Create news first, edit later

Speaking at the Digital Media Round Table at the 58th annual World Newspaper Congress and the 12th annual World Editors Forum in Seoul, Korea, a few of Norway's top techno gurus elaborated on speeches about newspapers using mobile technologies made previously by Park Chang-hee and Jim Chisholm. Torry Pedersen, Online Editorial Director at VG Norway said that mobile is replacing the internet as the medium of choice not only in receiving news, but in reporting it. Using the example of Asia's December tsunami, he showed how SMS messaging trumped wire services and how MMS beat photo agencies in getting the word out to the world about the natural disaster. This phenomenon will only expand as mobile text, voice, and image devices proliferate. When asked how citizens will be paid for the material they contribute to such events, Pedersen responded that they should be paid the same as freelancers. Paying the mobile consumer creates a healthy system that will spread by word of mouth among the public, theoretically extending news reporting to everyone.

Concerning business models, Frode Ugland, Head of Business Development Mobile Operations at Telenor, Norway's leading telecommunications company, pointed out that younger generations are rarely paying for newspapers, but that they are used to paying for content through their mobile phone bill. Thus, by marketing and distributing their product through mobile devices to younger readers, newspapers will not only establish a new stream of revenue in youth, but will hold on to these readers as they mature. In order to succeed, however, Ugland said that newspapers will have to team with mobile operators and reform theri news to appeal to youth and adjust it to a mobile screen. Emphasizing her colleague's speech, Kristin Braa, Vice President Products, R&D at Telenor said that newspapers and mobile companies need to collaborate and learn from one another. She also noted how mobile news will change the editorial process: the key to mobile news is to create volume first and edit the content later.

Follow debates such as these about technology's influence on the newspaper throughout the 12th World Editors Forum's Editors' BlogConf. Join the debate by posting your comments and stay tuned to the conversation with a number of media experts such as 5ive consultant Susan Mernit and Robb Montgomery of Visual Editors and the Chicago Sun-Times who will be responding to your questions and comments. Tomorrow, join us for discussions with keynote speaker and Bayosphere citizen journalism host Dan Gillmor as well as GoogleNews creator Krishna Bharat. Check out the whole schedule of speakers here.