Folha de São Paulo : 21 de junho 2013Digital journalism – the future?

Mark Hillary

Mark Hillary• Written 10 books on technology and globalisation• 2013 books will include a guide to social media for companies in developing countries – published by the United Nations• Shortlisted UK blogger of the year - twice• One of 100 official London 2012 Olympic bloggers • Regular Huffington Post and Reuters blogger, with articles published in The BBC, Guardian, Observer, Financial Times…• Advised the UN, UK govt, Indian govt on technology policies

www.markhillary.com

This talk…

• What does society think of a newspaper?• What is changing in print media?• What can we expect from the future?

What are we asking?

The question we all want to answer is if the newspaper can survive in the digital age…

Media Matters

Digital or not – the media matters

It is still an important force for questioning government… bonding society… strengthening democracy

Reality of news

But what is the newspaper business – really?

Cover price has never made any publisher a profit. News is reported so adverts can be sold and the business can make a profit…

Vanishing adverts

Why advertise in a newspaper now?

Local ads work better on craigslist or tools like Mercado Livre…

National campaigns work better on Facebook or Google or YouTube

Nineties generation

News has been online since 1994… an entire generation has grown up expecting it to be online – and to be free

CollaborationIt is not just the cult of the new – the iPad – news is a very different experience today: • People expect news online for free• They expect to be able to share interesting stories with friends• They expect to be able to add their own comments or to interact with the journal or journalist

News is not just consumption – it is collaborative and social, you are not just

telling them how it is today

Curation

You don’t even need to bother going to a journal or news site… • Subscribe to news podcasts on iTunes• Your Facebook timeline features friend updates and also news stories from journals• You follow journalists and people you trust on Twitter – so one look at your newsfeed gives you the latest news

Is it the same all over?

Newspapers are losing money on the cover, need adverts, but adverts are vanishing • But in countries like India – where Internet penetration remains low, there is still a print advertising market – for how long?• In developed markets, Google and Facebook offer much better options for advertisers – imagine selling new cars using a newspaper, the idea even sounds archaic

Usual Approach

Paywall - block content unless the reader subscribes

The paywall works well for unique or time-sensitive content that cannot be found elsewhere… Financial Times, Wall Street Journal for example

But what about general news? What will the newspaper of the future be like?

Paywall does not work

Paywalls don’t work for general news – why?

• The news is no longer social• The news is no longer collaborative• The news is ignored

I never read or share The Times and nobody I know reads it – it is becoming irrelevant

The Guardian A newspaper is no longer a reflection of the truth today

The original print newspaper is now multimedia based on video, audio, blogs – totally free and global The digital approach is social, collaborative, shared… you do not just TELL readers information, it is more like a conversation

The Guardian

Newspapers need to KNOW your readers – blanket banner ads are useless You are actually creating a community of people who share similar values and are drawn to the way you report the news – what can you sell to a like-minded community?

• Courses, classes in anything• Singles, dating services• Reader offers - shopping

The Guardian

This may not sound like news, but advertising is not news and has been used to support newspapers since they started…

You know everything about the readers in your community, what they like, dislike, where they live… you can sell like Facebook

SummaryJournalism has always sold something to us… it has a future, just it is a different future to the newspaper filled with adverts• Big publishers – cannot just be good at one thing… you need to move beyond news into services, retail, education • News must be interactive – you will receive news and comment from the audience• A global approach can help create the scale for new services

Mark Hillarytwitter.com/markhillary

instagram.com/markhillaryj.mp/markhillary

mail@markhillary.com