La Stampa Editor-in-chief Mario Calabresi draws on international journalism for his inspiration. But the global news community would do well to look to the Italian daily for inspiration as well.
Mr Calabresi will share La Stampa's approach to social media, digital journalism and more at the 21st World Editors Forum, to be held in La Stampa's home town of Torino, Italy, from 9 to 11 June next.
The Editors Forum, to be held concurrently with the 66th World Newspaper Congress and 24th World Advertising Forum, is expected to draw more than 1,200 chief editors, publishers, CEOs, managing directors and other senior news publishing executives for the global meetings of the world's press organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Among La Stampa's innovations:
- Social media editors drawn from outside the organisation. "We decided to have temporary social media editors in rotation, who are not traditional journalists but rather are well known and recognised by online communities as credible and authoritative," Mr Calabresi told WAN-IFRA's World News Publishing Focus magazine
- A "MediaLab" studio that acts as an incubator for innovation and a place to experiment with news ways of digital storytelling.
- A Fiat automobile – Fiat was founded in Torino – converted into a mobile integrated newsroom with a satellite dish that is dispatched for remote and location reporting, similar to a TV remove broadcast van.
- A fully integrated newsroom and a commitment to Open Journalism. "It is obvious now that the top-down approach where legacy media where the gatekeepers of news and information that they delivered to readers is no longer valid," he said. "Now there is a need for exchange and sharing that is unprecedented."
Mr Calabresi takes his inspiration from many places. "What I look at is the sustainability of the model: the ability to produce high-quality journalism matched with innovation and economic sustainability," he said. "I find very interesting what Robert Thomson is doing at The Wall Street Journal. I admire the effort to change and innovate at the New York Times, as well as the tradition and innovation of the Financial Times. As for the energy and dynamism: India."
The Editors Forum will provide participants with a global perspective of trends in newsrooms, as well as an opportunity to network with editors and publishers from around the world.
Mr Calabresi will speak in a session entitled, "Editor's evolution: are you in danger of becoming extinct?" that will also feature Jason Seiken, Editor-in-chief and Chief Content Officer of the Telegraph, Robyn Tomlin, Editor, Project Thunderdome at Digital First Media, Thomas Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press as Harvard University, and David Boardman, Dean of Media and Communications at Temple University in the United States.
