Please do not let anyone tell you any different … the ability to fund original journalism and sustain diverse local and national journalism in Ireland is very closely entwined with the future of print (or legacy) media companies.
I will elaborate on that point later but it is important you do not interpret what I have just said as a defence or predilection for any one particular platform or device for delivering journalism over another.
It is not …
What I am saying is that as we debate the future of print and the challenges and opportunities for the wider news eco-system in the digital age we must never lose sight of the ultimate goal … the continued protection and delivery of our greatest asset - quality local and national journalism.
At this point I am going to defer to a quote from the author of “what would google do” Jeff Jarvis when he said:
“The digital age will present many challenges but will allow new and better forms of journalism to emerge … key to survival in this age is reinventing what we do to take advantage of those opportunities.”
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Before we deal with what needs to be done to meet the challenges and opportunities as referenced by Jarvis it is probably best we reflect first on where the digital age has left journalism as a whole.
Many argue that the new open and collaborative digital news ecosystem heralds a new golden age of journalism
No less than BBC legend John Simpson recently suggested as much and the American editor and writer Tom Engelhardt, writing in New Democracy earlier this month, put it quite poetically.
He said: “For the reader, a strangely democratic and egalitarian Era of the Word has emerged... a golden age of the reader, a time when all the words you could ever have needed were freely offered up for you to curate as you wish. Don’t dismiss it. Don’t forget it.”
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For others, however, this new open, unfiltered and collaborative news ecosystem is simply anarchic and banal.
They suggest the digital age exhibits all the signs of heralding in an age of click whoredom where the commercial value of journalism will be judged not with any reference to its civic or human worth but solely on its popularity.
Forbes recently pointed to Upworthy - who reached an audience of millions within just a few months of launch by “sharing popular stories with high social impact” - and BuzzFeed - who have built an online media company which blends ad buying with the aggregation of viral and highly social web content - as the most successful “news content” sites of recent times.
In both these cases it should be noted that the term “social impact” refers directly to the story in question’s popularity on social media - not to any wider civic or human value.
As in most divisive arguments I would contend, the truth of the matter lies somewhere between these two opposing views.
The healthiest future for the print industry and quality journalism in general lies betwixt the digital naysayer and the digital dogmatist …
Yes ... the digital age is a golden age for discovering quality journalism and presents almost limitless opportunities for journalists to tell their stories in a more compelling, collaborative, open and engaging fashion
But … It is clear, too, that even the most successful digital media content providers are finding it hard to justify the creation of expensive and quality journalism as a core basis of the business model in the face of mounting losses or, at best, moderate profits.
The simple truth is that quality journalism and the time required to create it comes at a great cost to local and national media companies - no matter their history and heritage.
So whether you like to consume your journalism via the Irish Examiner app on your iPhone, via journal.ie on an iPad or via the Irish Times print edition on your armchair the key question remains:
How do we secure the future of a diverse Irish media scene and fund the continued creation of quality, original and informed Irish journalism at a local and national level.
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Why should we care about this, you might ask. Many will probably feel that a broad spectrum of journalism has never been more abundant.
To those people I would just ask them to reflect on the possibility that this abundant mix of easily accessible journalism might not always be available.
I would ask you to take a moment and think of a future where ...
Objective, accountable and considered reporting of issues and events that are in the public interest are a rarity rather than the norm ...
A future where well researched investigations aimed at unearthing injustices and holding the powerful to account are no longer core aims of media organisations ...
A future where insightful, provocative and well researched analysis aimed at broadening the public's understanding of issues important to their lives is equally as scarce …
I would ask them to think of a country, a world, where
A much narrower media landscape is in the hands of a small powerful elite with motivations focussed more on distraction and the bottom line than any claims to “honestly serving the welfare and interests of the entire community". The very virtues espoused by the founder of the Irish Examiner, John Francis Maguire, in the paper’s first edition on August 30, 1841.
I would ask them to think of an Ireland, a world, where, yes, you have access to much more unverified information and, dare I say, distraction but have much less real choice, less accurate context, less journalistic verification and less informed analysis.
That is a future I do not want to contemplate and is a future I hope I am in some small part ensuring does not come to pass.
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So what needs to be done to avert such a disaster?
I would suggest the ability of Irish news organisations - whatever their heritage - to meet the challenges of the digital age is dependent on all our abilities to reframe the way we do business and explore new ways to attract and keep readers, subscribers and advertisers alike.
Put simply, “traditional” or “legacy” media companies are now facing what I have dubbed a RE:DO moment:
By this I mean it is time to:
R: estructre
E: xperiment
D: iversify
O: ptimise
With regard to restructuring, the time has come to truly transform what we do rather than tinker around the edges with a variety of bolt on interim digital initiatives like ill thought app strategies and paywalls.
John Paton, the CEO of Digital First Media, made this point succintly at a presentation to the American Online Publishers Association earlier this month.
He said: “The newsroom of the future is not the existing one dragged into it. It is going to be re-built from the ground up. News executives now have to choose. They have to ask themselves if they are preserving the past of building the future.”
In terms of experimentation and innovation organisations, like our own, are beginning and need to continue to explore what collaborative opportunities exist - dare I say with fine universities and societies such as this.
They need to consider what structural adaptations are required to ensure innovation aimed at building new revenue streams are at the core of new business models.
I will defer to John Paton, once again, on this subject. He said:
“Transformation isn’t free. It costs. And if you want to survive you have to take the risk and invest in digital”
The funding of quality journalism - never mind the achievement of healthy profits and future growth - is also reliant on the diversification of what we do into a range of potential new product and service opportunities.
This will require clarity on where it is media companies - such as our own - wish to stand in the media value chain and what our core capabilities are going to be.
Having identified those core capabilities and linked them to clearly defined and agreed digital strategies forward looking publishers need to also optimise what they have and consider what restructuring and investment will be required to secure the future.
There is nothing to be depressed about in this regard.
For once “legacy” publishers have an advantage here because - unlike new media entrants - they have an existing - if declining - revenue stream which can be optimised to build that future.
It has been said that the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of what they have … and that is - as far as I’m concerned - one of the greatest challenges facing senior executives in our industry at the moment.
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The challenges facing local and national media companies - and those journalists they employ - also centre on an acceptance and acknowledgement of the seismic shift which has occurred in the way people perceive news in this new open and socialised digital reality.
New media have stolen a march on “legacy” media in this regard.
They have built huge communities around what they do simply because they GOT the fact that in the digital era conversation was a two way thing, an act of participation, not just an act of observation.
Readers today are now not only looking to be informed, they are also looking to strengthen their connection and their involvement in their own communities.
All media need to respond to that challenge, build their own communities and respond to them on an ongoing basis.
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In closing, let me be clear, I have little doubt that with bravery, endeavour and foresight “legacy” media companies can move to a much healthier stage in their evolution as key members of the wider news eco-system.
A stage I have dubbed journalism’s “n’espresso moment” …
Did you know that despite being discovered in the 13th century coffee has never been consumed in more quantities than it is today.
This despite the sustained popularity and availability of competitors like tea and, of course, an ever growing array of soft and alcoholic drinks.
This sustained popularity has been achieved because companies involved in coffee’s distribution have always innovated with regard to its delivery ... But have always done so with clear reference to the core product and its unique experience … the coffee bean and the joy of a nice relaxing cup of coffee.
We journalists and all those men and women charged with securing the future of journalism in Ireland must also embrace and utilise the rapidly evolving delivery devices of the digital age …
But we must do so with the ultimate goal of protecting, promoting and funding our core and most worthwhile product … engaging, insightful and entertaining journalism which speaks to and listens to ordinary people.
Not doing so is not just short sighted, it is a failure to respect the legacy of all those journalists who preceded us and who ensured journalism maintained its rightful place as a cornerstone of democracy and good society.
Thank you and enjoy the rest of the conference.
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