25 themes of survival from the World Editors Forum

There was lots to think about at the World Editors Forum in Bangkok, June 2013. Here are my 25 quick take-home sound grabs .

www.wan-ifra.org/bangkok2013

1.       Don’t tweak, rather reinvent

2.       Get buy-in from newspaper owners, or you are wasting your time.

3.       Have a shared vision, across all departments, between editorial and management

4.       Communicate with management, show respect - but keep up the wall

5.       Focus on your role - good journalism: The platform is just the platform, the bottle. Journalism is the wine. It’s the wine that counts, that’s your core business. (credit: Juan Senor)

6.       Encourage management to expand revenue opportunities – the rats & mice all add up as traditional advertising declines

7.       Hire more reporters

8.       Protect reporters, ensure their safety, fight for them, don’t let owners take control of editorial

9.       Hire a digital/data developer/data wrangler (1 developer to 5 journalists)

10      Do what you do best, link to the rest (credit: Jeff Jarvis)

11     Take risks, but learn from the mistakes and successes of countries in a state of advanced crisis – ie the US media

12     Have a presence across as many platforms as possible: print, digital, social media. Right now, mobile is the IT medium.

13     Hire young upstarts, disrupters, with good ideas, different skills that add value and help transformation

14     Train experienced journalists, inspire them to learn new skills, they are invaluable

15     Discard outdated ideas, structures and deadlines

16     Interact with your audience

17     Use simple tools like wordpress and scoopshot

18     Know your audience: Analyse  response and traffic, and respond accordingly

19     Reorganise your newsroom and deadlines accordingly

20     Be quick, but add value, it’s impossible to compete with social media, so first verify

21.   Shake things up, it’s now or never

22.   Visualise stories from early on, not just at production stage

23.   Don’t replicate print content and design, do it differently, make it relevant for digital platforms

24.   Leadership is 20% journalism, 80% ability to inspire others

25.   Don’t despair. Do something radical, innovate.