The first Newsrewired virtual conference is now finished and we are preparing the next event. Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the updates. Below is the last event’s agenda.
 

Programme

 

Day 1

Monday 29 June 2020

3 pm – 5 pm London time/10 am – 12 pm New York Time

 

Keynote: Using design thinking to take action on emerging audience trends
3 pm – 3:30 pm London time/10am – 10:30 am New York time

Design thinking is a way of working in which you connect with the people you are trying to serve, to understand their needs in their context, then prototype toward potential innovative solutions. As the world rapidly changes, it is not enough to merely adapt our core businesses during periods of disruption — and this is not a time for retrenchment.

The opportunity to work toward new products and processes is even more critical when conditions are changing, because the core business will erode faster than in times of stability. Yet often during chaotic times, our instinct is to stick with what we know.

In this talk, speaker Justin Ferrell, founder of the professional fellowship program at the Institute of Design at Stanford University (the d.school), will show how design thinking is one way of looking at an increasingly complex future not with worry or trepidation, but with optimism and courage. Because it is predicated on understanding human behaviour, design thinking can help us act on what is changing to identify opportunities and predict emerging customer needs, to continue and hopefully sustain the public service of journalism.

 

Distributed newsroom: how to thrive during and after the crisis
3:30 pm – 4 pm BST/10:30 am – 11 am EDT

The disruption that the covid-19 pandemic has brought to the newsrooms is likely to stay with us far beyond the current crisis. Rather than just thinking of ‘remote working’, we need to embrace the challenge that social distancing measures will bring in the months and perhaps years to come.

How has the pandemic changed the way we work, from recruiting the right talent to better serving our audiences? How can you reimagine your office when your team is working from home? And how can you manage and lead your team, as well as foster essential innovation during the crisis? We will explore these questions with two expert speakers.

Speakers

• Fergus Bell, founder and CEO, Fathm
• Lucy Küng, senior research fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
  

 

Workshop: Foster effective communication within your team with DiSC personality test
4 pm – 5 pm BST/11 am – 12 am EDT

With most newsrooms now working remotely, effective communication is key. Dr. Len Clark uses the DiSC assessment tool to help the media professions improve the collaboration within their organisations, including those entrepreneurial and freelance journalists who are seeking contracts and assignments. This workshop will teach you how to:

• Identify your strengths and understand weaknesses
• Effectively work with different personality types
• Improve communication and teamwork skills
• Become self-aware and adjust patterns of behaviour
• Increase productivity and revenue

 

Day 2

Tuesday 30 June 2020

3 pm – 5 pm London time/10 am – 12 pm New York Time

 

Audience engagement and trust in the media in the coronavirus world
3 pm – 4 pm BST/10a m – 11 am EDT

Since the beginning of the pandemic, news consumption has increased in many countries. However, on top of the disruption that the crisis has bought to the sector, journalists also have to fight larger volumes of misinformation and seek new ways to engage audiences. In recent weeks, the Black Lives Matter movement has also prompted news organisation to take a critical look at the way we work, from the stories we publish to reporters we hire.

In this session, we will look at how to better serve our audiences and capitalise on the increased interest in the news, while also creating a loyal community of readers that stay with you in the future.

Speakers

• Robbie Kellman Baxter, strategy consultant and author, Peninsula Strategies
• Beth Ashton, head of audience and subscriptions, The Telegraph
• Bola Awoniyi, co-founder and COO, Black Ballad
• Leon Fryszer, executive director, Krautreporter

 

Workshop: Strategies for audience engagement in the newsroom
4 pm – 5 pm BST/11 am – 12 am EDT

This workshop with journalist and trainer Laura Oliver will discuss practical ideas and processes for embedding audience-first thinking in the newsroom, including ideas for how to develop new editorial ideas for growing and engaging audiences and ways to measure success. Participants will discuss real-world examples, as well as tools and tactics they can apply to their newsroom and audience projects.

Day 3

Wednesday 1 July 2020

3 pm – 5 pm London time/10 am – 12 pm New York Time

 

Reinventing the business model
3 pm – 4 pm BST/10 am – 11 am EDT

As the already plummeting advertising revenue has nearly dried up during the coronavirus pandemic, many newsrooms will have to make some tough choices for the years ahead. But the crisis is also an opportunity to reimagine the way you and your organisation work.

We will look at how to plan new strategies to capitalise on the surge in news consumption and explore how to launch or enhance subscription and membership models. More importantly, we will examine where is the value of your news product and how can you monetise audience engagement. This session will also look at the unique role of local newsrooms in regaining audiences’ trust and discuss how local news can be financed through new sustainable revenue streams.

 

Workshop: Engagement through Storytelling
4 pm – 5 pm BST/11 am – 12 am EDT

In this workshop, Shirish Kulkarni will challenge participants to rethink the future of journalism, grounding it in deep connection with users. Drawing on both his News Storytelling research with Clwstwr, and his work as a Community Organiser at The Bureau Local he will explore how focussing on the emotional and practical needs of readers and viewers could create a more fulfilling future for audiences, society and journalists themselves.

 

Day 4

2 July 2020

3 pm – 5 pm London time/10 am – 12 pm New York Time

 

Looking to the future
3:20 pm – 4 pm BST/10 am – 11 am EDT

The covid-19 crisis is profoundly transforming the journalism industry. What will our sector look like in the months and years to come? In this session, we will look at where the news industry may be heading, from new content formats like mobile-optimised reporting to video streaming. We will pinpoint emerging trends in digital publishing and help you start preparing today for the opportunities of tomorrow.

Speakers

• Sara Fischer, media reporter, Axios
• John Crowley, editor and media consultant
• Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
• Thomas Baekdal, media analyst, Baekdal Media

 

Workshop: Prepare your newsroom for an AI-powered future
4 pm – 5 pm BST/11 am – 12 am EDT

Artificial intelligence has the potential for wide-ranging and profound influence on how journalism is made and consumed. But how can you prepare your newsroom for the AI-powered future? In this session, Prof Charlie Beckett will share some recommendations from the JournalismAI research. He will provide insights on how AI technologies are already used in journalism and what value they can bring to your newsroom. You will learn what kind of impact the use of AI might have on your editorial policies and on newsroom roles, the challenges you might encounter and the motivations that should guide the introduction of AI in your workflows and processes.

 

Bonus workshop

 

7 July 2020

 

Most Swedish news publishers, large and small, have used newsroom automation for the past three or four years. Find out how they have done it, what they have learned and how the journalism and the bottom line have benefited. Explore what could work for your newsroom.

What you’ll learn in the workshop will include:
• How Mittmedia turned local sports into a driver for reader revenue by automating match reports
• How NTM set up a regional football vertical in three weeks, using robot texts to keep it constantly up-to-date
• How Aftonbladet set up local destinations in cities beyond Stockholm, combining reporter written journalism with automated updates on traffic, weather, property sales and local sports
• How to take the first steps to leverage automated editorial content

The workshop will be led by two journalists who have spent the past five years deeply involved in newsroom automation and the news publishing business model:
Henning Johannesson, United Robots Chief Product Officer, previously Head of Sports at Mittmedia – and the man who wrote most of the sports robot.
Cecilia Campbell, United Robots Chief Marketing Officer, previously consultant and author for WAN-IFRA World Association of News Publishers, focusing on reader revenues for the past 10 years.

We will update the agenda with the speakers’ names as soon as we have them confirmed.

All topics and speakers are subject to change. If you’d like to contribute as a speaker or sponsor, please get in touch by emailing marcela[at]journalism.co.uk.

 

Interested in sponsoring Newsrewired?

 

To learn more about ways to connect with Newsrewired’s international delegates, or to suggest a session or a talk, please contact Marcela Kunova, editor, Journalism.co.uk, at marcela@journalism.co.uk. Your sponsorship will support the event and an industry playbook, “Turning the crisis into an opportunity for innovation”, that will be published in this summer.