More than ever, it would seem that with the new proliferation of mobile technologies, dominance of social media and explosion of the number of news sources people can turn to, the age old axiom “change is constant” is pertinent.
Where audiences are — and what they want — can become lost in such a myriad of sources and choices. Keeping abreast of changes is critical to survival for news providers. Only those which deal with ongoing changes adequately have a chance of, not only surviving, but succeeding and prospering.
The seismic technological and social changes around the world in the last few years means that media organisations need to adapt fast in order to stay relevant and service audience’s needs in an ever-growing variety of ways. But, anticipating the future media landscape isn’t straight forward. With so many different outlets that come along at such dizzying speed, all of which require some sort of dedicated investment in them, how do you know where to invest?
Placing a number of affordable bets on a variety of different opportunities, rather than putting your eggs all in one basket, is probably a wise move. Some developments will pay off financially, help reach new audiences or further establish the brand.
Some may not be as successful, but new things will never take-off unless there’s the opportunity to experiment. The saying “fail fast” is widely used in tech and media companies, but it’s not failure if you learn from mistakes and try that new idea again.
And there is a lot to fight for — another one billion people will be online by 2020, most from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. They’ll be hungry for content and eager to feel connected with their peers around the globe, but in the over-saturated world of digital media, competition for a user’s time and attention is as hard as it has ever been.
However, technological advancements also means significant data can be collected to better understand audiences, something that was difficult and expensive during the reign of radio and television news. In today’s digital world, it’s important to analyse output and check the impact content has had.
But, even more critical is to act on those findings. Editors should be prioritising resources to new and relevant platforms and using the data as guidance for their commissioning, planning and output decisions.
When media companies want to be seen as successful and innovative, they quickly dive into all sorts of things — experiment with new emerging social media platforms, launch news bots and channels on messaging apps, update their responsive sites and web apps, trial push notifications for lock screens, test audio user interfaces, automated translation and robot reporting, dive into virtual reality and 360-degree videos.
And while all these exciting new initiatives are exactly what media companies should be getting into and fast, many of them forget to check if it’s actually what the audience wants.
The writer is Digital Development Editor at BBC News. The column is based on the keynote speech at World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers summit in Dubai.
