Does News still need editors? Steve Herrmann, Editor-in-Chief, BBC News Interactive
The BBC is argued by some to be the “Mainstream Media” organization most advanced in its adoption of Internet innovations, especially in including the audience in its newsgathering. Steve Herrmann, (position) at the BBC traveled to Moscow to explain to the delegates at the 13th World Editors Forum how the interactivity of the digital age is affecting journalism and editors around the globe.
Herrmann set the tone for his speech by urging editors and news organizations to tear down the walls around themselves; the first thing news organizations have to do in the rapidly transforming media landscape where everyone is a potential journalists and publisher is “Listen to the audience.”
He described the BBC’s undertakings in adapting to the increasing demand by readers and viewers for increased methods of news browsing revealing that page impressions at the BBC website were up 40% to 8.7 million users since April 2004 including now 18 million impressions per month accessed by RSS feeds and 2.4 million monthly podcast searches.
As for “listening to the audience, Herrmann said that BBC News Interactive receives 10,000 daily emails and 100-200 images a week from users.
But since audience participation in the news process is still a relatively young phenomenon, the Beeb’s interactivity guru wondered if inviting the public to contribute “makes us a better news organization.”
Herrmann cited some of the innovations that the BBC has implemented through its website. These include a place where users can voice their opinion, allowing readers to comment on articles and then to rank the comments of their peers, getting real people intertwined in news events that the BBC cannot always access to report their side of the story, and welcoming story ideas from the public.
These new newsgathering methods may seem to bypass the role of traditional editors but Herrmann reassured the newspaper editors of the world that their job is even more important in an interactive world. He asked, “How do we know (the news is) true?”
An editors job becomes more important when dealing with audience submissions because editors must verify the information, contact contributors, make sure photos aren’t manipulated, and figure out how credible the source is.
Not only must editors check their newfound staff, but they must also respond to it. Herrmann said that blogs are “a useful format to help (editors) be accountable and open.” The BBC is now experimenting with an “Editors’ blog.”
Most importantly, said Herrmann, interaction with the audience establishes a relationship of trust, a relationship that a news organization in today’s increasingly transparent world cannot afford to lose because there are so many other sources where the public can turn for news.
More news from the 59th World Newspaper Congress
And our video blog with Robb Montgomery and Visual Editors
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Does News still need editors? Steve Herrmann, Editor-in-Chief, BBC News Interactive.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.editorsweblog.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6025
Not only will editors always exist but they will grow to understand emerging media types and new marketing opportunities. Almost every online magazine, paper or publication needs an inhouse SEO consultant that understands Internet Marketing as a whole and the 'blogosphere' as a promotional vechile.
All editors should be fluent in Web, meaning an intricate understanding of why and how search engine rank content and how this effects usability and website traffic and even branding.
News are a long way behind online. I could cite so many examples it's not funny. One day you'll all wake up and smell the coffee.
If your not visible in Search Engines your BARELY visable.
Futhurmore I offer my expertise to any Australian Online News Media that would like all of the content they produce to rank high in search engines. So many wasted opportunities at the moment.
Lets build a better web.
bocwfdq lwiva qmcsp tusjxz vlaskgph alev kvysnh