Being relevant to society by being inclusive

Another believer in staying close to citizens’ concerns is Fabrice Fries, CEO of AFP. Since 2016, AFP has had a deliberate strategy of putting boots on the ground. In his words, remaining relevant has ben “an obsession” for AFP.

Topic: being relevant to society by being inclusive

To many Forum’s speakers, being relevant to society means addressing audiences across all age groups and backgrounds. That can come from being a media group that offers a range of products for different segments or consciously targeting groups that could be left out, in particular Generation Z (born post 2000), audiences from migrant backgrounds or local communities (as SVT has done as described in the previous section). Stefano Feltri, Director of Domani and Gard Steiro, Editor-in-Chief of Verdens Gang illustrated two completely different approaches to providing quality news coverage for Generation Z, while Patrick Weinhold, editor-in-chief of social media at Tagesschau, described how they are also targeting Generation Z through their ‘digital with tradition’ strategy. Gabrielle Boeri-Charles and María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros Garcia discussed reaching new audiences through podcasts, and stressed their growing impact. David Schraven, Founder of Correctiv, illustrated how to reach out to local communities, while Thembi Wolf, Editor at Krautreporter, media activist and a founder member of the Mediamacher/innen association, demonstrated how the German media are failing to reach out to people from a migrant background.

Addressing new generations through a conventional newspaper

Stefano Feltri, described the philosophy of Domani, a newspaper which launched in autumn 2020 in Italy. He illustrated how a conventional approach can potentially meet the demand for quality journalism, and discussed the importance of being relevant to all age groups if a business model is to work.

Domani was designed to fill a gap in the market for a progressive newspaper sensitive to issues such as inequality and the environment. It is backed by a foundation that leaves the editorial team with complete independence. Domani has a print and an online version on the grounds that “it is not possible to be taken seriously in Italy without a print version” . “The Italian media market is still very old-fashioned…The Baby Boomers don’t trust digital.” At the same time, Domani believes it is building credibility with the under-25’s by not patronising them but really listening to them, making them feel part of the product. However, reconciling the two audiences is a challenge: “In Italy younger readers are interested in fact-based news, they think you are not focusing on what matters if you cover political debate. Gender is not relevant for Baby Boomers but is for the younger audience. You have to find a balance.”

Addressing new generations through new formats: VG TV and Tagesschau

VG TV is part of the same corporate group as Verdens Gang, Norway’s largest tabloid newspaper. It is an online video news channel for a young audience with 2.5 million users.2 It aims to tackle complex topics for an audience in their mid-twenties that prefer video to reading an article. “It is not just about shorter material, it is more complex” , Gard Steiro, Editor-in-Chief of Verdens Gang told the audience. It is about content, context, a different tone of voice and understanding how to tell the story to an audience that does not read a newspaper every day, and using journalists from the same age

2 Norway has a population of 5.4 million.

group alongside more experienced journalists. VG TV is a news provider with three-hourly news bulletins and breaking news, but 90% of the workflow is investigative journalism. “Younger audiences

do understand complex stories that may take 20 minutes to tell, but you can’t say ‘this is a complex

story you can only understand by reading a long article’; we have to adapt to them. They are the future.”

This, to him, requires a non-traditional approach to the newsroom. It requires a cross-functional newsroom where designers, developers, video teams and journalists work together and the distinction between different thematic silos, such as politics and economics no longer exists according to Gard Steiro. “You need people who understand Snapchat in the newsroom, not in some separate department.” It requires a lot of new talent on the technology side, data journalists and younger journalists from diverse backgrounds alongside people who have been there several years and understand how journalism works. María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros, Director Generalof PRISA Audio, described a similar approach at PRISA: Spain’s “El Pais” has an audio team of nine people in the newsroom.

Patrick Weinhold, editor-in-chief of social media at Tagesschau, also said their strategy for reaching younger audiences has required a new framework in the newsroom, incorporating new channels such as TikTok, using storytelling, emotional design and relying on young journalists. The Tagesschau counts with three people in the newsroom working on TikTok products day in day out. To broaden its reach beyond the traditional audience for its daily evening news show, Tagesschau, ARD implemented a “digital with tradition” strategy. “We had the courage to be first adopters, ” Weinhold said. They were the first media brand on Instagram and have 1 million subscribers on TikTok, the second largest media audience on TikTok after the Washington Post. Tagesschau plans to be using A/R by 2025. Using the existing brand creates brand loyalty so that audiences switch to other platforms (but similar media) as they grow older.

Addressing new audiences with new formats: podcasts

Binge Audio, an openly feminist native podcast production, also addresses younger audiences. Native podcasts are not new, but they recently grew to become a mainstream media product across Europe as they became technologically easier to use, Gabrielle Boeri-Charles, one of Binge Audio’s cofounders, explained. “25-40% of the population has listened to a podcast in the last month” she said. As a result the audience for podcasts is expanding out of the original base of educated women. The background of the podcasters is also becoming more diverse. According to her, there is still a technology barrier because podcast popularity is based on Apple technology, but the growing success of podcast is “not a mere matter of technology; these podcasts cover new subjects with new voices.” “You cannot talk to young women in the same way as in the past. You cannot talk to the podcast audience in the same way as on radio or TV”, she explained. Like VG, she stressed that it would be wrong to assume that younger audiences have no patience for long formats: a 25-minute episode is not a barrier on podcasts. As these example illustrate it, new formats require new approaches to news management. María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros, Director-General of PRISA Audio, described the umbrella audio platform that PRISA Group has established as part of their goal to be number one in the Spanish-language market for podcasts (the second largest in the world after the English language). They are targeting 1 billion downloads per month by 2025 (compared to 420 million now). The umbrella organisation PRISA covers all their companies worldwide. These range from Caracol, a radio station in Colombia, to Spain’s leading quality newspaper, El Pais, that the group wants to see become the benchmark for quality podcasts. The umbrella organisation sets the strategy and negotiates with suppliers, while the

companies keep their own identity. This was an innovation in a group where companies are used to working in silos, which required a culture shift. María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros Garcia is a strong believer in podcasts and feels the pandemic has been key in expanding the market because people have stopped looking at the screen and listen to a comforting voice: “The power of radio remains intact, but podcasts have gone beyond radio as they are a social tool, with a potential to go viral, to be interactive. They are also a hybrid between radio, audiovisual and literature.” A podcast is not just radio on demand, she said, “it is an art, a business” . “Radio and media companies have to pay attention to this relevant format,” which has taken audio from push to pull mode and will breathe new life into old forms, such as radio serials. That was a point also made by Gabrielle Boeri-Charles: “Podcasts have forced radio to innovate.” The advice to others from María Jesús Espinosa de los Monteros: “invest and take audio seriously; train your journalists to tell their stories thinking about sound; be patient to get results” .

Relevance to local communities

Another approach to being relevant to audiences, in this case local communities, is that of Correctiv. Correctiv is a non-profit investigative newsroom financed by donations from foundations and individuals, whose approach was described by David Schraven, its Founder. Their work is “not about scoops, the number of lines or generating clicks, but what is important to people, what really matters to them”, and then telling the story the right way through partners. That could be through feature articles, TV shows or in schools. Correctiv does not seek to own a particular channel. Correctiv works with local newspapers and individual citizens to carry out research. Schraven gave the example of identifying ownership patterns of apartments in Hamburg. The German land registry is not in the public domain, but by harnessing the right of individual citizens to find out who owns their own apartment, it was possible to identify the Danish teachers’ pension fund as a major housing investor in Hamburg, thus opening up the possibility of a dialogue with them of their impact on rising rents. Correctiv shares its methods and skills though a subscription scheme.

Diversity overlooked

Thembi Wolf, co-founder of Neue deutsche Medienmacher/innen, presented her research, pointing that the German TV networks are not reflecting the make-up of the population either in their newsroom staffing or in the composition of expert panels. During the 2017 elections, only 10% of the talk shows panellists were people with a migrant background. Yet 25% of the population of Germany has a parent or grandparent born outside Germany. Within a generation, that figure will grow to 40%. In some big cities, it is already the case of more than 50% of people under 30. Yet, she regretted, media professionals with migrant communities make up only 5% of German newsrooms. As far as people with disabilities are concerned, she said they are hardly represented. While 6% of editors have an international background, that background is generally Western European. “They don’t suffer racism or discrimination” , Thembi Wolf said. “Most companies want

more diversity, but hardly anyone has done anything about it; they just did not know which way to

go.” Consequently, her organisation produced a handbook – free for media, in exchange of a one-hour meeting with a member of the association’s board. 60-70 German media, including major ones, responded positively. Thembi Wolf argued for a paradigm shift that must come from the top and also include people with disabilities or from working-class backgrounds. “We hope to make progress in time for the next preelection talk show panels.” For others wanting to know where to start, she stressed that “the bosses