Convergence

Convergence

1. Definitions

   • General definitions
     • As survival
     • As a way to protect their place in the market
     • As a chance to deliver news and information in a new and different way
   • Driving Convergence
     • Factors
       • The changing attitudes and lifestyles of consumers
         • People’s information-seeking behavior is changing
       • Market fragmentation
         • Web produce more niche markets
   • To countries
     • United States (Gordon)
       • Ownership Convergence
         • Partnerships between large media companies that permits ‘‘synergy"
           • Cross-promotion
           • Content sharing
       • Tactical Convergence
         • Partnerships that have arisen in the US media.
         • Common model
           • A partnership between a TV station and a newspaper
       • Structural Convergen
         • Media companies re-organize the newsroom and introduce new positions
       • Information-gathering Convergence
         • Situations where media companies require reporters to be multi-skilled
       • Storytelling Convergence
         • It operates at the level of the working journalist

2. Competing Models

   • Business Ideal
     • Introduces the concept of ‘‘Co-opertition"
       • A new form of business
         • Organizations that originally were competitors now work together
     • Definition
       • Sees multiple-platform publishing as a way to increase productivity among staff.
       • A way to grab as large a share of the advertising pie as possible
   • Journalistic Ideal
     • Quality of content, generated by quality staff, will be what differentiates great news organiza- tions from the mediocre in the future.
     • Convergence is about both survival and change.

3. Barriers

   • Legislation that forbids a company from owning a daily newspaper and a television channel in the same market
     • In Australia and New Zealand
   • Asking a reporter to do two jobs lessened the quality of work
     • Director Amber
   • One of the biggest issues with convergence is the lack of adequate business models
   • Difficult convergence
     • Organizations has differents owners
     • Leaderships priorities
     • Multiple managers

4. Evolution

   • 73 percent of members of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) had re- ported some form of convergence was starting to happen at their companies.
     • Martha Stone
   • seven out of 10 newspaper executives had formal duties in at least another medium apart from the newspaper
     • Juan Antonio Giner

5. Key factors

   • Management buy-in, in the sense that management is seen to support and expect convergence.
   • Cultural factors can encourage or inhibit convergence.
   • The placing of people with different skills in the same physical space to generate trust and sharing of ideas.