“What does it take to change the newsroom?”: The current issue of EBU’s magazine tech-i (ebu_tech-i_020, page 5) features a synopsis of Dieter Bornemann’s thesis at IMIM_Master. Dieter lists 10 trends he observed when comparing six cases of newsroom integration withtin the EBU community:
- Resistance by the journalists is part of the process — the management has to cope with it.
- Multiskilling (=one journalist working for many different media types) is less common than working bi-medial.
- Political independence is a must.
- There is a good chance that the newsroom management will be changed in order to break the resistance against newsroom integration by the middle management.
- Multimedia collaboration still needs physical proximity.
- The utilization of user-generated content and mobile news needs to be taken into account during planning the transition.
- Sharing of content via a proper content management system (CMS) is a key issue in a multimedia environment.
- Technology trainings for journalists are crucial.
- An integrated newsrooms means more coordination effort.
- Professional change management during transition is a must.