Michael Golden, Vice Chairman, The New York Times Company USA deliver Conference Keynote "Transforming Media Companies" during the WAN-IFRA, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers 11th Middle East Conference at Inter Continental hotel, Festival city in Dubai , February 24, 2016.
Dubai - A major theme of the first day of the conference was the ways in which newspapers must transform to meet the needs of an audience which is increasingly turning to mobile and other digital platforms to digest the news.
Published: Wed 24 Feb 2016, 1:27 PM
Last updated: Thu 25 Feb 2016, 12:51 AM
Newspapers and publishers must adopt new methods of delivering news in the face of dwindling hardcopy circulation, shorter attention spans and an increasingly digitally-focused consumer base, according to experts at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) Middle East Conference in Dubai.
The conference - now in its 11th edition - brings together approximately 200 publishers, CEOs, managing directors, chief editors and other senior media executives from around the region to discuss the challenges the industry faces and how to best adapt to confront them in the future.
What to expect in 2016Rise of distributed content via social platforms
Improved use of data in newsrooms and for revenue generation
Increasing use of ad blockers and a response from publishers
Native advertising
More paid content
Growth of online video and decline of linear TV
Virtual reality
Wearable technology as a tool for push notifications
Automatated content or "robo journalism"
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A major theme of the first day of the conference was the ways in which newspapers must transform to meet the needs of an audience which is increasingly turning to mobile and other digital platforms to digest the news, rather than via traditional newspapers.
"There will continue to be an orientation towards digital media. The accelerated rhythm of life does not allow people to read as they once did," said Shaikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, the Chairman of Sharjah Media Council. "We must work with that future in mind. But we are also responsible for protecting the heritage and history (of newspapers)."
The event's keynote speaker was Michael Golden, Vice Chairman of the New York Times Company, which now boasts 1.1 million digital-only subscribers, in addition to about a million print subscribers, the overwhelming bulk of whom also take advantage of the newspaper's digital services.
"We are trying our hardest to move from a newspaper that has a website, to a digital company that has a newspaper," he said. "Print is critically important to us, and I believe we will be printing newspapers for maybe two more generations. But our media.is facing a day when it will be 100 percent digital."
"If we don't get ready for that, we won't be part of that world," he added. "That world is difficult, it operates under different rules, and it has fundamentally different economics."
Golden noted that the NYT has found it vital to find innovative ways to use digital media to present the news.
"(Digital) is much more than a delivery technology," he said. "That's a fundamental change in mindset, from a focus on print. Instead of everyone at our company, including our journalists, thinking about print, they need to rethink what is a story, and what is journalism on the web. It's much more than it is in print. It has to include photography..video, infographics, multimedia. Consumers today more and more expect that.it's what they respond to."
As an example, Golden noted that the NYT's six-part Pulitzer Prize winning piece "Snowfall" used a variety of multimedia methods to tell the story of a deadly avalanche in Washington State.
"The story recreated the mountain, recreated the way the avalanche would go, it brought readers in," he said. "In this world of shortened information and attention spans, readers went from beginning to end of this long piece on their smartphones and on their computer, as well as in the newspaper."
Golden said that despite his belief that newspapers would continue to be printed for some time, their eventual disappearance and total shift towards digital is inevitable.
"It (newspapers) is in decline, both in advertising and circulation, and I do not believe that decline will turn around. I believe what we are talking about is the rate of decline, not whether the decline will end and the profitability, the advertising revenue and the circulation will begin to increase. I do not believe that will happen," he said. "It doesn't respond to what people want today."
"We (the NYT) make sure that the print newspaper we put out is excellent. We continue to invest in it where that makes sense, and we continue to market it, sell it and build new subscriptions," he added. "But it's that digital that we have to be focused on, because that's our future." bernd@khaleejtimes.com
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