INMA launches Newsroom Initiative for Editorial Professionals

Peter Bale will lead the INMA Newsroom Initiative

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INMA launches Newsroom Initiative for Editorial Professionals
INMA launches Newsroom Initiative for Editorial Professionals Photo: INMA

How newsroom leaders can influence their businesses and create journalism products that serve audiences while meeting business objectives is the focus of a new Newsroom Initiative announced by the International News Media Association (INMA).

The scope of the INMA initiative, which aims to put journalism at the heart of publishing, focuses on three pillars – 

  • Business models for journalism – Exploring drivers of reader-revenue models, advertising, and user-centric thinking in journalism and news products.
  • Creating high-value journalism – Turning quality and trust journalistic principles into core business values that build loyalty and generate revenue.
  • Impact and influence – Get beyond the power struggle and influence strategy across your publishing businesses and take the newsroom with you.
Peter Bale, Veteran journalist, media executive, and consultant will be leading the INMA Newsroom Initiative
Peter Bale, Veteran journalist, media executive, and consultant will be leading the INMA Newsroom Initiative      Photo: INMA

Veteran journalist, media executive, and consultant Peter Bale will lead the INMA Newsroom Initiative. Bale has previously served in editorial and management capacities at Reuters, News Corp, the Financial Times, CNN, and others. He is the former volunteer president of the Global Editors Network (GEN).

The Newsroom Initiative emanated from strategic planning sessions of the INMA board of directors in 2021 around how to connect editorial departments to digital, data, and business trends for which they today are increasingly being asked to lead.

“Newsrooms are the beating heart of publishing, and with a global shift to subscriptions, reader revenue models, and more effective advertising, journalists and editors are at the center of their businesses and the relationship with readers,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and chief executive officer of INMA. “Already a leader in training and sharing best practices in the rest of the media business, INMA is proud to be moving into the newsroom with this new program.”

“New business models focused on audiences and reader revenue put newsrooms at the center of a stronger relationship with consumers,” Bale said. “It’s an exciting time to launch this initiative at INMA to learn from those already on this journey and share the best expertise and ideas from across the world.”

INMA’s Newsroom Initiative will include various sessions

The new initiative will kick off with a masterclass 8-22 March, focused on “Putting Newsrooms into the News Business,” which includes nearly eight hours of programming over three modules.

Planned Newsroom Initiative deliverables include newsletters, meet-ups, master classes, reports, a Slack channel, and Ask Me Anything sessions for INMA members.

Inaugural members of the Newsroom Initiative Advisory Council include Miriyana Alexander, head of the premium for the New Zealand Herald, NZME, and Espen Egil Hansen, an international advisor for JP/Politiken in Denmark. More council members will be added later.

 

 

 

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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