Digital transformation in the newsroom leads the list of subjects discussed by a majority of the speakers at the Digital Media North America 2017 conference in New York City Oct. 19-20. About 150 executives and editors from 16 countries have converged at the Thomson Reuters building on Times Square.

Perhaps the second most discussed topic is monetization: how to convert casual readers into paying subscribers.

I have streamed the highlights of the various sessions via Tweeter @DrMarioRGarcia and will continue to do so today Friday.  The summaries below are based on my Tweets.

It’s all about the story

I was happy to hear repeatedly that it is all about quality content, the story.  The rest is secondary. The one element that has not changed since I started my career: with a good story, everything is possible. Most importantly, the audience stays with you—and is more likely to want to pay for the content.

Nick Hugh, The Telegraph, UK: A combination of good quality journalism and getting customer data, key to model maintainable into future. Quality journalism drives strong, trusted relationships.

 Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: Evidence shows  that people are now willing to write a check for good journalism.

 

On storytelling strategies

I was fascinated by the presentation by Emilio Garcia Ruiz, of The Washington Post, perhaps one of the most successful digital transformations in the newspaper business:

Learning from Snapchat

I am not surprised that several of the speakers mentioned Snapchat as a source of inspiration for reaching younger audiences with their established products.

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: : The Future is Visual. Teenagers text messages have all but text. A visual world.

On technology

Louis Dreyfus, CEO , LeMonde : Important to have technologies that support performance; optimize experience, shorten response time.

On branding

On gaining subscribers

         

   

• Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: There is an opportunity now to sell our product; we need to sell subscriptions.

   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: Not only do we need to bring scale to our content, but also SELL subscriptions.

   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: We have an opportunity now to make people reconsider their relationship with the media.

Good advice

1. Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Stop things that are not working. Make hard decisions that free you to do the next thing.

   Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Integrate product team into the newsroom.

   Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Failures are opportunities to learn. WE all have an app or something that didn’t work. Learn & move on.

   Esfand Pourmand, Hearst Newspapers Digital: Use a 90 day window for testing, not 30 days. Better opportunity to evaluate behavior.

   On the importance of collaborations
   Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: There must be true collaboration between news and product. Great ideas can come from anywhere. Help best ideas.

   Importance of data.

   Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Gain deeper audience knowledge; track how stories are performing. Ambitious but worth it.
    Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: We are trying to connect our content to the people who wanted. Newsletters ideal for that.

    Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: Metrics matter–come up with your own metrics to really gauge audience data.

    On frequency notions

   Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Get away from the “end of the day” turning in of stories, which is so print centric.
    Jennifer Hicks, Wall Street Journal: Make direct connections with readers. Reorient the newsroom to tailored publishing times.

    Who we should hire

    Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: We have hired people into our newsroom who had no idea what A1 was and didn’t care.

    Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: Reorient your newsroom to a more visual hiring. Begin hiring digital first journalists.

    Words of Wisdom
   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: Designing for mobile first, then figure out what to do with same content for desktop, etc.

   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: New way of thinking, creating experiences that can be consumed in 5 min. or 2 hours.

   Journalism of everywhereness

   

   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: For us–Desktop 26% of audience, Mobile 74%. People consuming content while doing various things.

   Important question:

   Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, The Washington Post: The Perfect Reader Journey–asks: have you begun to strategize which journey you wish to take.

   The quote that summarizes the first day of the conference

   “What an eye-opening day. I wasn’t expecting an editor from Denmark to talk about performance targets and a CEO from The Telegraph to be pivoting from print revenues to travel and financial services. The news business is full of surprises — some very exciting, like new storytelling formats that package words and images into simple, shareable bursts. Wasn’t it yesterday that we were head over heels about long-form storytelling? It will be fun to see all of this play out.”

   JOE ZEFF

   President

   Joe Zeff Design, Inc.
   

   The winners of the Digital Media Awards 2017

Best website: The Washington Post

Special Mention: The New York Times

Best in Lifestyle/Entertainment/Sports Website: The New York Times (Rio Olympics)

Special Mention: Univision USA

Best News Mobile Service: La Presse+ (Montreal)

Special Mention: J5, Le Journal de Montreal

Best Data Visualization: The Globe & Mail (Unfounded()

Special Mention: The Washington Post, Election 2016

In accepting the award:

“We have been intimidated by data for too long….when you use data for a story, you provide a better conversation with the audience. Commit yourself, slow down and deliver the content the audience craves. We are honored.”

David Walmsley, Editor in Chief

Globe and Mail

Best digital advertising campaign: Le Devoir, Je Soutains 

Special Mention:  The Weather Channel, 5 in 5

Best Innovation New Product: Arc Publishing, The Washington Post

Special Mention: La Presse+, Montreal, Canada

Best in Social Media Engagement: Splinter, USA, The Fight at Standing Rock

Special Mention: The Washington Post

Best in Engaging Young Audiences: NBC Universal USA

Special Mention: The Hamilton Spectator, Canada

Best Use of Online Video:Alabama Media Group (Whitman, Alabama)

Special Mention: The New York Times (Daily 360)

1. For more information about the conference

    

April 18-19, 2018-–Newscamp ,Augsburg,  Germany.