JotCast | Panel Discussion on 'How Technology Changed Journalism'

Panel Discussion on 'How Technology Changed Journalism'

Navneeta Nandan

3:57

4:00

Hello and Welcome to a Panel Discussion on 'How Technology has changed Journalism'. The panelists include Marten Blankesteijn (Founder & CEO of Blendle), Greg Dybec (Managing Editor of Elite Daily) and Stefan Betzold (Managing Director of Bild Digital). The moderator for the discussion is Markus Hohmeier (Director of Publishing & Marketing, The European). This enlightening session is being conducted at the TOA15 Studio.

4:05

Markus begins by highlighting the decrease in the revenue stream of the industry. He poses the first question to the panels and asks if it is the same in the music industry as is in media.

4:06

Greg Dybec, in response to the question, says that in companies working for millennials as the target audience, content changes every day.

4:07

Stefan Betzold gives his starting remarks and says, " We are strongly focusing on transformation from print to new technology. New opportunities are helping us to grow in business."

4:08

The next question for the house is how important videos are considering the factor that many of them are behind a paywall.

4:09

The Rising Importance of Video Content buff.ly/3c0Owek

4:10

Marten answers, "Years ago people wouldn’t pay for music but things have changed for the better . Similarly in journalism, best stories are on several websites, at times hard to discover but young people are paying for them." Betzold adds, "We don't put all videos behind paywall. We do have the exclusive videos but we also have videos for free users. It offers much more space for creativity and better opportunities for live broadcasting and live coverage of stories. It's a very important tool for storytelling."

4:11

The discussion moves forward towards the use of Snapchat, considering the 2 billion views per day.

4:12

Greg says in support of the platform, "On a basic level, right now using snapchat as a tool to focus on our culture and who we are, helpful from cultural aspect, allows new form of content, way to create content that exists specifically for that platform."

4:13

Stefan emphasizes on the need for bringing journalism in snapchat and calls it an 'experiment'.

4:14

Marten contradicts, "Presently journalists are like brands, although very few in number but they are favored by the audience regardless. Brand image will be very important now."

Moderator asks the panelists to give their top 3 websites.

4:15

Greg prefers New York Times and Vox. He adds, "Taking hard news and packing it in an interactive way in long-form articles is the feature of a lot of sites."

4:16

Marten works for 16-17 hours a day and reads incessantly.

Markus proceeds to question their liking in the tech open air.

4:17

Stefan likes the creative space and the atmosphere. He enjoys the presence of a lot of people in the network.

4:18

Greg supports by saying, "Its really an innovation. Not too much on tech sidebas I work mainly on content so its interesting to see invention in technology. Aggregating content is important so people can read what they are interested in."

4:19

Marten brings forward a new and a very important point. He highlights the existence of peer pressure. He says, "I’ve already seen too many people, would love to talk to them because “all the cool people are here”."

4:20

They end the discussion on the importance of technology and innovation in journalism with that thought.

That's a wrap. Thank you for being with us.

4:22