Convergence's fundamental question

Convergence's fundamental question

1. What is convergence?

   • It is a way to protect their place in the market.
   • It was not about technology, but had ''everything to do with mindset'' (Haagerup 2002).
   • Is a new and different way to deliver news and information to consumers. Also permits to expand the franchise.
   • A reporter in involved in a particular area and is able to bring information

2. Five forms of convergence in the USA by Rich Gordon

   • Ownership convergence
     • Partnership between media companies. ''Synergy''
     • Reuse of content for print and digital media, and platforms such as tv and radio by the same company.
   • Tactical convergence
     • No require common ownership.
     • Share of content or professional resources through associations of different companies.
   • Structural convergence
     • Changes through the company that organized newsrooms and establish new positions.
     • these are more related to news production.
   • Information-gathering convergence
     • Companies need reporters who are multi-skilled
     • Media companies require reporters who know about technological tools.
   • Storytelling convergence
     • Three new digital platforms for a storytelling
       • Desktop computer
       • Portable devices
       • Interactive television
     • Every media company have new ways to tell stories
     • A combination between technological tools and interactivity

3. Competing models: the business ideal

   • It is a multiple-platform to increase productivity among staff
   • Also it is a perfect way to have great opportunities to sell multi-media advertising campaigns
   • Cross-promotion is a way to market and make business with other members of the group or partnership at a low cost
   • ''Co-operation'' like a concept
     • Is a fusion between competition and cooperation that represent a new way of business in which organizations are originally competitors.
   • Walter Kiechel reduced this theory in a sentence
     • ''Co-operative with others to increase the size of the pie. Compete in cutting it up''.
     • ''The others with whom you may wish to co-operate could include businesses with which you compete on other fronts''.
   • It is important to protect the company's income. Convergence offers a way to do it.
   • Theres a variety of platforms that offer advantages in advertising and media market.
   • Convergence give the opportunity to repost content for multiple-products, and in that way catch multiple-audiences.

4. Competing models: The journalistic idea

   • Multi-platform should be designed to help people live more easily.
   • One of the objectives of the media is to present the content so that consumers can scan it quickly. Offering deep and informative products.
   • Journalists would adopt new forms of journalism, such as storytelling and find ways to use their traditional skills to synthesize, explain and situate events in context.
   • Kerry Northrup said: ‘‘Convergence is a growth strategy instead of a saving strategy.’’
     • ‘‘Convergence offers the audience new ways of absorbing news rather than just offering journalists new ways of presenting it’’ (Northrup, 2002).
   • In the 21st century, journalists will have a flexible mindset with the ability to generate change.
   • Journalism will begin to take into account what the audiences need.

5. What is Driving Convergence?

   • The Factor that make the change of convergence
     • The changing attitudes and lifestyles of news consumers
     • The search for information is changing
     • The media goes where the audiences are
   • A research found that women consume multiple communication channels simultaneously. 67% of women watch TV while online. Against 59% of men
   • Ball State University reveals that people in Delaware County consume 10 hours of media per day and at least a quarter of that time is spent on more than one medium
   • The growth of the World Wide Web has introduced another competitor for advertising, and at the same time the Web has produced more market.
   • Convergence makes possible to reach many more members of an audience. That is why media managers want to control and protect their audiences.
   • Media companies are competing directly by the public. Convergence improves the opportunity for a media company to reach as many people as possible. These advances will accelerate as broadband becomes more widespread.

6. Barriers to Convergence

   • In some countries, legislation do not permit a company from owning a newspaper and a television channel in the same market, this has comprehensively limited the convergence process.
   • One of the biggest problems with convergence is the lack of business models and it is difficult to plan and execute any form of multi-platform publishing when there are no maps or guidelines available.
   • The ''easy'' factors
     • convergence included a focused leadership
     • the same owner
     • a flexible culture
     • co-location of media outlets
     • previous relationships between potential partners and no unions
   • The ''difficult'' factors
     • different owners
     • other leadership priorities
     • multiple managers
     • inflexible or dissimilar cultures
     • disparate locations and the presence of unions
   • The availability of appropriate technology, the decline of economic conditions, a flexible mentality between editorial managers and journalists, the presence of competition in the market also contribute to the barriers to convergence.

7. Evolution of Convergence Around the World

   • Mono-media companies start transforming their companies into a multi-media
   • 73% of members of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) had reported some form of convergence was starting to happen in their companies.
   • WAN found that seven (7) of ten (10) executive said that their journalist had a formal duties in another medium apart from the newspaper.
   • Website of the American Press Institute provides a convergence tracker and shows convergence happenig in 31 states in the USA.
   • 100 of the 1457 of the newspaper of the USA have convergence
   • The Bertelsmann group has been a leader in convergence in Germany. The Financial Times and the BBC in the UK. And in Spain, the Marca group captures 62% of the sports market with circulation of 564,000 through a multimedia website.
   • The company publishes the Turun Sanomat has 100 years in the market and has a circulation of 120,000 in a population of about 450,000. Each year the Turun Sanomat produces 9000 pages of editorial and 6000 pages of advertising.
   • A clear example of convergence is In the Middle East, strategic alliances and mergers within the Arab media are expected to strengthen some companies.
   • Advertising competition and increased staff costs have contributed to the changes. Another contributing factor is a huge increase in Arabic-language media in an area of scarce qualified people, which has meant that media organizations are competing for staff.

8. Key Factors Related to Convergence

   • management buy-in
     • The sense that management is seen to support and expect convergence.
   • Change of mentality, is another common factors in news organizations that have successfully adopted convergence.
   • The change of attitude of the journalist is important to be successful in the multimedia environment. But, it should start by the editorial managers (leaders).
   • An important factor is the mentality. People are moving fast, they are changing the way they consume the media. Therefore, the media have to change with people.
   • Another factor is to place people with different skills in the same place to perform an exchange of ideas. That means ''synergy''.
   • Education gives meaning to ideas. That is why journalism has the mission of turning information into knowledge for this new era. This requires training and an investment.

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