Martin Jönsson - The newsroom - Beyond integration

FAST & SLOW– How well-planned journalism and pre-production has transformed Svenska Dagbladet

tisdag den 28 augusti 2012

Making more with less


Since 2009, SvD has cut the newsroom workforce by 25%, reorganized - and improved editorial quality dramatically, won more awards than ever before, securing the most satisfied readers in the competitive Stockholm market.This is how.


This is Svenska Dagbladet

Part of Schibsted Media Group. 175 journalists.

Sweden’s 5th largest newspaper.Circulation: 185 000. Daily print readership: 473 000

Business section Sweden’s largest business paper:Daily print readership: 410 000

Sweden’s 3rd largest newssite.Weekly unique users: 1,5 million

Sweden’s 3rd largest mobile newssite:Weekly unique users: 330 000


Keeping print readership up

Daily readership, 1000’


Gaining market sharesin print circulation

Gap between SvD and main competitor Dagens Nyheter halved in 7 years


Market leader on digital platformswith continued rapid growth


2 problems for print news

Bottlenecks in production flowfor print

Risk of print content becoming irrelevant


The risks of bottlenecking

Text

When too many stories are delivered late in the day/evening, it leads to...

* More mistakes* Lower quality in design* Less flexibility* Loss of editorial control* Higher costs, with more staff working late and more editions/print intakes


...and the news are still old

TextMaking a newspaper from scratch each day leads to an emphasis on general news stories. From yesterday.


Rethinking the role of print

• More focus on agenda-setting news, especially on weekdays

• More focus on storytelling and in-depth stories, especially on weekends

• More ”social journalism”, where print and digital channels interact, to engage readers

• Less of yesterday’s news, except on large news stories

• Keep developing, building on the unique strengths of print


Rethinking the organization

• Daytime production of the newspaper

• At least 40 % of all news pages pre-produced• Minimal desks at evenings (cut by 75%)

• More focus on planning and idea development for print - and on live coverage, reader interactivity for thedigital channels

• Reorganized newsroom to enable more agenda-setting newswork, in all channels

• A 2 speed-organization: Fast and Slow


Fast and Slow

• The difference between own stories and general stories is bigger than between print and digital

• Working with our own agenda and the general news agenda must be handled differently

• Both need to be integrated, but led and coached differently

• Fast is now and for tomorrow’s paper, for large stories

• Slow is planned and pre-produced


How it works• On each desk, we have one slow and one fast

news editor, on a rolling schedule• News reporters are divided into fast (now!) and

slow (planned)• Slow editors focus on planning, idea development,

coaching and integrated publishing/presentation• Fast editors focus on happening/developing news

stories


Long-term planning

• Major news stories planned 1-3 weeks ahead - and pre-produced

• All feature/in-depth stories pre-produced

• Long-term planning workshops for 3-6 months

• Front pages planned 7-10 days ahead, to improve quality

• Magazine approach to own news/stories


ALAN RUSBRIDGER, THE GUARDIAN, to NIEMAN LAB

Ridiculous? Or just logical?”When we first heard, we thought that’s ridiculous — how could you do a daily paper and have half of it planned? It comes back to how you think of news. There are so many stories you could do at any point in time, and what newspapers tend to do — to be concise, the way we all grew up — was to leave everything till the last minute, and then between 4 o’clock and 10 o’clock in the evening, make a paper. So you have this huge down period at the beginning of the day and then this sort of crazy period for 6 hours.We haven’t done 40 percent — we’re aiming for 30 percent of content pre-planned. It helps you even out production, it saves on costs — which we have to do — and it produces a paper which is more effective and more analytical”


A new mindset

• More daytime production means

• ...earlier deadlines, which demands

• ...better planning, which demands

• ...better idea processes, which demands• ...better knowledge and sources and better ways of

communicating internally and with the readers

• This affects everyone in the newsroom


Tools in the process

• Clear, measurable objectives for each department and each journalist

• Daily evaluation of news and agenda-setting, compared to the competitors

• Internal benchmarks to identify the best stories, best scoops and best innovation

• Better tools for planning and communication• Transparent planning, on whiteboards to

increase newsroom engagement


Why plan?

• Great parts of every newspaper CAN be produced in advance, due to its character and content

• Print needs to look more ahead, not backwards• To stay relevant and competitive, print stories

need to be more exclusive and better presented (infographics, visual storytelling etc)

• Planning ups the ante for news stories and how they are presented, which increases quality


Planning increases flexibility

• When large news stories occur, we can put more resources into them, which helps both online and print

• News always comes first: front-page plans are shredded one day out of three. But just for really big stories.

• Since we reorganized, we have won international awards for our coverage of the tsunami in Japan and the terror attacks in Norway, showing that the news pulse doesn’t suffer by our model


SND, Best In Show & Gold Award:This is one of the best pieces of breaking news coverage we’ve ever seen. It could be held up as a template for how to handle a breaking news story M


Effects of the Fast & Slow Model

• More scoops and agenda setting stories (SvD today more quoted by other media than our competitor: doubled in three years)

• More investigative reporting/series of articles• Better coverage of big, general news stories• Better design/presentation/visuals• Better front pages• Better channel integration• Better working conditions• More creativity in the newsroom


Challenges

• This is not a production matter: you need to change the way everyone in the newsroom work

• The balance between fast and slow is crucial; you must learn when to stick t and when to desert your plan

• Print journalism need to change more - but also to be developed more - to maintain its relevance


Our conclusion

• Workdays starting with blank pages are more stressful, requires more resources and ends in lower quality

• Planning and working in several tempos makes it possible to achieve higher quality with less resources


thank you…

tackMartin JönssonDeputy Editor-in-chief, SvD, [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Martin Jönsson - The newsroom - Beyond integration

News & Politics

Transcript of Martin Jönsson - The newsroom - Beyond integration