2013 paper - how the publishing industry will look like in the next few years

DOW JONES and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL call for proposals

Imagine HOW THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY WILL LOOK LIKE in the (near) future

http://www.dowjones.com/djcom/careers/coolworks-experience.asp

We don’t want your copy making or coffee delivery skills. We want your brain.

Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal franchise, world leaders in business and news, are looking for

sharp, smart and creative mavericks from all backgrounds - design, journalism, app development,

entrepreneurship, art history, biology - to work with top industry innovators this summer.

We need people like you to help us envision what our business will look like a year from now, 10 years

from now. We need you to help us target a different demographic while retaining our current subscribers.

In sum, we need you to re-think the business of making news.

You will spend two weeks completely immersed in our world, working across digital, print and mobile

platforms to help move the future of media. Explore cutting edge journalism techniques. Meet digital and

information innovators.

With your skills and our resources, you will be charged with incubating ideas and prototyping ways to

enhance and innovate our entire product suite to make it speak to you.

Love Media. Love Technology. Love News. Love to make an impact. Join us to create the next big thing.

Milano, May 2013

BRIEF OF THE NEWS STORY: IDEA

The depletion of the editorial office - Reason itself cannot ignore the issue of technology. The tendency,

currently gaining foothold, is that of depletion, of emptying out: following the disappearance of traditional

records and the CD, now even bookstores are becoming a superfluous presence while at the same time our

purses are ever more frequently unburdened of their credit and membership cards and replaced by

contemporary techniques of mobile payment. Journalism itself, if it is to renew and enrich itself, has no

option but to yield to current trends and set editorial offices free. Needless to say, such depletion is

selective. It bears no relation to a reduction of members of personnel. Journalists return to wherever news

is generated, equipped with cameras, smartphones and tablets (notebook on request) to get in touch with

the graphic department, video editors, web developers, interaction designers and art directors - the eye itself

has its role here. This team of technicians and creatives, in real terms the new occupants of the editorial

office, has the capacity and expertise to translate worthwhile information into current common language, a

language that is increasingly visual, ripe for on-the-go consumers of lightweight news. The orchestra is

under the direction of a group of watchdogs, influential journalists with the task of tracing out guidelines

for the hypertext and safeguarding it from any possible nonconformity with their decrees, since the end

justifies the means yet the means must serve the purpose of the effective transmission of the news.

Transversal versus Vertical - The main focus of the subject still deals with the various forms of technology

and with readers, yet the issue drifts from supporting factors to the system itself. Internet’s propagation has

broken ties with virtual integration upon which the traditional models of the media have always been

based. Nevertheless it is inconceivable to deprive readers of their newspapers since technology has

accustomed them to be active protagonists, to generate contents. The prodigious diffusion of the social

media also calls for a certain reflection: from the standpoint of the publisher the discourse is no longer

with the readers but with readers who communicate with one another and this factor can only modify the

functioning of the enterprise itself. Given this state of affairs the opportunities available to clientele are

insufficient. It is essential to combine the instrumental function of an authoritative news channel with

specific social strategies. Starting out from a sound benchmark analysis of major information portals and

the most widely used social network by zealous readers, one can proceed to the creation of a platform

which filters out the best possible solution. The objective is allow users to access information in a relational

manner within a single, user friendly, structured channel. On the other hand, account should be taken of

the advantages deriving from the opportunity to accurately seek out the profiles of their readers. From the

perspective of new trends, from citizen journalism to crowd funding, the call to action may be interpreted

in terms of those periodicals which give readers the opportunity to present editorial staff with topics

befitting the more in-depth coverage of investigative journalism. The most attractive proposals are taken in

hand by journalists who are consequently given the opportunity to access an abundance of ideas for the

development of new stories in accordance with the expectations of their readers.

Fresh from the press - Even the rotary press was considered, in the nineteenth century, a state-of-the-art

piece of technology. When speaking of journalism it would be presumptuous to gloss over its historical

background. Paraphrasing Bogart: “It’s the press, baby”. The question is whether it is still reasonable to

cling to anachronistic industrial models. Traditional papers and magazines are feeling the consequences of

the economic recession, a recession which has brought about drastic cuts in advertising revenue. The

traditional press, therefore, is destined to wither away since information has increasingly become the

domain of alternative platforms. We are passing through an intermediate period where two editorial

systems (analogical /digital) cohabit, the analogical strives to exist by clinging to the digital which repels

any hope of integration. Awaiting the rise of the digital generation which will take the place of those who

have been accustomed to the paper format, the great publishing companies are duty bound to guide readers

in their migration towards the digital universe. Given the almost total futility of newsstand papers brimful

of yesterday’s news outdated and upstaged by the overwhelming flood of online and television

information, the challenge to the press is to be taken on in terms of critical interpretation and explanation

of events. It is not a question of an innovative idea or a smart gimmick but rather an attempt to weave

together pieces of a mosaic in an orderly, rational manner. Never as before is it so crucial to look ahead

with a certain lucidity, without losing sight of the inherent dangers of informatics totalitarianism which

might wreak havoc by generating an indistinct jumble of information thus creating the daunting task of

identifying the genesis and significance of single events. Successful will be those who produce reliable and

editorially high quality contents and present their work to their readers with the most appropriate means.

THE BEST POSSIBLE BREIF IN THE SHORTEST TIME

Given that every situation has its unique features which should be examined in detail, generally it is akin to

the system of Chinese boxes. Once established that the content is the king, the success of this supremacy

depends on how information is put together and then conveyed. In the face of a radical revolution which

transforms the editorial world even more liquid, the real advantage consists in the flexibility of the new

sources of information which may be categorized according to user support and the degree of literacy and

involvement of the last in the line of users. Traditional newspapers make room for new organisms open to

diverse methods of communication. The proposed system of communicating vases opens us a passage from

optimized contents for light reading, suitable for both new readers and on-the-go readers, to the real body

of the text concealed beneath the graphic surface. This second level of reading, suitable for more specialized

users, is open to further leeway as regards contents and ranging from personalization to interaction. As

may be seen, this is a strategy focused on the user/reader, the real recipient of the content/information, or

specifically the decisive factor in determining the success of the enterprise. Parallel to the order of the

recipient, journalists are also evaluated by a restoration which announces them as leading protagonists in

the narration and interpretation of events, freed from the shackles of the press release, headline news and

desk work. In addition, the streamlining of space used by the editorial office, in reality occupied by a

multimedia team, allows for the saving of resources with a significant impact on costs. Despite the

complexity of the explanation, the model of journalism propose here may illustrate a more simplified,

ecological industry and a far cry from the current system which today is in a state of crisis. The new

publishing sector will be based on a more artisan-orientated production managed by a few employees with

a flair for the value of contents. Everything will be on a small scale and the administrative area, overgrown

over the last decade, will be reduced to a minimum. How long will it take to get change underway? From

the practical standpoint, a short time. The more evolved companies are already equipped with the

necessary means to implement the change – tools for analysis and technical know-how. There are however

diverse variables which might induce a certain caution: the wide ranging penetration of mobile technology,

the effective assimilation of new behavioral models, the rise of a young and far-sighted managerial class.

Reflecting upon the significance of the changes which have taken place over the last five years, 2018 might

well be a realistic forecast. One must try and then believe.