JAN BIERHOFF
... is the director of the European Centre for Digital Communication, a contract research unit located at Zuyd University, Herrlen/Maastricht. Bierhoff was the first director of the EJC. He has spent time working as both a professor and a working journalist.
DAVID NORDFORS
... is a senior research scholar at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and special advisor to the Director General at VINNOVA, the Swedish Agency for innovation systems. He introduced the concept of Innovation Journalism in 2003. He founded the Innovation Journalism programs at Stanford and in Sweden, which he is leading today.
WILFRIED RUETTEN
... is the director of the European Journalism Centre. He has worked in German public and private broadcasting as a reporter and producer (ARD, RTL-Group) as well as in journalism education. Before joining the EJC he was the head of school for digital television at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzburg/ Austria.
STEFAN A. JENZOWSKY
... Since 2006 has been a partner at trommsdorf + drüner, innovation + marketing consultants GmbH. He has also worked as transformation manager at Siemens ICN Business Transformation Partners and was until 2004 responsible for the overall Siemens ICN Innovation Strategy, heading the Innovation Board Office and serving as vice president at Siemens Communications.
CLAUDE ERBSEN
... Director & Consultant of INNOVATION. Journalist. Former Vice President of The Associated Press news agency and Editor of the AP World Service. He has worked in London, Miami, Washington, D.C., Bogotá and Brazil. He is the editor of the Innovations in Newspapers, annual reports for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN).
SARAH SCHANTIN-WILLIAMS
... is a consultant, trainer and researcher for Ifra Newsplex. Trained as an anthropologist and specialising in change and newsroom culture, she works around the world supporting newsroom reorganisation programs. She also develops consulting services and training as part of the new Change Management Initiative for Ifra and Ifra Newsplex.
MARIAN SEMM
... is a senior consultant in media and entertainment publishing at IBM Global Business Services / SerCon
JORG SADROZINSKI
... is the editor-in-chief for Tagesschau.de, the online news portal of German broadcaster ARD and some of its output channels. He began his career as a television news editor in the central ARD newsroom.
JOHN BURKE
... is the weblog editor-in-chief at the Editors Weblog, which is part of the World Association of Newspapers. He controls the content and writing style there, as well as writing analysis pieces including best practices and case studies. The American has also studied Latin American politics, in particular the relation between the media and government in Venezuela.
Innovation Journalism: Detecting Weak Signals
Maastricht - 27 July 2007 (Day 3)
“Best practices: Innovation in the Media Industries”
Convergence is here to stay
Media, Innovation, Policy, Human Resources, Standards, Incumbents and Wildcard Integrated newsrooms, Workflow Strategies, Research. “Best practice” examples
Video:
| Add Innovation Journalism Seminar -Day Three to your page |
Photos:
Presentations:
Wilfried Runde on:
Innovation Strategies for an International Broadcaster
Jan Bierhoff on:
The trend toward e-publishing
Suggested links:
Programme:
| 10:00 – 10:15 | Introduction David Nordfors, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning Wilfried Rütten, Director, European Journalism Centre, Maastricht |
| 10:15 – 10:45 | Keynote Innovation in Newspapers Claude Erbsen, Director & Consultant of INNOVATION |
| 10:45 – 11:15 | Reinventing the Multi Media Newsroom Sarah Schantin-Williams, IFRA Newsplex |
| 11:15 – 11:45 | Innovations in Publishing Jan Bierhoff, Director, European Centre for Digital Communication |
| 11:45 – 12:30 | Newspapers in the 21 Century Discussion Roundtable between Jan Bierhoff, Sarah Schantin-Williams, John Burke |
| 12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch break |
| 14:00 – 14:30 | Keynote “The future of media and the TIME industry” Stefan A. Jenzowsky, Trommsdorff + Drüner, Innovation + Marketing Consultants, Berlin. Former Vice President of Strateg and Head of Business Innovation, Siemens Communications |
| 14:30 – 15:15 | Innovation Strategies for an International Broadcaster Wilfried Runde, Head of Innovation Projects, Deutsche Welle |
| 15:15 – 16:00 | Coffee break |
| 15:15 – 16:00 | InnovationJam: the Newsroom Organisation of Tomorrow John Burke, World Association of Newspapers Marian Semm, IBM Jörg Sadrozinski, Tagesschau Online Wilfried Rütten, European Journalism Centre Jan Bierhoff, European Centre for Digital Communication Sarah Schantin-Williams, IFRA Newsplex |
| 16:00 – 17:00 | Conclusion and open talk with all participants / Outlook AMSU 2008 |
DAY THREE:
Think punk rock, Stanford's David Nordfors encouraged during the final roundtable discussion of the EJC conference on Innovation Journalism.
Mainstream media, today, comes off a bit old school – think Led Zeppelin, Nordfors said.
The problem?
To the common man sitting way back in the cheap seats, Led Zep can look and sound a bit out of focus. Much more fun and accessible to these everymen are the local punk bands rocking out in the local pub.
That's who Nordfors is betting on in the future.
“Aren't bloggers a bit like these punk rock guys, screaming into the microphone and breaking all their instruments?” he asked.
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John Burke, editor-in-chief of the Editor’s Weblog, opened the last day of the conference. He used the survey ‘Innovations in Newspapers 2007,’ assembled by Innovation-Mediaconsulting, to highlight the latest trends in the newspaper industry.
Citing innovative projects such as Stomp, a user-generated content site of Singapore Press Holdings, Burke showed how new technologies and convergence allow for the reporting of stories that wouldn’t traditionally make it to national newspapers.
He then discussed obstacles facing newsrooms around the world. A lot of times, Burke said, the strategy for change – if there is one – is not properly communicated to everyone in the newsroom, creating a disconnect within the media outlet. Unsure of what to do, journalists and editors are unable to follow a clear strategy and thus embrace the innovative process.
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A positive message from Sarah Schantin-Williams, of IFRA Newsplex: It is possible to reinvent the multimedia newsroom.
Traditional newsrooms have a vertically-oriented workflow focused on a specific product and one specific medium, leaving media concepts isolated, she said. Also, there is a cultural divide between print and online journalists, coupled with a general lack of communication between the two areas.
If these obstacles are to be overcome, newsrooms need to focus more on ideas and planning and less on the control of the output. In this way, multi-media packages can be prepared. It is also very important to include the staff actively in the process – necessitating strong leadership. Schantin-Williams cited the Daily Telegraph as a successful example of an integrated newsroom.
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Publishing houses are today tending toward e-publishing, said Jan Bierhoff, director of the European Centre for Digital Communication.
The tendency in the industry is to gravitate toward e-publishing – a consequence of dwindling newspaper circulation, scope and authority of newspapers, he said.
In the future, electronic readers will change the way they read the newspapers, he said. The New York Times is introducing the first digital reader to put its content into an easier-to-read format. Other projects, like Swedish Diginews and Belgian Knack, are embracing the change and also using different formats to publish their content online.
Bierhoff pointed out the simple cost benefits to be reaped from online publishing: while still benefiting from advertisement, costs of production and distribution are sensitively decreased.
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Stefan Jenzowsky, in his second presentation of the three-day conference, drew inspiration from both Ron Hammer and the U.S. steel industry.
Jenzowsky, a Berlin-based marketing consultant, addressed the benefits mainstream media outlets can reap when they incorporate innovative new media ideas into their existing coverages.
Benefits include a platform for community, convergence and entertainment – ala Ron Hammer.
Mainstream media outlets need to integrate existing new media technologies into their coverages because integration provides, for any business, an insurance policy for the survival of the company, he said.
“Shares are traded on the assumption of the future performance of that company,”Jenzowsky said after chronicling the manner in which mini mills were able to become successful in the American steel market.
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Deutsche Welle is no longer a broadcaster, its head of innovation projects said Friday.
It's a content leader.
Wilfried Runde is in charge of innovation for the German corporation which employs about 1,500 people from over 30 countries to produce programming in 30 languages. Deutsche Welle delivers content via television, radio, website, etc. Of increasing importance, Runde said, is considering how the DW product looks or sounds on various search engine optimisers and media players – be they iPods, mobile phones or laptop computers.
Journalists at DW are encouraged to try and provide the right content for the right media – not just spill barrels of ink producing reams of copy or spools of tape, he noted.