Wednesday, Apr 17, 2013

The technology revolution can already be felt within news organisations. It has transformed and fragmented the business models and allowed news to arrive instantly, constantly and globally. In other words, much easier and efficient than was the case in the past.

But this is only the beginning of the transformation. According to a feature in Nieman Journalism Lab, a decade from now all media will be “social” and organised as platforms for talent.

With few exceptions, the loyalty around a masthead branded news entity has been destroyed by the combination of aggregators, websites and blogs, combined with ingrained information-seeking habits and social media streams.

Online and social media radically empower individuals; the citizen has started to provide a valuable service for us and for their community in a more intimate way. The big question is how to create a social presentation layer that wraps around news but at the same time can preserve the publication’s integrity.

A recent instance of the influence of social media in our lives was last Tuesday’s earthquake tremors in the UAE. Minutes after the event our friends were posting information about it; we discovered that our friends from Oman, Saudi Arabia and India also felt it.

Then we realised that it was a powerful earthquake in Iran and which had its impact across the region. All of this information reached us in less than an hour.

For the news interface in publications to become more social, investing in talent is the priority. The journalist needs to establish a personal brand. Readers may like a style of writing or a columnist’s opinion; then attribute the credits or byline to allow the reader see the journalist as human beings in the social sphere. USA Today has started to put a journalist’s Twitter account on the byline, to increase the social connection with readers.

Revenue promiscuity is the name that John Thornton, founder and chairman of the non-profit Texas Tribune, used to explain the future of news organisation’s revenue sources. Maybe as many as 30 or 40, and none of them account for a substantial stake of the organisation’s income, according to Nieman Journalism Lab.

For who are interested in the future of media, a new book — The End of Big: How the Internet makes David the New Goliath by Nicco Mele - is a good option to understand the influence of social media and the power of talent in news organisations.

Douglas Okasaki

Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.