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Why should we expect worlds to collide? - Exploratory reflections departing from a case study analysis of “ Jornal de Notícias ” (Portugal). Luís António Santos and Manuel Pinto (Universidade do Minho – Portugal). JN in brief.
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Why should we expect worlds to collide?- Exploratory reflections departing from a case study analysis of “Jornal de Notícias” (Portugal) Luís António Santos and Manuel Pinto(Universidade do Minho – Portugal)
JN in brief • Portugal’s 2nd widest audience daily (average 08 circulation of 101 thousand) • traditionally stronger in the North / quality popular • first on the webin PT (July 95)
JN in brief • after the initial enthusiasm it never went beyond the shovelware phase / it got integrated into a portal • 2005: bought by current owners • 2007: renegotiation of agreement with host portal…and new online strategy
JN online • new site was online on May 2008(2 days shy of 120th anniversary) • major changes: • No longer published all the paper content • Lost generalist forums • Option to depart from presenting a thematic distribution similar to that of the paper • New user centred spaces: Community, Blogs, Citizen Reporter, Multimedia
JN online • first 6 months: • 278 videos • 29 infographics • 309 photo-galleries • 59 audios • 11 multimedia special features • (by the end of October) more than a thousand user blogs had been created
JN online • e-business (3 relevant operations): • Sept 08: Deal with PowerSoccer for 2 soccer related games (+ 20k users in the first month plus added revenue from ingame ad deals) • Feb 09: Partnership with 4 other media groups to use shared contextual ad platform • March 09: (the group) Exclusive commercial representatives fo CBS interactive
JN online – changing newsroom • “no full integration” • incremental ‘digital awareness’ strategy • online newsroom growth (from 3 to 8+) in tandem with newsroom major shift – creation of a non-thematic, flexible, news-desk (Actualidade) – and followed by symbolic room change
JN online - effects • shift in perception of time and ‘deadline rationale’ • Shift in the perception of ‘workload’ and in the ‘what-is-expected-of-me-whilst-on-assignment’ framework • Enhance awareness of users’ presence: UGC / permanent access to stats
JN online - work/skills • 2007 • Adapt to 2 publishing platforms • Average writting skills • Sensible communication skills • …
JN online - work/skills • 2008 (all +) • Breaking news • Press review • UGC management • Presence in editorial meetings • Permanent linkage to Actualidade • Production of new/ongoing multimedia work • Expected to handle voice & image recording equipment (N95’s for BN) and to perform basic editing tasks • …
JN online /death of newspapers debate • Three broad ideas: 1. The collapse of rigid business models 2. Breakdown of producer/user trust/loyalty 3. Failings of a self-centred and entrenched professional (the journo)
Discussion 1. Editorial: Changes in the site Integration of new user geared funcionalities creation of semi-autonomous micro-sites e-Business:promotion of cross-product added value capture income from non-hard news related sites
Discussion 2. Living in times where – as Singer puts it – “no single message is discrete” is not easy. Rethinking loyalty: UGC spaces, promotion of event or theme-centred micro-sites, production of sense-making materials (infographics/multimedia), increased direct talk (e-mail, twitter), usage of ‘conversation expansion’ tools (i.e. CoveritLive)
Discussion 3. …still unconfortable at times with the demise of the ‘authenticator’ role, with pressures for greater transparency, with sheer volume of user activity, but…more used to:- producing medium-neutral information - providing added accountability assurances
JN online • Far from full ‘audience-centred-part-of-the-conversation’ production yet… • Produced by a group of people with heightened social profile in the newsroom and less bound by incentives to standardize work practices.
Thank you, lsantos@ics.uminho.pt mpinto@ics.uminho.pt