By Massita Ahmad
SINGAPORE, May 9 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A ‘back-to-basics’ journalism-first strategy is the only way news media can cut through the noise and attract paying readers, bigger ad revenue and more influence than ever before, says Juan Senor, President of Innovation Media Consulting Group, UK.
“Change your newsroom, it will change your fortunes,” he said during a dedicated session titled ‘The Way Forward: How to Save the News Business and Why Only Journalism will Save Journalism’ held at the Newsroom Summit Asia here today.
The session was moderated by Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chief executive officer Nurini Kassim.
The Newsroom Summit Asia was running concurrently with the 19th edition of Publish Asia 2019, a conference which saw 250 key decision makers in the region’s news industry meeting in Singapore for three days from Tuesday to discuss the future of media.
It is organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Senor also told the audiences mainly from the media fraternity across Asia that they should have a digital paid strategy to migrate from ad revenue to reader revenue while at the same time reinvent the newsroom to deliver content worth paying for.
“Actionable change is what we do at Innovation. We are enablers of change,” said Senor who made his presentation based on WAN-IFRA’s annual book: ‘Innovation in News Media’.
Senor, who is the co-editor of the book, stressed that the single most important innovation in 2019 is to migrate from ad revenue to reader revenue.
“It is time to find redemption from our original sin. There is no instant digital salvation. There are no digital miracles. Only journalism will save journalism,” he said.
On the sidelines of Publish Asia 2019 Wednesday, the World Editors Forum launched its Asia Chapter, with Bernama as one of its 13 founding members.
It is the second regional chapter to be launched in the global editors group’s 26-year history after the South Asia Chapter was set up last September.
–NNN-BERNAMA