Newsrooms Must Go Digital First

Most consumers are now scrolling their way through news

Most newsrooms are structured around their traditional means of delivery to consumers.  Newspapers focus on the print edition.  Television and radio newsrooms focus on the next newscast.  Even all-digital news operations tend to still produce content much like a newspaper website does.

As we look ahead to journalism in the new year, it’s time to restructure newsrooms so that the priority is on digital content, and even deeper than that, focus on mobile digital delivery.

In the early days of the Internet back in the ‘90s, those of us in news were trying to figure out how much to “give away” to digital news consumers.  At the newsroom I managed, I wanted to put winter school closings online so school kids and their parents could figure out if class is cancelled by snow.  Doubters said something like, “But that means those people won’t be watching your morning newscast.”  I wanted to put live radar online, but doubters said, “You’ll cannibalize your main on-air product and hurt ratings.”  I didn’t care that much about HOW people accessed our information.  I wanted them to trust us to provide it to them accurately and quickly in any way they chose. 

We had quite a debate in those days about whether to hold a scoop for our next on-air newscast or put it online right away so people would know about it.  Of course, that would be handing the story to our competitors, but I thought it was dumb to hold off reporting a story.  If we know about it, tell it right away and as fast as you can.  Customers will appreciate you keeping them in the know first.

BBC doing away with newscasts?

The BBC announced this week that it’s preparing to go online only over the next decade, doing away with traditional television and radio newscasts.  According to The Guardian, the BBC’s director general says “imagine a world that is internet-only, where broadcast TV and radio are switched off and choice is infinite.”  As broadcast audiences decline, he’s planning to bring everything together – TV news, entertainment programs, and educational material – possibly in one app.  The challenge is to make the move without losing audience and revenue.

“Digital first” is not a new concept in journalism.  Newsrooms have been moving that way for years, but progress has been slow.  In most newsrooms, the print or broadcast staffs far outnumber the folks focused solely on digital.  Coverage plans for each day are still centered on the legacy broadcasts or print editions and then the digital staff repurposes that content for online use. 

But my sense is that most news consumers are now scrolling their way through content on their phones.  They don’t necessarily want repurposed content.  They want news content that is constantly fresh, written for an online audience, that includes graphics and video intended for consumption on their phone.  Gone are the days when a mobile news site can be updated a few times a day.  If a newsroom isn’t changing the lead story, or at least the look of a lead story every hour, then the content will be stale.

Newsrooms need a digital oversight editor

How to structure newsrooms to better serve the digital audience?  We continue to need content producers, meaning reporters and photographers, out in the field generating original content, but sending it back instantly for online audiences.  Newsrooms need more internal staff focused on fresh content and there needs to be an editor dedicated solely to looking at the site and pushing for updates.  In my experience, most digital producers are so deep into writing stories, posting video and responding to breaking news, that they can’t take the overall view of how that content looks.  An oversight editor should be asking questions all day.  Is this the right lead story?  Can we find a better image to go with that lead?  Can we freshen up the headline?  Do we have the very latest information at the top of the story?  An “above the fray” editor would go a long way toward keeping content fresh and vibrant for news consumers.

Bottom line, I don’t think traditional newspapers or TV newscasts are going away anytime soon.  They still generate most of the revenue.  But audience habits are changing, and newsrooms need to adapt to meet consumers where they are.

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It was fun to get together with other members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative this past week in Jefferson. Julie Gammack, who has organized the group, put together a post describing what happened.

Please welcome two new writers into the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. John Naughton, longtime sports writer for the Des Moines Register and Teresa Zilk, writing her new column Talking Good.

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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