergen in Belgium on Dec. 4, 2008 about his company’s ”winning formula” for mobile web.

He shared some insights with the audience:

Complementary nature of internet usage on different devices

Internet usage on mobile devices and desktop computers is complementary to each other and is not a substitute. Mobile usage peaks during morning commute, lunch breaks, TV News and at bedroom-time browsing. Desktop usage is higher between those times:

The more internet-friendly phone, the more people surf

When the browser on a mobile device is a full internet browser, not a ”child” internet like WAP browser, people will surf much more the web on their mobile:

Pricing transparency key to success

Data-rates from the carriers around the world are still not very transparent. If you’re not carefull, you might end up paying a big amount of money for downloading data to your phone.

According to Mr. Vanlerberghe, “flat data rates” are key to success.

Google’s “winning formula” for mobile internet

1. Full browser on your device
2. Flat data rate from the carrier
3. Great User Experience (user interface)

Strategic imperatives for Google to develop for the mobile

1. Bet on the web

Google prefers to develop web applications (mobile internet sites developed specifically for the mobile screen that look and act just like native apps), and is not focusing on native applications for devices. Why? Because there is significant faster time-to-market when developing Web Apps. When you update the application, it is immediately available for all users (no matter the device they use). People don’t have to download a new version of the application. Web Apps give a faster “innovation cycle”.

2. Fast and easy search

Search at users’s fingertips: one click, one button, that is all it should take to start typing a search term. It should be optimised for the mobile screen.

Speed in search is very important. Google has worked with numerous handheld manufactures to have a searchbar embedded into the device software. Also “suggestions” make searching time shorter for users (when you type the first few letters of your search term and Google tries to guess what you want to type).

”Voice search” provides even faster searching by just saying your search term. It was launched last week by Google.

3. Location, location, location

Location based services are very important on mobile devices. Google believes in its maps that allow users to search for restaurants, shops etc. around one’s current location. The company has opened maps to other developers, so their applications can use Google Maps.

Example: at Mobilizy.com people can look at landscapes around through the mobile phone camera. Mobilizy.com will recognise the location (via Google Maps) and tell the user what they are looking at via an “overlay” on the screen.

Here you can watch a video of this feature:

4. Relevant advertising

Google wants users to see ads on mobile devices not as ads, but as “relevant information”. ”Relevance is key to Google,” underlined Mr. Vanlerberghe (seen on the photo).

However, he admitted: “Mobile advertising should be integrated into the overall marketing mix. It’s not big enough yet to look at it separately.”

There are four advertising offers that work in mobile according to Google:

• search: sponsored links next to search results
• maps: look for “pizza [your town]” and you will get a map with all the pizza restaurants in your area
• content network: think of iTunes “recommended songs” or Amazon’s “people who bought this book also bought… “
• video advertising: on YouTube for example

Ms. Hembry is responsible for mobile channels at the Mail titles (the Daily one and the Mail on Sunday), a London local paper Evening Standard and freesheets like nation-wide Metro and local London Lite.

She spoke about mobile strategies of her company at a recent INMA Outlook 2009: European Conference in Vienna, on October 1-3, 2008.

Annabel Hembry believes there are still early days for mobile content business.

”It’s been a year of mobile for the last five years. You have to be there at the beginning, because newspapers are shifting. People do want content from all different areas: from online to mobile. You’ve got to try. You’ve got to bring someone on board who can move mobile, who can move content to mobile arena,” she says.

And adds: ”You’ve got to be prepared to make mistakes. None of us are the sort of mobile gurus. Industry is changing all the time.”

Talking about her experience at Associated Newspapers, she tells that UK Metro is a prime example.

”Metro’s content is accessible through mobile. Metro has a right audience: urban. They invested a lot of money, a lot of time and effort into it. And they’ve taken on a mobile editor, so they write completely different stories than theye are online and in paper. This is very important, because readers from mobile phone want a completely different content.”

However, producing content for mobile has not had big impact on the Associated newspapers’ newsrooms until now.

”It is a different team of people at the moment,” Ms. Hembry explained.”But I think they have already been affected by all sorts of user-generated-content and interaction that way that people can take pictures on their mobile phones, can upload them to websites. That’s probably changing way journalists look at things and the way photo-journalists do things. We all know can be journalists. I think that particularly in the regional titles that’s the way things are moving.”

Watch interview with Annabel Hembry

(Interview made by Artur Karda, multimedia reporter at Media Regionalne, Polish part of Mecom Group.)