How News Agencies are Collaborating on Newsroom Technology
It doesn’t take a news junkie to know that journalism is under siege. Around the world, media organisations of all sizes are struggling to retain audiences, pushing publishers and broadcasters to experiment with new storytelling-techniques and revenue-generating strategies. But there is at least one bright spot in the news-producing gloom: newsrooms are collaborating on solutions like never before.
One important contribution to the era of “collaborative journalism” took place April 18-20, in Hanoi, and Sourcefabric was a key participant. Hosted by the Vietnam News Agency, the 44th Executive Board Meeting of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) explored topics like fighting “fake news” and restoring trust to a troubled industry. Innovation and the role of technology featured prominently in the discussions; we offered insights on how newsroom software can improve news agencies’ operational efficiency.
Karel Petrák, a Sourcefabric project manager, presented an overview of our newsroom management tools, while Renat Isch, Sourcefabric’s Business Development Manager, showcased the syndication and marketplace features of Live Blog, our professional live blogging platform. Both stressed that when it comes to improving newsroom workflows, collaboration is no longer optional. “At Sourcefabric, we don’t simply make tools for journalists; we cooperate closely with clients to help them integrate our software into their operations,” Petrák told delegates.
During one afternoon session, Petrák demonstrated Superdesk, our open-source headless CMS, as well as the Superdesk Planning Component and Newshub, a web portal for news agency customers. These tools have been designed to work together to streamline newsrooms’ editorial planning, production, and distribution processes, which in turn can free up editors to focus more energy on creating quality content.
Karel Petrák, Sourcefabric project manager, introduces Superdesk to OANA delegates.
Petrák also explained how technology can be used to tackle disinformation, a major issue facing many news organizations, including OANA members. “If a customer wanted us to help them build a system to fight fake news, we could build a fake-news-detector plugin by integrating Superdesk with other available software.” Petrák added that because our software is open-source, clients can not only customize their systems to suit specific needs, they can also share solutions with other Superdesk users.
Said OANA President Aslan Aslanov: “Executive Board Meetings are a platform for discussing current trends in journalism and the unique challenges facing news agencies. We were extremely pleased that Sourcefabric accepted our invitation to attend our recent gathering and shed light on how collaborative software solutions can improve news agency efficiency in the digital era.”
Founded in 1961, OANA is one of the world’s largest news-agency organizations, with a roster of 44 agencies in 35 countries. Members include the Australian Associated Press; Yonhap News Agency of South Korea; China’s Xinhua News Agency; the Press Trust of India; the Fars News Agency of Iran; and TASS, the Russian News Agency.
The 44th annual executive board meeting of OANA brought delegates from all over Asia Pacific.
Interested in learning how Sourcefabric co-develops digital newsroom software with news agencies around the world? Find out more here.