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Pavel Chernikov: “Convergent Newsroom – Strategy of Survival”

Today, in many editorial offices of the world there is a process of combining media of different specificity (online media, print media, radio, television); databases are united enabling to actively compete in the market. Such leading media holdings as Daily Telegraph, Bild, Financial Times, BBC and many others have become a common newsroom. The new way to organize the work at an editorial office allows to optimize costs and simplify the structure of the editorial board. However, mixed editorial offices are not only an outlet for a shark business, but also a good outlet for small media organizations, trying to stay afloat in a crisis and in stiff competition. After all, the Internet holds the increasing share of income worldwide. In Armenia, unfortunately, only a small part of the print media fully develops an online course.

Today, in many editorial offices of the world there is a process of combining media of different specificity (online media, print media, radio, television); databases are united enabling to actively compete in the market. Such leading media holdings as Daily Telegraph, Bild, Financial Times, BBC and many others have become a common newsroom. The new way to organize the work at an editorial office allows to optimize costs and simplify the structure of the editorial board. However, mixed editorial offices are not only an outlet for a shark business, but also a good outlet for small media organizations, trying to stay afloat in a crisis and in stiff competition. After all, the Internet holds the increasing share of income worldwide. In Armenia, unfortunately, only a small part of the print media fully develops an online course.

Editor-in-chief of Kommersant-Online Pavel Chernikov, who was in Armenia at the invitation of “Internews”, conducted a seminar on the organization of converged editorial offices. According to experts, the foremost media outlets of Russia joined the Internet late, only in 2006, and today, it is the online news publications that are leading on runet in hosts. And yet, the website of one of the most influential media holdings in Russia, kommersant.ru, has 4 million hits per week with growing incomes from the online version. The extensive web-portal Kommersant includes about 100 pages, here all the print editions of the holding, as well as radio Kommersant FM is represented. Meanwhile, a group of professionals out of 5 people works for the site. Thus, content that is collected at the editorial office is accessed not only by readers of print publications, but also by radio listeners while driving, Internet users, moreover, through mobile devices.

-Pavel, how long on average may an editorial office need for its transformation to a converged one, and where to start?

-It depends on many factors: the number of editorial offices, the age, the experience and habits of journalists, the situation on the market, the laws on labor. For example, in Austria, the work reorganization at the editorial office is complicated by the powerful influence of trade unions and strong social protection of workers: the employment contracts are concluded for 5-7 years, and no changes can be made to them. Therefore, this process can last for years. In Kommersant the strategy of study and development took about a year, but the transition to the new scheme of work – less than a month. However, still six months later there is something to adjust and optimize.

Does the online version affect on the sale of print publications?  

– We are convinced that audiences of print publications and online versions do not overlap. It is difficult to imagine that a person accustomed to read a website regularly, would buy a newspaper. And vice versa, if a person is so accustomed to read a newspaper that s/he regularly buys it, then s/he would hardly give it up easily and pass to the Internet. Some newspapers in the world are not afraid to post on the Web a story that will be printed in the newspaper only tomorrow and are not afraid of losing an audience. However, nobody can guarantee that this order of things will not be changed anytime soon. Therefore, after all, most editors keep an exclusive for a newspaper and publish it online after publication in the newspaper, fearing that if it is posted on the Web first, then the newspaper would lose interest among the audience.

-What is the effectiveness of such editorial offices for regional (or low-budget) editions?

From my point of view, the editorial offices in which journalists, editors, etc. are able to produce multimedia content, to promptly develop events for the Internet and then, for example, more thoughtfully provide the information in terms of different technological formats for the newspaper, those can survive first of all in the regions, because according to the observed trends the decrease of incomes from advertising in the newspaper and the drop of circulation in the near future is inevitable. And if a major national newspaper is able to somehow cope with a drop of circulation, say, half to two times, then it is destructive for low-budget publications. Therefore, I believe that transition to converged editorial offices is not just a strategy of optimizing incomes and improving productivity, but perhaps the only strategy to survive.

 

Source: JNews.am