How news publishers can align newsrooms with the rest of the news business to make the vital shift toward a digital culture is the subject of a new report released today by the International News Media Association (INMA). 

“Bringing Newsrooms Into the Business of News” explores: 

• Why the business of news is so vital to newsrooms now. 

• The organic opportunities of culture change. 

• Shedding print culture and reaching for the digital trigger. 

• How to help newsrooms embrace culture change. 

• How to talk about data and metrics with journalists. 

• How data is unlocking the newsroom’s understanding of content genres. 

• How newsrooms are becoming audience strategy partners. 

• How newsrooms are getting smarter about journalism’s value. 

• Symbols of culture change in newsroom/business roles. 

• Whether or not a business embrace threaten journalism.

Click here to download the report

The new INMA report looks at the shift to digital consumption and its ripple effect on how newsrooms cover, distribute, and even understand the news.

According to the report, bringing newsrooms into the business of news is vital today because of the shift in content economics behind digital consumption habits. In the newspaper world, that means the shift from an advertiser-driven print bundle to a reader-driven and story-based digital brand.

The report investigates how to accomplish newsroom culture change, defining it in four ways: 

• Embracing the realities of digital news consumption. 

• Seizing data as an enabler and guide. 

• Connecting journalism to business outcomes. 

• Understanding the evolving economics behind journalism.

Written by INMA editor Paula Felps and INMA CEO Earl J. Wilkinson, the report dives into the need to shift legacy print culture to a digital one that is based on data, readers, and journalism. The report argues this digital culture allows newsrooms to measure reader interactions with real-time data analytics, allowing them to produce better journalism.

The gap from legacy culture is a big one and how newsrooms are succeeding in bridging that gap is the crux of the report, which is based on INMA Webinars, master classes, conferences, study tours, newsletters, and blogs during the past three years. The report is based on key learnings from INMA’s 18-month-old Newsroom Initiative. 

Among the report’s newsroom examples are Aftenposten, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, News Corp Australia, Expressen, Dow Jones, The Detroit Free Press, The Wall Street Journal, NTM, Malaysiakini, Berlingske, the Financial Times, Handelsblatt, The Guardian, Svenska Dagbladet, and Dagens Nyheter.

The key thread throughout the report was how crucial the newsroom embrace of data has become. “Data literacy in newsrooms is the common theme throughout this report,” the authors wrote. “The higher the data literacy, the more influence newsrooms will have on the future of news media companies.”

“Bringing Newsrooms Into the Business of News” is available for free to INMA members and may be purchased by non-members. Click here to access. All of INMA’s reports can be found here.

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