Google to host the Digital Editors Network’s meet-up on understanding the opportunities and challenges offered by distributed content

The next Digital Editors Network (DEN) meeting, tagged as #distributedDEN, is set to be hosted by Google on September 8th at 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SH, to discuss how digital publishers and platforms could engage to maximise the opportunities that distributed content offers to them.

The rise of new distribution channels (e.g. search and social) has enabled journalism to reaches larger audiences than ever and in many more ways. This means that readers have a nearly limitless amount of news sources to choose from and limitless amount of digital content to spend time with. Key questions that media organisation should ask themselves are: How to distribute their content so it engages the right audiences in line with their strategy?  How are the specific distributed channels different from each other and what does that mean for publishers?

With this in mind, the autumn meeting, which is co-organised by François Nel of the University of Central Lancashire, will include highlights from the recent Digital News Report published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism research into news consumption patterns with some confirmation of the importance of social media.

The meeting will also be set to have all parties involved in order to foster a dialogue between platforms and media organisations. “There’s been a lot of talk in and around journalism circles about the role of social media platforms and their relationships with publishers,” says Dr Nel. “What’s rare is a safe space for publishers and platforms to talk with each other. This DEN meeting will aim to do just that.” He adds, “As is customary for DEN events, we’ll be observing the Chatham House Rule.”

Welcoming participants to the event is Benedicte Autret who is leading the Strategic Relationships with News Publishers in the UK, including how to engage with Google within the Digital News Initiative framework. Speakers will also include:

• Mark Little, Twitter’s Vice-President for Media Partnerships in Europe and Africa, and the Managing Director of Twitter’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin
• Miller Hogg, CEO of the CN Group 
• Matt McAlister, co-founder of Publish.org and Keleida Networks and Guardian columnist. 
• Nic Newman, lead author of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report  
• Luca Forlin, Head of Partnerships at Play Newsstand
• Ben McOwen Wilson, YouTube Content Partnership Director

Co-sponsored by the editorial management software company Desk-Net, discussions will be chaired by the DEN’s convenors: Nick Turner, Digital Strategy Manager at the CN Group; Lucia Adams, former Launch Editor at The Times; and François Nel of UCLan.

The event on Thursday, September 8th, will run from 2pm-6pm at Google UK, 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London, with registration opening at 13:30pm and conversations afterwards continuing into a networking reception that wraps at 7:30pm.

Attendees can sign up at: https://distributedDEN.eventbrite.co.uk

DEN’s networking opportunities are regularly announced on the Network’s Twitter, Facebook page, Linkedin group and here on our blog.