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'US newspapers are folding at an alarming

rate. Some people are switching to online only.'

 

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent a thunder ball trough the

media this week.''

 

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With the growth of the internet

making money

 

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has been something of a struggle for the print industry

as a whole.'

 

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'Sales and profits both are shrinking, with

circulation down nearly 40%'

 

 

 

 

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For over 300 years, news has arrived on our

doorsteps as news PAPERS.

 

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Publishers relied on paper,

On ink,

 

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Presses,

Trucks, and shops.

 

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Many newspapers spent nearly half their budget

just getting their content TO you.

 

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But that...as they say...is yesterday's news.

 

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This is the digital world.

In an instant, news travels to your laptop,

 

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smart phone or tablet.

Geography has disappeared

 

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Words written in Paris are available on the

New York subway.

 

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And while the way we GET news is undergoing

a revolution....

 

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....So is the nature of news itself.

 

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San Antonio, Texas.

Hundreds of journalists gather here from all over

 

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the United States, to discuss the current

state...AND the future of their profession.

 

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Journalists like Laura Frank.

 

Laura Frank - Journalist

 

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I was a reporter at the Rocky Mountain news,

an investigator reporter at the State's oldest

 

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newspaper. But it ended when it closed in

2009.  And it was devastating.

 

Extract 'Final Edition' from Rocky Mountain News

 

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On that day....the paper's owners walked into

the newsroom to tell the reporters their jobs...

 

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were at an end.

 

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'We're going to announce just in the next

few minutes that we're going to put the

 

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Rocky Mountain News up for sale. Something

that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.'

 

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And it was really a shock for the country

I think. It got a lot of attention around

 

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the United States when that happened because

it was the first major metropolitan newspaper

 

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to close in the United States.

 

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During the last fifteen years of the digital

revolution, dozens of newspapers have vanished

 

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in the United States.

And more than 30 percent of journalists have

 

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lost their jobs.

 

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....the entire industry was collapsing around

us. So it wasn't as if we we could no, we'll just go get

 

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other journalism jobs. There were no

other journalism jobs. I was wondering if

 

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I was going to have to go work at Starbucks

 

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All the journalists here in San Antonio have

been had a rough ride in the last couple

 

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of years. The basic financials of the media

business have changed completely.

 

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'What you have to understand about American

media is the profit margins that American

 

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media were used to getting. I worked at newspapers

that were getting 40 or 45 per cent return on

 

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investment. Those days are long gone and they're probably

not going to come back.

 

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But surprisingly, the journalists here in

San Antonio...are decidedly optimistic.

 

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We've experienced the technology

that causes the disruption, the internet and

 

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digital.   But now, I think the technology really

is going to add to being able to do the reporting

 

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and being able to disseminate it in a way,

so that we are gonna, we felt the pain, now

 

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we're gong to feel the benefit.

 

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But getting to there from here, means changing

the way we think about news.

 

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When traditional newspapers began to die in

the United States, the big question was....What's

 

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going to replace them?

The answer....is all sorts of things.

 

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New ways to get news.

New ways to read it.

 

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New ways to share it.

But it's still early days for the

 

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brave new digital world.

Days of experimentation,

 

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where some win and some lose.

 

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After eighty years Newsweek will print its

last edition. Newsweek is going all digital

 

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and ending its run as a print publication

that began in 1933. Newsweek is the second

 

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largest weekly magazine after Time. Newsweek circulation

dropped more than 50 per cent, from 3.1 million

 

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to a million and a half. IBT Media has bought

Newsweek for an undisclosed amount. The magazine's

 

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new owner hopes to succeed where others have

failed.

 

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Well, I think anybody who tells you that they

know what the news business will look like

 

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in five years, is either lying or delusional.

The simple answer is we don't know.

 

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Dan Gross was a Senior Editor at Newsweek.

He was there in 2012, when the magazine took a bold step.

 

Dan Gross - Newsweek/Daily Beast

 

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And the decision was made to essentially turn

it from a print publication into a digital

 

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publication to sort of meet consumers where

they were, try a different model.

 

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Newsweek merged with an online brand called

the Daily Beast.

 

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It continued as online only.

That was unsuccessful.

 

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A year later it was sold again.

Its story..... is now a cautionary tale in the publishing industry.

 

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We now work in an industry today that didn't

exist 5 years ago. I work for the Daily Beast,

 

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which is a publication that didn't exist 5

or 6 years ago. And many of the publications

 

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that existed and that I worked at when I got

into this industry 25 years ago, don't exist anymore.

 

Bill Grueskin - Prof. Columbia School of Journalism

 

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"I would say there is both more optimism on

creating new news outlets and probably a little bit

 

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more pessimism on the future of the legacy

outlets."

 

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Professor Bill Grueskin specializes in digital

journalism at Columbia University in New York City.

 

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One of the most respect jouranlistic insitutions in the world.

 

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Home of the Pulitzer Prize.

 

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"I think the biggest problem is the news

organizations that are just kind of holding

 

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tight and saying, you know, at the end of

the day, we have to do things pretty much

 

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the way we have done them for the last 20-30-50

years. And that to me this is the really scary

 

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prospect for a lot of news organizations."

 

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"The old distribution for me used to be bunding

up a newspaper and hiring a kid and throwing

 

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it at somebody's house. And now distribution

is getting people to come to your homepage

 

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but that's also essentially getting the Internet

and the world to do your heavy lifting for

 

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you, to share it around."

 

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In the digital world, many publishers are

STILL struggling to transform.

 

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Trying to turn themselves from physical papers...to

online news sites.

 

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In the United States the process has been

going on for a decade.

 

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In Europe, it's still early days.

 

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"It's going to happen in Europe just as

it did in the US and a lot of it is simply

 

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demographic. Everyday some people die, and

those people were people who were weaned on

 

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print, grew up and grew old on print. And

every day new people entering their consuming

 

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lives, they enter the key demographic as we

say."

 

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Here in Amsterdam, Peter Vandermeesch is the Editor of the NRC Handelsblad.

 

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One of the largest and most important papers in the country.

 

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Vandermeesch sees his industry and his newsroom

facing a major transition.

 

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I'm afraid the next 10 to 15 years will be

difficult for many newspapers,

 

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so we can't afford to bury

our heads in the sand,

 

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many journalists will lose their jobs

 

Peter Vandermeersch - Editor in Chief NRC

 

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The question for

all markets worldwide is:

 

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Will we be able to stay at

the current level?

 

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We have 200 full-time journalists

and almost 1000 employees,

 

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that's an immense operation.

 

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Can we maintain these operations?

 

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I have real doubts about it.

 

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European newspaper sales have only declined slightly

 

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and are far less dependent on advertising,

unlike their American counterparts.

 

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However, their future is also digital.

 

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When you build a news brand today,

you obviously do it digitally,

 

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you don't start a newspaper.

 

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The fact remains that

many digital brands

 

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somehow still would like to have

an analogue presence somewhere.

 

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"And So the established brands have this burden

of trying to meet their existing consumers

 

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where they are and at the same time try to

invest and create the next generation when

 

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the technology is changing every six months

to 12 months."

 

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A misunderstanding for many people is they say, oh,

there's something happening with newspapers,

 

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no one is reading that newspaper anymore,

that's not true. It's just the business model

 

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that doesn't work for them anymore .

 

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De Persgroep is the largst newspaper publisher in Belgium and Holland

 

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and prints seven national dailies.

 

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The owner of this publishing giant, Christian

Van Thillo, wants his people to never lose

focus on print.

 

Christian Van Thillo - De Persgroup

 

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This was my greatest fear I think in the beginning

of this decade, when internet was such a hype

 

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and everybody said...You know, paper is dead

wood, or dead trees and it's over with this

 

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industry and what we said was "Let's try to

develop our news sites with digital savvy

 

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people and let's continue to concentrate on

papers

 

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And that is the same for papers on the other

side of the Atlantic.

 

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The New York Times.

Perhaps the world's best-known newspaper.

 

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Over 150 years old, it's trials and tribulations

have made it the bell-weather of the publishing

 

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industry in the United States.

It's tried several large-scale experiments

 

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to adapt to modern technology.

 

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"We've got into a point where we are going

to be uncomfortable about the pace of change

 

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for a very long time to come.

 

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Paul Smurl leads the digital strategy for

the New York Times.

 

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Where the talk is no longer only about websites....but

ever NEWER ways to read news.

 

Paul Smurl - The New York Times

 

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Mobile is the most recent sort of disrupter

or enabler, depending on your point of view.

 

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We see more people using mobile devices on

phones and tablets, Smartphone penetration

 

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in the US is at an all time high. I believe

that at the end of this year, one in every

 

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three US adults will have a tablet. The penetration

in Europe is lower, but I think that will

 

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come over time.

 

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we really believed that the explosion of mobile

devices now is going to change our industry

 

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and that publishing is

going to be print and electronic and electronic

 

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will move more and more in the electronic

way.

 

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As papers migrate to multiple digital platforms,

there are good financial reasons for keeping

 

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the physical newspaper.

 

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"You know that's a question about whether

at some point we'll stop printing the paper

 

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I think is a common one. I don't think it's

going to happen in my professional lifetime

 

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and it may not happen in my lifetime, lifetime.

There is a very devoted audience; we have over

 

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1.1 million home deliveries subscribers."

 

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"I'll be dead I guess. For a long time.

No No. I. It's not gonna happen anytime soon,

 

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we are still printing 1.4 million copies per night,

we don't see a major major decline in our circulation."

 

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Van Thillo thinks the transition to digital

must be made carefully.

 

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I think that has all to do with the choice

you make with respect to your newsrooms is

 

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when you ask an editor to switch from paper

to online, he is not gonna concentrate on

 

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the paper anymore and what happened in many

many news houses, is that people didn't make

 

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a choice of being good with their paper on

paper and electronically they just said, no

 

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we are gonna switch and if you switch and

you don't concentrate on how to make a good

 

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paper, well the paper is going to be lousy

and people are going to just leave your paper

 

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and they will cancel their subscription.

 

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"....the digital audience and the print audience

are becoming more and more separate from each

 

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other, and people who want print really want

it. People who want digital, whether it's

 

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on a computer, or an iphone, they really want

that experience. Some people want both, but

 

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in fact, there are actually two very different

audiences in their demographics and their

 

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reading habits.

 

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"We have many many more technology driven

people in our company."

 

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designing websites, designing apps, and having

the right engineering and then a seamless transition

 

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to IT, that has become very very important.

 

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Dan Gross says an entire generation has now

come of age during the digital relution.

 

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"....in the same way, people don't know what

a rotary phone is, right? They, the kids who

 

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are growing up they really don't know how

to read a newspaper."

 

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"When I look at our new students, I see very

few of them bringing a newspaper into school every day.

 

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That doesn't mean that they are not consuming

news or reading news or watching news, but

 

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they are much more likely to be doing that

on a device that they can hold in their hand."

 

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And what they're reading...they're most often

reading for free.

 

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"Go back 15 years, when a lot of these organizations

were just getting up online. And people thought,

 

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the main thing you have to do is to accumulate

as big of an audience that you possibly can

 

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and then we'll figure out later on how to

make money on it, probably through advertising."

 

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"....it's very easy to look back with 20/20

hindsight and say, this was a mistake. We

 

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could have changed the course of events. But

so, rather than describe it an original sin,

 

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I guess I would say it's something that probably

helped support the growth of the web, the

 

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web platform which was immature 10-15 years

ago.

 

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'Free of charge' scares me.

 

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I'm convinced that,

with the arrival of the internet,

 

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publishers really made a mistake

 

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by giving everything for free

just to make them grow.

 

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This shouldn't have been a big surprise, a number

of people were dropping their print newspapers

 

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subscription and the ad revenue that would

go with it, because they figure I just can go

 

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online and read it a couple of times a week. I don't need

a newspaper.

 

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With newspapers giving away their content

for free...a new kind of online website has

 

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emerged.

One that took their free content...and used

 

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it to make money for itself.

 

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Sure, she's on of the most powerful women

in media. Her website The Huffington Post

 

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was a game changer.''  AOL has announced that

it will acquire the liberal political blog

 

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site The Huffington Post for 315 million dollars

Monday morning.' '

 

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The Huffington Post, one of the most successful

news portals, is launching a German edition.

 

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'Arianna's detractors say that aggregator

sites like The Huffington Post, partly powered by bloggers are killing journalism.'

 

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This is The Huffington Post.

Founded in 2005, it's one of the most popular

 

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news websites in America.

It's also the best known of news aggregators.

 

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Executive International Editor Nicholas Sabloff

explains.

 

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"I think most people's definition of aggregation would

be to produce a piece of content where some

 

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of the information is originating somewhere

else. Perhaps it was originating in a report

 

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from the Associated Press, and so it could

be an article based on that."

 

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The Huffington Post creates its own content,

and it's readers post a million comments a month.

 

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00:16:57,329 --> 00:17:00,000

month.

It also links to stories from online newspapers

 

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00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,939

but far more controversially, it uses information

taken from those stories.

 

200

00:17:03,939 --> 00:17:07,280

Not only in the U.S....but around the world.

 

Nicholas Sabloff - The Huffington Post

 

201

00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:13,510

"Today we are in Canada, the UK, France, Spain,

Italy and Japan with many more markets to

 

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00:17:13,510 --> 00:17:18,020

come in the next 18 months and we've really

found that the platform and the approach to

 

203

00:17:18,020 --> 00:17:22,640

content and engagement in social has really

travelled well in those markets."

 

204

00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:28,930

"So we go in, find a team of local editors

and a local partner to build an edition that

 

205

00:17:28,930 --> 00:17:33,290

really fits, you know, a local language that

really has an opportunity to be, not just

 

206

00:17:33,290 --> 00:17:38,360

the Huffington Post in French, but you know,

a great brand new site for a French reading

 

207

00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:39,050

Audience."

 

208

00:17:39,050 --> 00:17:43,140

Many European newspapers editors and publishers

see this a threat.

 

209

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It's theft, pure theft.

 

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One of my big frustrations is

 

211

00:17:48,354 --> 00:17:53,013

NBC puts a lot of energy in

investigtive journalism.

 

212

00:17:53,013 --> 00:17:58,393

One second later,

the results of those investigations

 

213

00:17:58,393 --> 00:18:00,824

are available on Dutch sites

 

214

00:18:00,824 --> 00:18:03,641

and a minute later on sites worldwide.

 

215

00:18:03,666 --> 00:18:06,239

I don't get anything in return.

 

216

00:18:06,264 --> 00:18:11,236

Those sites say they merely

aggregate news, which is correct

 

217

00:18:11,261 --> 00:18:13,794

They benefit from the sweat of our

brows.

 

218

00:18:13,794 --> 00:18:20,740

"If someone aggregates and when we say aggregation

it's really copy-paste to build its own business

 

219

00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:28,010

it's plain theft. It's as simple as that.

We're talking about that to the European

 

220

00:18:28,010 --> 00:18:32,200

Commission as well, it's something that has

to be banned. It's not because its easy and

 

221

00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:37,940

because its fun that you have to allow it.

It's very simple. If we continue to allow

 

222

00:18:37,940 --> 00:18:40,830

it, there will be no content ten years from

now."

 

223

00:18:40,830 --> 00:18:43,040

Sabloff sees aggregation differently.

 

224

00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:47,210

"If you are on the web and not doing that

aggregation, you're not, that is a really

 

225

00:18:47,210 --> 00:18:51,770

important thing to be delivered to the reader.

So for people who are let's say concerned

 

226

00:18:51,770 --> 00:18:57,000

about aggregation, perhaps they are not spend

much time on the web and search how content

 

227

00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:57,780

is consumed there."

 

228

00:19:12,180 --> 00:19:16,680

Edwy Plenel is the former editor of Le Monde

in Paris.

 

229

00:19:17,180 --> 00:19:19,080

His concerns with the way the Huffington Post

works...

 

230

00:19:19,180 --> 00:19:20,140

Is that it threatens the very nature of news.

 

231

00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,523

Our enemy is called entertainment.

 

Edwy Plenel - Ex-Le Monde

 

232

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We give information, they offer entertainment.

 

233

00:19:32,956 --> 00:19:37,050

Entertainment tries to

triumph over information.

 

234

00:19:37,050 --> 00:19:38,389

Infotainment

 

235

00:19:38,389 --> 00:19:43,867

Their ally is Fox News in the U.S.,

which is a real caricature,

 

236

00:19:43,867 --> 00:19:46,334

or a success like the Huffington.

 

237

00:19:46,334 --> 00:19:49,853

They are aggregators of opinions.

 

238

00:19:49,853 --> 00:19:52,505

They gather opinions everywhere, and say:

 

239

00:19:52,505 --> 00:19:56,165

'Look, it's journalism,

since there are debates.'

 

240

00:19:56,165 --> 00:19:58,785

But opinions is not democracy.

 

241

00:19:58,810 --> 00:20:04,684

A democracy is where opinions

are formed based on information.

 

242

00:20:04,709 --> 00:20:09,755

If democracy would simply be

an exchange of opinions,

 

243

00:20:09,780 --> 00:20:13,777

everyone would be at war

against everyone.

 

244

00:20:14,210 --> 00:20:20,000

In an attempt to compete against aggregators,

and to create new successful financial models,

 

245

00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,680

many traditional newspapers have been experimenting.

One of those experiments....is pay walls.

 

246

00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,610

Charging people to read the stories they put

online.

 

247

00:20:28,610 --> 00:20:35,610

In 2011 we were told by media pundits and

others our competition that this was doomed

 

248

00:20:35,930 --> 00:20:42,930

to fail, that it was dumb, that you know was

ill conceived and now, 2 years later, the

 

249

00:20:43,650 --> 00:20:47,790

whole tenor of that conversation has changed

completely.

 

250

00:20:47,790 --> 00:20:53,910

The original impetus for our decision to

move to pay was about retraining readers,

 

251

00:20:53,910 --> 00:20:59,900

users, consumers that valuable content should

be content that people pay for.

 

252

00:20:59,900 --> 00:21:04,775

The New York Times anticipated

on the issue of the paid news.

 

253

00:21:04,775 --> 00:21:06,526

That's the solution.

 

254

00:21:06,526 --> 00:21:12,406

All high-quality, informative press

that serves as a reference

 

255

00:21:12,406 --> 00:21:15,645

should defend its values

on the internet.

 

256

00:21:15,645 --> 00:21:19,696

You can't do free and paid

at the same time.

 

257

00:21:19,721 --> 00:21:22,554

You choose.

Embrace the paid option

 

258

00:21:22,579 --> 00:21:25,035

as leverage for the creation of value

 

259

00:21:25,470 --> 00:21:30,310

So far, the pay wall has paid off for the

New York Times with over seven hundred thousand

 

260

00:21:30,310 --> 00:21:35,380

digital subscribers.

But at Columbia University, Bill Grueskin

 

261

00:21:35,380 --> 00:21:36,340

is cautious.

 

262

00:21:36,340 --> 00:21:42,090

I think it has been moderately successful

on a very temporary basis. Everyone points

 

263

00:21:42,090 --> 00:21:49,090

to the New York Times because they quickly got 5-6-7

hundred thousand subscribers to their digital product.

 

264

00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:55,390

No other news organizations in the

US are even close to that, which you see from

 

265

00:21:55,390 --> 00:22:00,740

on over 10, 20, 30 thousand, people paying

you know 50-100 dollar a year, it's not a

 

266

00:22:00,740 --> 00:22:06,390

huge amount of money. The problem is, as they

say, trees don't grow to the sky, I mean every

 

267

00:22:06,390 --> 00:22:08,260

publication has its limit.

 

268

00:22:08,260 --> 00:22:12,230

There's no doubt in my mind that everybody

who is in the business of publishing content

 

269

00:22:12,230 --> 00:22:18,000

online has a segment of their audience that's

willing to pay for that content, because it's

 

270

00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,290

differentiated in some way. If you don't have

a segment of your audience willing to pay,

 

271

00:22:22,290 --> 00:22:27,460

you might as well go out of business, because

you're not doing something that's really valued

 

272

00:22:27,460 --> 00:22:28,610

by people."

 

273

00:22:28,610 --> 00:22:35,120

the New York Times is sort of unique among

US publications and in that it has a sufficient

 

274

00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:40,320

number of people around the country who are

sufficiently passionate about the product

 

275

00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:45,530

that they are willing to pay for online.

I think most newspapers will be experimenting

 

276

00:22:45,530 --> 00:22:51,600

with pay walls in one way or another. Many

already have been, it's hard to see that many

 

277

00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,480

successes thus far.

 

278

00:22:58,080 --> 00:23:00,684

It's hard to run back the decision to

give news for free.

 

279

00:23:00,684 --> 00:23:04,977

We're like a butcher who

gave away free steaks for 15 years

 

280

00:23:04,977 --> 00:23:10,320

and now tells his regular customers

they have to start paying.

 

281

00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:13,967

They wonder why.

They never paid for steak.

 

282

00:23:13,992 --> 00:23:15,901

So they don't understand.

 

283

00:23:16,050 --> 00:23:19,980

My first piece of advice would be to go talk

to your readers about what they might be willing

to pay for.

 

284

00:23:20,820 --> 00:23:25,760

"And is there a way to build a product or

an offering around that, at a price point

 

285

00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:32,150

that people find reasonable. If so, get started

right away. That would be my advice. I wish

 

286

00:23:32,150 --> 00:23:34,400

we had started sooner."

 

287

00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:38,900

Because while traditional publishing companies

debate the merits of pay walls, the ever changing

 

288

00:23:38,900 --> 00:23:45,900

world of digital technology, is creating whole

new KINDS of journalism.

 

289

00:23:46,230 --> 00:23:50,630

Already the capital of finance, fashion and

advertising, New York City is fast becoming

 

290

00:23:50,630 --> 00:23:55,980

the place to be for tech start-ups.

The market is one of those markets, is so

 

291

00:23:55,980 --> 00:24:00,830

big, that I don't spend time thinking about

how big it is.  Brand advertising is gigantic.

 

292

00:24:00,830 --> 00:24:05,920

Buzzfeed is a different story. The social

content hub relies on sharing, not googleing,

 

293

00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:11,160

gets double the traffic from Facebook than from

a Google search and 40 percent of its traffic is mobile.

 

294

00:24:16,770 --> 00:24:22,340

New York City.

A hotbed of journalistic creativity and innovation.

 

295

00:24:22,340 --> 00:24:25,440

Here near the Flatiron building, is Silicon

Alley.

 

296

00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:32,440

The heart of New York's internet and new media

companies.

 

297

00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:38,700

This is Buzzfeed.

An entirely digital news organization.

 

298

00:24:38,700 --> 00:24:44,160

Through it's website and App, it gets around

80 million individual readers a month.

 

299

00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:49,380

"People weren't sure what to make of us when we came on the scene, they were saying

sort of Buzzfeed is all about cats, kind of

 

300

00:24:49,380 --> 00:24:54,230

a common thing, Buzzfeed is about cats. How

are they gonna do serious news?"

 

301

00:24:54,230 --> 00:25:01,000

Jack Shepard is Buzzfeed's Editorial Director.

From his desk he co-ordinates 200 young reporters.

 

302

00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,550

And their work... is shifting the way we read

news.

 

Jack Shepard - Buzzfeed

 

303

00:25:04,550 --> 00:25:08,700

"We always thought as the, actually the way

that people consume news nowadays. If

 

304

00:25:08,700 --> 00:25:13,910

you think about what your Facebook feed is

like. Facebook is, it will be an amazing breaking

 

305

00:25:13,910 --> 00:25:18,850

news story from a Supreme Court decision and

then it will be an update about how your aunt

 

306

00:25:18,850 --> 00:25:23,330

is doing, and then it will be, your brother

sharing cute pictures of his cats and then

 

307

00:25:23,330 --> 00:25:27,460

it will be your sister sharing baby pictures

and then another sort of breaking news story

 

308

00:25:27,460 --> 00:25:31,010

about the future of journalism or whatever.

And that's all kind of people are getting,

 

309

00:25:31,010 --> 00:25:34,770

are really really used to consuming news in

that way.

 

310

00:25:34,770 --> 00:25:38,700

Buzzfeed covers it all.

From indepth political analysis...to movies

 

311

00:25:38,700 --> 00:25:44,560

reviews....to pictures of cats.

But Buzzfeed didn't start as a news company.

 

312

00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:50,390

We began as a technology company which is

still very much in our DNA and we thought

 

313

00:25:50,390 --> 00:25:57,100

a lot about kind of building algorithms to

surface really great content, that people

 

314

00:25:57,100 --> 00:26:01,260

would want to share.

And then kind of as the media landscape evolved

 

315

00:26:01,260 --> 00:26:05,800

to be really really focused on social in particular

and sharing, we were in a really good position

 

316

00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:10,530

to kind of take advantage of that because

we got great with a very small team writing

 

317

00:26:10,530 --> 00:26:15,040

things that would go viral and that would sort

of get spread way beyond our sort of our small

seed of readers.

 

318

00:26:16,830 --> 00:26:23,130

"Buzzfeed like a number of digital sites had

a few advantages going in. One was the expertise

 

319

00:26:23,130 --> 00:26:27,370

in technology.  And then, the other

thing that they had from the very beginning

 

320

00:26:27,370 --> 00:26:30,400

was a strong sense of an audience.

 

321

00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:37,400

News coming from a friend, is vastly more

powerful than something that you accidently

 

322

00:26:37,950 --> 00:26:43,010

ended up on, or something that comes from

an old broadcast model of 1 person deciding

 

323

00:26:43,010 --> 00:26:45,610

what the news is and telling many people.

 

324

00:26:45,610 --> 00:26:50,370

In the digital news revolution journalists and

editors are no longer the only ones setting

 

325

00:26:50,370 --> 00:26:54,200

the news agenda.

Through social media... each of us becomes an editor.

 

326

00:26:57,140 --> 00:27:03,970

We are living now in an era of a network which

is not just a broadcast model of one to many.

 

327

00:27:03,970 --> 00:27:08,040

It's a model of, of lots of different people

who are networked, who are at work and tweeting things

 

328

00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:13,290

and sharing things on Facebook and email,

and emailing things to each other. And so

 

329

00:27:13,290 --> 00:27:19,850

if you think about your network as being your

publishers in a way rather than thinking about

 

330

00:27:19,850 --> 00:27:25,930

yourself as being sort of deciding what's

news, it's, it can be very liberating.

 

331

00:27:26,330 --> 00:27:31,050

Not only does Buzzfeed present the kind of

the variety you might find on Facebook.....it

 

332

00:27:30,550 --> 00:27:35,810

USES facebook, Twitter, and other social media

sites to distribute its content.

 

333

00:27:35,810 --> 00:27:38,830

The medium is changing.

And so's the message.

 

334

00:27:38,830 --> 00:27:44,200

"The thing that is kind of central to what

Buzzfeed does in particular is really always

 

335

00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:51,020

thinking about social. Our reporters are writing

with Twitter in mind. They will think about

 

336

00:27:51,020 --> 00:27:54,140

how can I write a headline that would be a

Tweet.

 

337

00:27:54,140 --> 00:27:59,210

Being a technical company first, Buzzfeed

was already in the number crunching business.

 

338

00:27:59,210 --> 00:28:04,730

So when it became a news business, it developed

advanced mathematical formulae to decide which

 

339

00:28:04,730 --> 00:28:07,370

stories to tell, and how to tell them.

 

340

00:28:07,370 --> 00:28:12,090

And so we have very much like a starve-the-losers mentality.

The stuff that is not doing

 

341

00:28:12,090 --> 00:28:15,500

well, that is not fitting our needs or sort

of actually kind of getting out there and

 

342

00:28:15,500 --> 00:28:19,860

being really social, will kind of sink to the

bottom, and the algorithm helps to do that.

 

343

00:28:19,860 --> 00:28:22,590

And surface the stuff that is doing really

well

 

344

00:28:22,590 --> 00:28:27,500

So how does Buzzfeed's number system work?

That, they're keeping to themselves.

 

345

00:28:27,500 --> 00:28:32,380

But the basic idea is this.

Buzzfeed can calculate which of its stories

 

346

00:28:32,380 --> 00:28:37,540

people are reading and SHARING most often.

It can then give these stories a higher profile.

 

347

00:28:37,540 --> 00:28:41,600

Which in turn can make them more likely to

be read.

 

348

00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,400

It's a feedback loop based on popular opinion.

 

349

00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:52,400

And you know, one of the issues with print

publications is, you never really know what

 

350

00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:58,200

people are reading in your newspaper or in

your magazine. A website, you know exactly

 

351

00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:04,000

how many people are reading it, you know where

they are coming from, you know how long

they are spending on each story.

 

352

00:29:04,025 --> 00:29:13,725

And so, in an old print publication, people just

kind of published stories, and the assumption was

everybody read everything.  That was never true,

 

353

00:29:13,750 --> 00:29:18,650

but we have no idea how many people

were actually reading story X on page 1 versus

story Y on page 3.

 

354

00:29:23,030 --> 00:29:28,070

Not far form Buzzfeed's Manhattan offices...

is a company that creates this kind of technology.

 

355

00:29:28,070 --> 00:29:31,080

Now.... as you read a website....the website

reads you.

 

356

00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:41,280

"Now when you start to see data in real time,

special data, it changes everything."

 

357

00:29:44,100 --> 00:29:48,670

Tony Haile is the CEO of Chartbeat,

a company that buys and sells software that

 

358

00:29:48,670 --> 00:29:55,670

analyzes how every individual uses news websites....down

to the smallest detail.

 

359

00:29:56,220 --> 00:30:03,220

We're getting pings every few seconds and

that means we can see are you actually reading,

 

360

00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:08,690

are you writing something, are you scrolling?

I can see how many people are on my site right

 

361

00:30:08,690 --> 00:30:14,030

now, I can see the stories that they're liking

right now, what's working for my audience,

 

362

00:30:14,030 --> 00:30:16,190

what's not working for my audience. Did they

come from Facebook?

 

363

00:30:16,190 --> 00:30:20,970

Did they come from Twitter? Did they come

from someone referring to us? I can see what

 

364

00:30:20,970 --> 00:30:25,800

are my most engaging pieces of content, so

that's where I can find diamonds in the rough

 

365

00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,180

which I can promote. All of these things I can understand

 

366

00:30:28,180 --> 00:30:35,440

immediately and I can act on them to change the headline,

change the image, try and communicate the value of this

story in a better way.

 

367

00:30:35,840 --> 00:30:36,880

It's not about clicks, it's about people.

 

368

00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:44,200

People...and money.

The more people that read stories on your

 

369

00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:51,200

website, or your stories on Facebook or Twitter...the

more you can charge advertisers.

 

Tony Haile - Chartbeat

 

370

00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:58,800

"... it's about people's time and attention.

And when you have that, that's when you can

 

371

00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:04,770

build a loyal returning audience, and something

that brands actually care about and value."

 

372

00:31:04,770 --> 00:31:07,740

Brand is the watchword in the digital media

world.

 

373

00:31:07,740 --> 00:31:13,480

And what you are seeing is the understanding

that the future of publishers is going inlved

 

374

00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:18,960

having a loyal audience, they can monetize

in a variety of ways. And that means not just

 

375

00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:24,140

trying to maximize traffic anymore but trying

to build an audience who knows who you are,

 

376

00:31:24,140 --> 00:31:29,600

likes what you do and comes back. That's very

very different than before.

 

377

00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,800

And that's how companies like Buzzfeed make

money.

 

378

00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,740

Taking what they learn about how readers read,

and turning it into advertising.

 

379

00:31:36,740 --> 00:31:40,870

And so what we do is, we work with brands

to help them, to take the principles that

 

380

00:31:40,870 --> 00:31:46,000

we have learned from editorial and to help

the brands kind of create content that is

 

381

00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:50,440

really sharable. And so it's all the same

principles except from the point of view of

 

382

00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:53,160

giving a message about a brand or whatever

it is.

 

383

00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:57,780

Shareable advertising.

Ads that look a lot like news.

 

384

00:31:57,780 --> 00:32:00,780

It's controversial.

And there are those concerned the drive to

 

385

00:32:00,780 --> 00:32:05,240

make stories popular, in order to bring in

more advertisers, will lead to lowest common

 

386

00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:06,750

denominator news.

 

Edwy Plenel - Ex-le Monde

 

387

00:32:06,750 --> 00:32:12,940

Journalists should be fundamentalists

when it comes to information,

 

388

00:32:12,940 --> 00:32:15,705

because the enemy is there,

 

389

00:32:15,705 --> 00:32:19,547

on the television,

the radio and the internet.

 

390

00:32:19,547 --> 00:32:23,813

He will dissolve journalism

into entertainment.

 

391

00:32:23,813 --> 00:32:27,559

And of course infotainment is free of

charge,

 

392

00:32:27,559 --> 00:32:30,508

it manipulates the public,

manipulates the masses,

 

393

00:32:30,508 --> 00:32:34,403

it makes them laugh

and takes the popular road.

 

394

00:32:34,403 --> 00:32:36,101

It uses the masses.

 

395

00:32:36,101 --> 00:32:39,182

Journalists work with an audience.

 

396

00:32:39,182 --> 00:32:44,128

The masses are anonymous, they click

and are gone.

 

397

00:32:44,153 --> 00:32:47,297

There is no democratic conversation.

 

398

00:32:47,322 --> 00:32:50,063

We create a bond with our audience.

 

399

00:32:50,088 --> 00:32:53,789

The audience discusses,

ponders and reflects.

 

400

00:32:53,814 --> 00:32:57,817

The democratic debate is what is

fundamentally at stake here.

 

Tony Haile - Chartbeat

401

00:32:57,817 --> 00:33:02,770

So there is always this fear, especially around

real time data, that you are going to stop

 

402

00:33:02,770 --> 00:33:09,330

being a great quality publisher and just write

Miley Cyrus stories all day just to get the clicks.

 

403

00:33:09,330 --> 00:33:16,330

And that is utterly untrue. We've seen real

time data in publications across the world.

 

404

00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:21,700

After a little less and a month or so of using

 this kind of stuff, people actually realized

 

405

00:33:21,700 --> 00:33:25,350

they are not changing their mission. They

are still focusing on great content, but they

 

406

00:33:25,350 --> 00:33:29,440

just have so much more information to be able

to make the right decisions.

 

407

00:33:29,450 --> 00:33:34,740

It's still thinking about making things that a huge

amount of people will really like and respond

 

408

00:33:34,740 --> 00:33:38,860

to. And that's not, that's turns out not to

be the lowest common denominator stuff. It

 

409

00:33:38,860 --> 00:33:43,450

turns out to be really really good stuff and

really interesting and compelling stuff and

 

410

00:33:43,450 --> 00:33:48,200

new things and kind of I don't know, people

are a lot smarter than they are given credit for.

 

411

00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:55,200

And so, writing for a large audience,

people who really are going to love our stuff,

 

412

00:33:55,550 --> 00:33:57,520

makes us writing good things rather than the

other way around.

 

413

00:33:59,210 --> 00:34:04,053

I'm afraid lots of free news

comes from sites driven by algorithms

 

414

00:34:04,053 --> 00:34:06,799

which leads to a brave new world.

 

415

00:34:06,799 --> 00:34:11,752

That's the economic model

of this type of sites.

 

416

00:34:11,752 --> 00:34:18,543

We want many clicks so we can

generate a lot of euros in publicity.

 

417

00:34:18,543 --> 00:34:24,436

So we need to publish

what the reader wants on our site.

 

418

00:34:24,436 --> 00:34:30,255

Whether it's naked women

or dogs or cats, we'll give it to them.

 

419

00:34:30,255 --> 00:34:36,581

Luckily we are more concerned with

what we think the reader should know

 

420

00:34:36,606 --> 00:34:39,310

rather than what they want to know.

 

421

00:34:39,310 --> 00:34:44,019

So, do you give readers what they want to

read, or give readers what they should read?

 

422

00:34:44,019 --> 00:34:47,419

And I've always thought of that as a false

question

 

423

00:34:47,419 --> 00:34:52,339

Newspapers have comic strips, they have crossword

puzzles, they have advice columns,

 

424

00:34:52,339 --> 00:34:55,670

they have a lot of space to sports,

 

425

00:34:55,670 --> 00:34:58,839

and there is nothing really wrong

with that, particularly what you're trying

 

426

00:34:58,839 --> 00:35:05,839

to do, is get people, is appeal to people's

interest on a bunch of different levels.

 

427

00:35:08,460 --> 00:35:13,140

The Columbia School of Journalism is trying

to prepare the next generation of journalists...

 

428

00:35:13,140 --> 00:35:18,269

for next generation journalism.

 

429

00:35:18,269 --> 00:35:23,000

Technology is key to the success of journalism.

That's one reason why we started a joint-degree

program here at Columbia,

 

430

00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:27,870

where students who are coming here to get dual degrees, both

 

431

00:35:27,970 --> 00:35:32,070

computer science and journalism. It's going

to be increasingly important for a journalist

 

432

00:35:32,170 --> 00:35:37,930

to understand what are both the possibilities

and the limitations of what technology can

 

433

00:35:37,930 --> 00:35:42,369

bring to the field. And that's become just hugely

important.

 

434

00:35:42,369 --> 00:35:45,440

As newspapers try to get us to pay for their

stories....

 

435

00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,410

And companies like Buzzfeed give us news for free,

 

436

00:35:49,789 --> 00:35:53,900

there are other experiments going on where

you wouldn't expect them.

 

437

00:35:53,900 --> 00:35:59,630

When newspapers began to fail, often the first

place they cut, was investigative journalism.

 

438

00:35:59,630 --> 00:36:02,119

The kind of journalism that wins Pulitzer

Prizes.

 

439

00:36:02,119 --> 00:36:06,869

It's expensive, and time consuming.

But now....the online world is creating a

 

440

00:36:06,869 --> 00:36:10,380

new generation of investigative journalists.

 

441

00:36:12,569 --> 00:36:17,549

And that takes us back to San Antonio, Texas.

And Laura Frank.

 

442

00:36:17,549 --> 00:36:21,799

After the Rocky Mountain News folded, she

decided to take her skills as an investigative

 

443

00:36:21,799 --> 00:36:24,599

reporter, and create something new.

 

444

00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:32,899

How could we create an entity that would get

at those investigative stories and share them

 

Laura Frank - I-News

 

445

00:36:32,930 --> 00:36:39,930

with other news rooms. And reach as broad

an audience of Coloradans as possible.

 

446

00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:48,920

And that was kind of the beginning of thinking

about how this I-news network could be created.

 

447

00:36:55,890 --> 00:36:59,990

Tonight a new investigative report from I-News.

 

448

00:37:00,015 --> 00:37:10,715

Our window into what's happening in the skies

comes from Burt Hubber, the former Rocky and Post

reporter, works for the non-profit journalism outlet I-News.

 

449

00:37:10,740 --> 00:37:14,240

I-News is five people full time, and we pulled

in some other folks too.

 

450

00:37:17,165 --> 00:37:23,265

An online investigative news site which creates content

for its own website, and to sell to other news agencies.

 

451

00:37:23,869 --> 00:37:27,160

The Rocky Mountain News, when it closed, had

 

452

00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:35,260

200 people in the newsroom and a 20 million

dollar budget. I-News has five people and

 

453

00:37:36,009 --> 00:37:43,009

less than 500,000 dollar budget. We would have

been proud at the Rocky Mountain News to show

 

454

00:37:43,359 --> 00:37:49,579

the kind of impact with the journalism that

I-News has had. So to be able to do that with

 

455

00:37:49,579 --> 00:37:56,579

a fraction of the people and a fraction of

the price is kind of a feat.

 

456

00:37:57,420 --> 00:38:01,349

But there's still a price.

And that's where the Internet has created

 

457

00:38:01,349 --> 00:38:04,769

a new way to pay for journalism.

Crowd funding.

 

458

00:38:04,769 --> 00:38:11,769

I think probably the best way to finance investigative

reporting is through individual donations,

 

459

00:38:13,499 --> 00:38:18,389

small, individual donations, because when

you have

 

460

00:38:18,389 --> 00:38:24,460

tens of thousands of individual donors, that's

a predictable revenue stream.

 

Kevin Davis - CEO Investigative News Network

461

00:38:35,160 --> 00:38:40,560

As non-profit movement grows, we can try

and chase the same revenue models that the

for-profits did,

 

462

00:38:40,569 --> 00:38:44,609

or we can think about more about

models that have long-term perspective.

 

463

00:38:44,609 --> 00:38:49,539

Kevin Davis is the Executive Director of the

Investigative News Network,

 

464

00:38:49,539 --> 00:38:54,109

an organization representing over 80 non profit

newsrooms.

 

465

00:38:54,109 --> 00:38:57,410

I'm optimistic because the economics are not

 

466

00:38:57,410 --> 00:39:04,029

as daunting when you think you have more nimble

organizations. We don't yet have all the solutions,

 

467

00:39:04,029 --> 00:39:07,920

but we, the difference between now and say

three years ago, is we now have a better sense

 

468

00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,230

of what the revenue streams can look like

and what they should look like, and when you have

 

469

00:39:12,230 --> 00:39:16,670

a better sense of where things are heading,

you can work towards that.

 

470

00:39:16,670 --> 00:39:18,980

Non-profit digital journalism appears to be working.

 

471

00:39:18,980 --> 00:39:22,430

But there are other models as well.

 

472

00:39:22,430 --> 00:39:26,530

Models out to MAKE money.

 

473

00:40:10,470 --> 00:40:14,430

In Paris the former editor of Le Monde has built a new

online brand - Medipart.

 

474

00:40:14,430 --> 00:40:19,799

Globally, it's one of the most successful

examples of digital investigative journalism.

 

475

00:40:19,799 --> 00:40:25,359

Planel has a team of 35 fulltime journalists

whose stories have brought down government

 

476

00:40:25,359 --> 00:40:27,759

ministers, and unveiled malfeasance.

 

477

00:40:27,759 --> 00:40:31,910

The idea behind Mediapart

was to reinvent journalism.

 

478

00:40:31,910 --> 00:40:36,771

Mediapart's ambition or preference

is to try to show

 

479

00:40:36,771 --> 00:40:40,397

what the press of the 21st century

will be like.

 

480

00:40:40,397 --> 00:40:47,458

It's the laboratory that shows we can

reinvent both press and journalism

 

481

00:40:47,483 --> 00:40:54,210

in a digital format, while preserving

the traidtional client relation.

 

482

00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:02,160

He says not only is it necessary for the public

to pay for this kind of journalism...it's a civic duty.

 

Edwy Plenel - Mediapart

483

00:41:03,290 --> 00:41:06,600

When we launched Mediapart,

 

484

00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,382

they thought the medium

determined the content,

 

485

00:41:10,382 --> 00:41:13,163

so information had to be free,

 

486

00:41:13,163 --> 00:41:17,014

it had to be a constant flow,

be superficial,

 

487

00:41:17,014 --> 00:41:20,181

it had to be short and mainstream,

 

488

00:41:20,181 --> 00:41:25,281

conformist, camp follower, people,

anecdotal, entertainment,

 

489

00:41:25,306 --> 00:41:28,868

all that destroys

the value of our profession.

 

490

00:41:28,893 --> 00:41:33,419

If journalists do not defend

the value of their work,

 

491

00:41:33,444 --> 00:41:38,057

which is producing information

of public interest,

 

492

00:41:38,082 --> 00:41:39,528

they are condemned.

 

493

00:41:39,553 --> 00:41:41,479

That is what is at stake here.

 

494

00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:45,739

Plenel and his partners took an enormous financial

risk with Mediapart

 

495

00:41:45,739 --> 00:41:48,799

Investing more than five million Euros of

their own money.

 

496

00:41:48,799 --> 00:41:51,423

At first people said we were crazy.

 

497

00:41:51,423 --> 00:41:54,144

Too much investment,

too many people.

 

498

00:41:54,144 --> 00:41:59,080

If we wanted people to pay,

the contents had to be spot-on.

 

499

00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,860

So we needed a team

of about thirty people.

 

500

00:42:02,860 --> 00:42:05,633

We needed quality journalists

 

501

00:42:05,633 --> 00:42:08,774

capable of making that content.

 

502

00:42:08,774 --> 00:42:10,159

So that was it.

 

503

00:42:10,184 --> 00:42:13,952

We hired young journalists

from different fields

 

504

00:42:13,977 --> 00:42:20,715

and told them we had money to pay

their salaries during three years.

 

505

00:42:20,740 --> 00:42:24,224

And we'll fight to overcome the

challenge.

 

506

00:42:25,549 --> 00:42:30,210

Plenel and his team believed that only one

thing could help them win that battle.

 

507

00:42:30,210 --> 00:42:34,524

The key to our success is journalism.

 

508

00:42:34,524 --> 00:42:40,047

Our motto is: Freedom of the press

is not the privilege of journalists,

 

509

00:42:40,047 --> 00:42:41,687

it's a citizen's right.

 

510

00:42:41,687 --> 00:42:49,113

We're in the middle of a battle.

Not a corporate battle or a professional battle

 

511

00:42:49,113 --> 00:42:53,526

but a battle where

our democracy is at risk.

 

512

00:42:53,779 --> 00:42:56,430

So you can see laws that have changed, policies

 

513

00:42:56,430 --> 00:43:01,170

that have changed, personal behavior that

has changed. It's measurable, you can see

 

514

00:43:01,170 --> 00:43:07,299

the impact, and that's a very powerful thing,

not only for a news organization but also

 

515

00:43:07,299 --> 00:43:15,699

for a community, for a state, to say, when

we have high-quality journalism, it makes a difference.

 

516

00:43:15,910 --> 00:43:20,819

"...we have to succeed. The stakes are too

high for our society.

 

517

00:43:20,819 --> 00:43:27,772

So far....for Medipart....it's worked.

In a way that could eventually give traditional

newspapers a run for their money.

 

518

00:43:28,868 --> 00:43:31,714

Mediapart has 76,000 subscribers.

 

519

00:43:31,714 --> 00:43:37,146

How many printed copies

does Liberation sell in France today?

 

520

00:43:37,146 --> 00:43:38,330

35,000

 

521

00:43:38,355 --> 00:43:42,109

How many copies of Le Monda?

90,000.

 

522

00:43:42,134 --> 00:43:46,030

Mediapart became a contender

in just five years.

 

523

00:43:46,055 --> 00:43:47,977

That's just fantastic.

 

524

00:43:48,599 --> 00:43:55,289

While his organization is based in Paris and

works in the French language, Plenel thinks the next

step is taking it to the world.

 

525

00:43:56,190 --> 00:43:58,326

Mediapart will be a role model

 

526

00:43:58,326 --> 00:44:04,789

when it succeeds in another language

and in a different country.

 

527

00:44:04,789 --> 00:44:07,974

I can see more and more curiosity.

 

528

00:44:07,974 --> 00:44:14,322

International colleagues who

come to take a look at what we do.

 

529

00:44:14,322 --> 00:44:17,900

We have a spanish cousin

called infoLibre.

 

530

00:44:17,900 --> 00:44:24,007

The real challenge will be when

there's a Mediapart in English.

 

531

00:44:30,179 --> 00:44:34,879

The success of Mediapart has not gone unnoticed

in the Untied States.

 

532

00:44:36,630 --> 00:44:42,069

Where I think non-profit journalism particularly

in the United States is heading is at the European model.

 

533

00:44:42,069 --> 00:44:48,519

Ultimately you have to get direct revenues.

You have to be able to monetize the communities

 

534

00:44:48,519 --> 00:44:52,039

that you serve. It represents the value they

see in you.

 

535

00:44:52,039 --> 00:44:57,039

Look, I'm a big fan of journalism.

We obviously are here at the

 

536

00:44:57,039 --> 00:45:02,239

New York Times and we want to see it survive. And to

the extent that that gap can be filled by

 

537

00:45:02,239 --> 00:45:09,239

some of these new, you know, investigative

niche non profits that are cropping up to

 

538

00:45:09,609 --> 00:45:16,140

keep you know companies and governments honest

through investigative journalism - I'm a big fan.

 

539

00:45:16,499 --> 00:45:20,819

"But the fact is the function that we play

in the society, the disinfecting aspect that

 

540

00:45:20,819 --> 00:45:27,259

we take in society, it's a discrete one, it's

an intellectual one. Not everybody gets it.

 

541

00:45:27,259 --> 00:45:34,249

So the trick is going to be, to really make

this is a long-term play, we have to educate

the public,

 

542

00:45:34,249 --> 00:45:38,849

we have to get people to care, and not just care. It's not enough

 

543

00:45:38,849 --> 00:45:43,160

to 'like' something on Facebook, you have

to give a little bit."

 

544

00:45:43,160 --> 00:45:48,529

Journalism...NEWS....continues to evolve as

our technology evolves.

 

545

00:45:48,529 --> 00:45:54,759

And it's an ongoing process.

A constant game of trying to keep up.

 

546

00:45:54,759 --> 00:46:00,880

Newspapers are becoming digital brands.

New companies are taking advantage of new technology

 

547

00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:03,749

to create a new kind of news.

 

548

00:46:03,749 --> 00:46:08,619

"This is a golden age for consumers of information,

and to a degree it's a golden age for the

 

549

00:46:08,619 --> 00:46:11,080

people who produce it."

 

550

00:46:13,180 --> 00:46:17,850

"Because the purpose of journalism is not just to write great

stories, it's to communicate."

 

551

00:46:20,150 --> 00:46:25,669

It could well be that thanks to digital,

we're actually getting closer to what it used to be like,

with all these disparate voices.

 

552

00:46:26,700 --> 00:46:32,799

"Either you find ways to transform your company,

or you just feel "it's not gonna happen anymore'

because I was too late."

 

553

00:46:39,269 --> 00:46:45,609

Nobody wants to get left behind and sort of

people are going to figure that out.

 

554

00:46:46,999 --> 00:46:51,091

With Mediaprt we found

our second youth.

 

555

00:46:53,144 --> 00:46:58,944

I feel like journalism is a promise

to the public,

 

556

00:46:58,945 --> 00:47:11,198

and I felt like we were breaking that promise.  My God, we

found a way to keep it, didn't we?  Yeah, we did.

 

Journalist - Wouter Verschelden

Director - Jeremy De Ryckere

Camera - Jo Vermaercke

Editing - Ludo Bollen

Thanks to David Perlich

2013 VRT News

 

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