The story is still the thing even in this world of 24 hour demand for fresh news and extra data, writes Maggie Coleman in Amsterdam

One of the major focusses of the International Newsroom Summit, held during the World Publishing Expo in Amsterdam, was the demand for digital news sources with sessions looking at the digital tools available to newsrooms, how they are used and studies from around the world.

The 24 hour demand for news, along with the publishing to three categories of device desktop/website which is reported to be declining, mobile on smart phone and tablet and of course print – means that traditional publishers such as the Financial Times and Trinity Mirror group in the UK have had to change the physical shape of their newsrooms along with the skills of their reporters and photographers.

However, audiences first heard about the many digital tools available to radio and newspaper journalists, to enable them to supply the content needed to “feed the 24 hour hunger of the beast”, as Bill Adair, Knight professor of the practice of journalism and public policy as USA’s Duke University told it.

He described the digital tools under discussion as webscraping, mapping programmes, and data visualisation and PDF conversion tools.

Many newsrooms are not taking advantage of the tools available for several reasons, including the culture in the newsroom and CMS issues which can be as important as the perceived lack of resources such as time and money.

 He acknowledged that all newspapers are not as digitally forward as the New York Times, “the leading newspaper in the world” but suggested that newspers “start small and simple and make using digital tools a priority along with training to your staff.”

Telling the story is the most vital point –the story is still king, says Robyn Tomlin, chief digital officer of the Pew Research Centre in the USA. 

Leadership is the challenge for many small and medium newsrooms. 

She describes the steps to a story as gathering the data, analysing, visualising and adding layers of interest and value to readers with data. “Digital tools just give you extra ways to tell new stories.”

South African investigative journalist and trainer Justin Arenstein agreed saying that audiences are no longer passive, they need information to build action on and cannot do it alone. 

“However, we should only build such data-driven stories for the pain points of the audience, what keeps them awake to night such as stories on serious health issues.”

Training and planning for workflow is vital before hitting the record button, says Nicolas Becquet, editorial developer at Belgium’s L’Echo/De Tijd.

Smart phone users do not usually use more than ten percent of the phone’s capabilities so need training.

Panellists agreed that stories have to be granular and personal to readers and set in context, not just a distillation of data, and getting reporters out into the field is important too.

• Studies from two major UK newspaper groups, the Financial Times and Trinity Mirror Group proved that feeding the goat is an on-going activity.

In 2011, reported FT’s chief production editor Mark Alderson, “all stories were still being produced for the newspaper first, even though our website was strong. Now the catchcry is digital first.”

Now he says, “we have 225,000 newspaper subscribers and 450,000 digital subscribers”. Peak traffic is 6.30 to 9.00am in London and then in the New York morning.

We realised we had to change the times of publishing web stories to meet peak demand, changing journalists working hours to meet demands, with now 24 hours uploading of stories – in London’s working day, the New York working day, then the Hong Kong day where previously stories used to be sent to London for the paper first before uploading.

Says Alderson, “It is all about feeding audiences at the time they want to consumer the news. Graphic presentations and slide shows are used a lot.

“At the FT, our business model is selling content. Digital subs are rising and we have to build more readers here. However, the print product is valued by advertisers so we continue to produce it.

“Digital is the priority, we hardly ever wait a story for the print editions – our audience is global and they expect the FT touch on stories while using more data visualisations than before.

Trinity Mirror Regionals’ editor of digital innovation Alison Gow agreed that pushing the envelope on titles a little was good – “but do not dare to move the crossword in the Liverpool Echo!

She says, “Our apps are very important to us. People read on average six more stories a day on our apps than on our website and apps are better for our advertisers, they say, so we will focus on those more at Trinity Mirror.”

Maggie Coleman

Right: Alison Gow of Trinity Mirror Regionals

On our homepage: Bill Adair of Duke University