The World Editors Forum has unveiled its 2014 Trends in Newsroom report at its annual meetings in Turin, Italy, today, with the repercussions from the Snowden affair taking centre stage.
The Trends in Newsroom's report's top 10 newsroom trends for 2014 are:
- Moves to shield journalism in the post-Snowden era
- The rebooting of mobile strategy as "wearables" hit the market
- How social media verification is supporting trust and credibility
- The way data and analytics are driving the news agenda
- Newsroom video starts to challenge broadcasters
- The rise (and fall) of women editors
- Global collaborative journalism breaks barriers
- The need for digital mega-stories
- The ethical challenges of native advertising
- The evolving role of the editor
The report is based on interviews conducted with more than 30 editors and senior journalists in over a dozen countries, as well as themes that emerged on editorsweblog.org. It includes in-depth analyses and it is framed by interviews with five of the world's news business "thought leaders": including The Guardian's Janine Gibson, The New York Times' Margaret Sullivan, Knight Foundation's Michael Maness, Twitter's Vivian Schiller and National Media Group's Joseph Odindo.
Our President, Erik Bjerager, welcomed the release of the report saying: "The past year has been a defining one for newsrooms, for chief editors and other senior newsroom personnel."
"The exposé of the extent of state surveillance through Edward Snowden's leaks sparked stellar investigative journalism and unprecedented global collaboration between publications and editors," he said. "But the consequences for the way we practice our craft and communicate with sources are significant."
The report also focuses on the evolution of news in the face of constant and rapid technological developments.
"The relentless advances in digital technology continue to redefine the newsroom," Mr Bjerager said. "They affect the way we organise ourselves, engage with audiences, find and verify increasingly diverse content and tell our stories."
"The tipping towards the digital first environment has shown how many practices need urgent revisiting, ethical codes need updating, and new skills need to be introduced to allow news producers to remain competitive and relevant.
The World Editors Forum is based in Paris and operates within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
Trends in Newsrooms 2014 is available (in English) free to members of the World Editors Forum and for purchase by non-members. Full details can be found here.
If you purchase the report, you will get 12 months complementary membership of the World Editors Forum.
Nearly 1,000 chief editors, publishers, CEOs, managing directors and other senior newspaper and news publishing executives are attending the World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum in Torino, Italy, this week.
