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2000
World Electronic Publishing Conference
IFRA/WAN
Beyond The Printed Word
12-13
October, Amsterdam RAI, The Netherlands
 
Presentations,
Thursday, 12 October 2000
Last
Posted at 23:15 GMT
Opening
New Channels
Mattias
Nyman, Chief Technology Officer, Aftonbladet, Sweden
They
call it "channel strategy" at Sweden's Aftonbladet.
"We
want to publish our content in every media channel that
is available to us," says Mr Nyman — newspaper, weekly
magazine, world wide web, web TV and radio, and mobile internet.
If you
want to publish in these modes, what do you need? Mr Nyman
suggests the following:
-- structured
data, or content, that is "marked up" with proper code so
that headlines, captions, photos and other elements can
be easily identified, no matter what the medium.
-- output
templates that allow automatic page design in electronic
media. "There is no need to fine tune design because you
never know what device people will use, and it looks differently
on every device," he says.
--an
electronic "editors toolbox". Although design is generated
by template, editing content for different applications
remains crucial.
-- automated
code generation to get the proper computer language for
every application.
Japan's
Mobile Information Society
Shunji
Itai, Deputy Manager of the Multimedia Editing Department,
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan
As Japan
is well ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to
mobile internet access brought about by WAP technology,
it has much to teach the rest of the world.
"In
Japan, we are now evolving toward what we call the Mobile
Information Society," said Mr Itai. "I hear this movement
is still in its infancy in Europe and mostly unknown in
the US. But in the next few years, the changes will shake
just about everybody in the world."
How
big is it in Japan? Since the launch of "i-mode" about 18
months ago, the mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo has registered
more than 10 million subscribers who think nothing of reserving
airline or concert tickets, sending and receiving e-mail
and accessing the internet directly with their mobile telephones.
As an
economic daily, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun found the service
just right for offering stock and foreign exchange quotes
as well as other financial information. It expects to have
more than 100,000 subscribers to this service by the end
of the year.
Mr Itai
says it is no longer a question of whether newspapers will
be offering information via mobile telephones. The question
now, he says, "is whether we have good, desirable content
or not."
Serious
News Can Be Entertaining
Christoph
Dernbach, Editor-in-Chief, Deutsche Presse Argentur
The
online newspaper market has boomed in Germany during the
past three years, and the national news agency, dpa, had
to change with the times.
It has
done so by offering its newspaper customers a variety of
customised information and page designs to entice online
visitors to newspaper web sites.
Among
the most intriguing offerings are animated graphics developed
in "real time" to illustrate news and sports events.
"We
wanted to get as much information as possible. Animated
graphics with plenty of background information, moving pictures,
interactivity, real time and games," he says.
Mr Dernbach
said traditional wire services, which are sometimes seen
as offering "dry" serious news, must now offer its content
in more entertaining forms. But the serious information
they offer will always be their main revenue generator.
"Real-time,
quality, precision information — you do not get this
for nothing," he says.
Making
Newspapers Scream
Derek
Fattal, Vise President New Media, The Jerusalem Post, Israel
It has
long been clear that text and photos of print newspapers
are no longer sufficient to create compelling web sites,
says Mr Fattal. So the Jerusalem Post has become an internet
radio station as well.
"Just
as we once had to build hyperlinks to contextual content,
break the cycle of 'once a day' publishing, we have to service
our online readers by delivery timely news and content the
way they want, when they want and how they want," he says.
As bandwidth
increases, online audio and video are becoming the wave
of the near future. "While it may be impossible for newspaper-based
sites to compete with fully-fledged TV and radio broadcasters
on the Net, this is not to say that news sites cannot provide
competent and compelling audio and video resources in order
to enrich user experience, particularly through audio-on-demand
content," he said.
Such
services are also set to expand through cellular phones
as well as internet-enabled car radio. Hence, the Jerusalem
Post developed JpostRadio.com, which offers a news channel
plus more than 50 pre-programmed music channels that run
the full spectrum from classical to trance.
Where's
the money? Advertising and sponsorship are potential revenue
streams. So are the syndication and archive markets. And
the cross-promotion opportunities for The Post's print daily
and international editions are obvious.
The
Death of the Deadline
Rolf
Lie, Editor, Aftenposten, Norway
The
internet has killed the once-a-day newspaper deadline, says
Mr Lie, and that is just one of the cultural changes facing
journalists in the multiple media age.
"The
vision is not about paper, and it's not about electronics.
It's about information," said Mr Lie. "Our goal has to be
to get these ideas into all our colleagues, including the
prize-winning paper journalists. Everyone at Aftenposten
should say, 'I'm not working in a newspaper, I'm working
in news. But we are not there yet."
That
culture change is but one of the challenges facing Aftenposten
as it evolves from Norway's major newspaper publisher into
a fully multiple media company, says Mr Lie.
Publishers
too must make it clear why it is important for newspaper
houses to use the new channels, he says. New technology
must be mastered. And journalists must be prepared to respond
to the increasing demands of readers, who now have the ease
of e-mail to express their views.
Help
Wanted: Editors
Ari
Heinonen, Research Director, University of Tampere Journalism
Research and Development Centre, Finland
Editors
who fear that new technology and automated editing systems
will make them obsolete can take heart from experiments
being carried out at the University of Tampere.
In an
effort to create a system to automatically generate a coherent
news report from a variety of online sources, researchers
found they could not eliminate one crucial human skill:
editorial judgement.
A completely
automated system made too many errors. "We found that, indeed,
judgement based on journalistic practice was needed," said
Mr Heinonen.
The
system created at Tampere uses raw material from six online
newspapers and one online TV site, and then generates a
news report by selecting and organising all that material.
It is currently undergoing a field test among 400 users
in three communities, with a report expected next spring.
And
at the heart of the system, watching over everything, are
the editors.
One
Newsroom — All Media
Klaus
Schweinsberg, Director Interactive Services, Financial Times
Germany
One
month before the Financial Times launched its German edition
in February, online and print journalists were at one another's
throats.
"Print
and online colleagues were angry with each other," said
Dr Schweinsberg, explaining that they didn't understand
their roles in the new multimedia newsroom. The situation
was solved by giving just one person responsibility "to
decide what to send through which media, and that's the
news editor."
The
FT Germany follows a strategy of "one brand, all media"
and "one newsroom, all media".
Dr Schweinsberg
presented what the Financial Times had done to achieve this
goal, dealing with five areas that need careful attention
if a multimedia newsroom is to succeed: the structure of
the organisation, the content management system; newspaper
and internet design; marketing; and the distribution channels.
The
Newest New Media: Newspapers
Fank
Volmer, SPITS, The Netherlands
First
came SPITS, a Dutch morning free newspaper launched to compete
with Metro for the hearts and minds of morning commuters.
Then
came News.nl, an afternoon free edition launched in August
to get those commuters on their way home.
"These
are also new media, but it happens to be print. A commuter's
newspaper, handed out at stations," said Mr Volmer.
While
the "Metro" phenomenon of successful free newspapers is
well known, News.nl adds a new twist. Stories and advertisements
carry a barcode, which commuters who want more information
can scan with a purpose-built pen which they insert in their
computers when they return home.
The
pen, which can hold up to 150 web addresses, will automatically
direct the web browser to a specified page. "Traffic on
the News.nl site doubled because of this system. There was
really a lot of interest from readers who want more information,"
said Mr Volmer.
The
Future of News
Luka
Valic, Creative Director, Young & Rubicam 2.1/Digital
Peppers, The Netherlands
Mr Valic
presented an overview of the developing media environment
and offered some predictions for the future of news:
--Newspapers
will re-invent themselves as "daily magazines" filled with
features and analysis.
--Virtual
newsreaders will replace humans on television and the web.
--Discerning
readers will return to trusted "real world" news sources.
--Mass
ignorance due to the "dumbing down" of information will
lead to public service drives to get people to read more
about important issues.
--Broadcast
news outlets will hire celebrities as newsreaders.
--Headline
writers will never lack for work due to those tiny telephone
screens.
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