The context of renewal was further introduced by the first speaker, Karel Vranken of Concentra Publishers, who outlined the changeover to a many-to-many publishing ecosystem, with all the paradigm changes involved. Newspaper managers have a hard time understanding the new logic, he argued. Already during the first years of the Internet age, they have been forced to shift from public and free to private and paid for and now again to social (the Web 2.0, even 3.0 trend); not evident in a largely complacent industry.
He demonstrated an interesting way out with a prototype service his publishing house has developed, called ‘Hasselt Lokaal’ (Hasselt being the home town of Concentra). In this field trial, 15 volunteer city reporters, all coming straight from the local community, have created their own web-based outlet in which they present the heartbeat of the city: the concerns, the hypes and the
small talk as well as the popular events. Although many of the stories have limited general impact, public attention is high and these amateur reporters have surprisingly easy access to the high and mighty of the local community.

The second prototype on stage offers enhanced functionality for professional remote reporting, with laptop-based software for text and picture management as well as a largely automated upload device. The NewsWizard application was developed by VIP-lab, a collaborative R&D venture of four Flemish and Dutch universities and a variety of market parties. Interesting is the non-technical and consequent user-oriented design routine which pays proper attention to on the ground use conditions. EDM presenter Mieke Haesen pointed at the advantage: avoiding lengthy and costly adaptations during the following implementation phase.

The same type of on-site connectivity for reporters offers the Farcast application, produced by TNO-research. This application is completely integrated in a standard mobile phone, and allows storage of audio (quotes) and stills / pictures, as well as instantaneous upload to a central server and the option of parallel publishing on the web. An additional feature is the combination with GPS location identification.
Farcast, explained TNO consultant Kobus Smit, has been tested out with a group of reporters from the Dutch ANP press service. Although they liked the thing and used it regularly, especially in unexpected news conditions (spontaneous reporting), the prototype will not become a replacement of professional gear. TNO foresees wider application by the general public and will start a second field trial with this target audience shortly.

Moving on to novel content production, the next project demonstrated how non-journalistic parties can nevertheless play an important role in the future paper portfolio. The Qué Pasó-initiative (a daily digital video newsflash for the papers’ website) has recently been beta-launched by SP!TS, a nationally distributed METRO-type of free paper of the Telegraaf Group. The title is especially popular with younger readers, and the presenting editor, Bart Brouwers, indicated that the paper would like to capitalise on this advantage with enlarged multimedia services and regular contributions from the readership. In this case, the Qué Pasó footage is produced by a group of university students who combine their communications study with practical involvement in the paper. Financially, this is an attractive solution and also strategically a smart move because these grassroots reporters voice the authentic emotions and priorities of the Net generation.

The consumer/reader level received substantial attention with two prototypes, the first one zooming in on a technology which potentially can revolutionise the industry: e-paper. This summer, a fairly large field test has been conducted by the Belgian financial paper De Tijd, using the Iliad, an e-ink mounted reading pane produced by Philips subsidiary i-Rex. E-reader devices are mobile to start with (A5 folder size), have the look and feel of normal paper, don’t require a lot of energy and show superior reading quality in daylight conditions.
Nico Verplancke of IBBT summed up some final results delivered by the group of 200 test users. Feedback is positive, in general. Half of the group would consider buying a device provided the delivered content is sufficiently compelling. A strong recommendation was to speed up the refresh time and improve layout of content. Meanwhile, i-Rex has issued improved software with better performance characteristics.
Further development is required though, to promote the device from the present
e-book to the aspired e-newspaper status. De Tijd will not continue with the experiment, but five Dutch newspapers have meanwhile joined forces for a continued research effort, more focused on the creative part of the venture, the development of the right editorial formats. IBBT will join this consortium as well.

The last prototype on show features an online reader community service, based on an existing and well-read Q and A-section of the print paper, called ‘WegWijs’. Migration to the web became a necessity because of the popularity of the service: far too many reader entries, hence long waiting times and strong selection for print publishing. With an online environment these constraints could be solved and new elements added. This prototype was also developed by VIP-lab and commissioned by the Limburg regional newpaper group MGL.
By far the most appealing aspect of the new product, according to EC/DC researcher Tom Kooy, is the changeover from a traditional print section to the online community concept. Web-based communities surge and quickly become the prime means of organisation for special interests and/or query-solving. The initiative for content production lies much more at community level, in this case with journalistic backup for moderation and quality control. During the three-week field trial, 30 readers used the site for both submitting questions (and pictures) as well as answering the ones of other members of the reader-community. The results proved the viability of the concept and MGL will implement the online WegWijs-section in the forthcoming months.

The conference concluded with a forum session and open debate between speakers and participating editors. Main observations went direction the need for further research into future e-applications for newspapers. As summarised by conference chair Jan Bierhoff: a higher investment level in R&D by industry and government, a move beyond the single project innovation trend (a choice for strategic innovation trajectories), the option of joint, even national newspaper innovation facilities (labs) and pre-competitive R&D as part of the professional bodies remit.
Summaries of the presentations as well as demo’s can be downloaded from the websites of the organising parties: www.ecdc.info and www.ejc.nl