Göteborg: "Integrated newsrooms are a necessary and exciting road to the future"

According to Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO, Det Berlingske Officin, and Editor-in-chief, Berlingske Tidende, Denmark, the question is not if integrated newsrooms are working but how newspapers can make them work. Knudsen was one of the presenters in a session about integrated newsrooms at the 15th World Editors Forum.

Knudsen gave a general introduction to all of the monumental changes occuring in the media. Because of the Internet, newspaper are not automatically given the special status of sole news providers that they enjoyed before. "A lot of things have changed. We are no longer the gatekeepers of information," said Knudsen. While print is nonparticipatory, online needs dynamic and participation. "The reader has broken the old circle of power." Two recipes for successful online media are expertise in certain editorial areasa and content driven production according to Knudsen. Although newspapers are used to competing heavily with each other, they are not used to all the new competetors online and becoming speialists in an area will help them compete.

Another thing that the internet has changed are deadlines. Journalists in a print environment are used to working with one deadline, but online there are dealines all the time.

Knudsen closed by asking if integrated newsroom are really working. She concluded that they are, but not without a total turnaround of their businesses.