Digital Editors' Network

Covid-19 has sped up change in an industry that was already undergoing rapid transformation. Beyond the public health crisis, the pandemic is reconfiguring how societies work. For journalism, it also represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to hit the reset button.  What are the key considerations for newsroom decision-makers to build back well?  The Spring 2021 meeting the Digital Editors Network will host a set of facilitated virtual group discussions on People, Processes and Products with the aim of creating a set of questions and frameworks for attendees to take back to their respective newsrooms.  In short, we’d like to co-create an agenda for decision-makers to consider as they seek to build back well. The discussion leaders are: Jon Birchall is the Sport Audience and Content Director at Reach PLC, overseeing sports audience strategy across brands such as The Mirror, Manchester Evening News and Liverpool ECHO. He has previously worked at Manchester United an...

Digital Editors Network (DEN) co-founder François Nel today announced that editors from two leading national news publishers are becoming co-convenors of the industry innovators’ peer learning network that has been meeting for Chatham House Rule-discussions since 2007. Nick Petrie, deputy digital editor of The Times and the Sunday Times, and Beth Ashton , head of audience and subscriptions at The Telegraph, have joined former Wall Street Journal digital editor John Crowley and Dr Francois Nel , who is editor of World Press Trends for WAN-IFRA and course leader of the new Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme to be offered by the Media Innovation Studio at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. “I am delighted to join DEN as co-convener and I hope to help continue the outstanding work DEN has done so far in bringing together people from across all levels of newsrooms to navigate complex issues faced by our industry,” said Ashton, who joined the Telegraph from the...

You won't want to miss this one! Really.,  We'll shortly be announcing the host of our Spring 2020 Digital Editors Network meeting in London - and the two talented, yes, digital editors who are stepping up to join the team of convenors.   Till soon...

The   Digital Editors Network   is teaming up with the   Google News Initiative   to offer Northwest media professionals a Storytelling with Maps masterclass by Google teaching fellow   Abigail Edge   on 5th November hosted by the   Media Innovation Studio   at   UCLan . GNI teaching fellow Abigail Edge Yes, you use Google maps in your everyday life, but do you know the new features of Google's mapping tools that are an easy way to make stories more informative, interactive and visually compelling? Learn how to plot multiple data points in My Maps, find historical imagery in StreetView, and explore how the new Google Earth tools can be used to tell timeline-based stories with Abigail, who is the Google News Initiative's UK teaching fellow. We'll also look at the new Google Earth Studio, a timeline-based animation tool that brings Google Earth's satellite and 3D images to life The workshop and networking event will kick off at...

Leading the change our industry needs to survive today and thrive tomorrow is no small challenge. At the next meeting of the Digital Editors Network on November 21st at BBC Broadcasting House, forward-thinking news executives from the BBC, Reuters, and Sky, and other thought leaders will discuss the key strategic, operational and personal issues leaders face today. Opening the discussion will be our host, the BBC News Languages' Digital Development Editor  Dmitry Shishkin , and strategy consultant Minter Dial , co-author with Caleb Storkey of Futureproof: How to get your business ready for the next disruption . The book, which recently won the 'Embracing Change' category in The Business Book Awards 2018, explores the three core mindsets and twelve disruptive technologies that you must have in today’s age to help you grow your business, see success and get ready for the next disruption. Editor in Chief (Digital) of Reach Plc (Regionals) Alison Gow will be th...

Leadership  is the focus of discussions at the next Digital Editors Network meeting to be hosted by the BBC World Service's Group Digital Development Editor Dmitry Shiskin at Broadcasting House on 21 November 2018.  Dmitry Shiskin " #LeadershipDEN is going to be an afternoon when we will share our experiences and strategies dealing with leading change in newsrooms," says Dmitry, who has been at the forefront of  the BBC World Services most ambitious expansion since the 1940s, seeing the addition of 12 new language services over the last 18 months. "What does it take to lead perpetual change (which, frankly speaking, never stops!)? How do people in matrix “bridge” or direct leadership roles deal with stress from working in complex and ever-changing environments? What are the practical implications of driving diversity projects - gender, age, sex, class and many others - in media? How do organisation support their “change agents”? How do they keep developing ...

The Spring 2018 meeting of the Digital Editors Network (DEN) will be hosted by The Economist on June 12th. Focusing on changing business models in publishing, the event will examine the trends facing news organisations that rely on subscription and membership based revenue, as well as new revenue models including micropayments. The meeting aims to bring together individuals from across the traditional publishing divide, including editors, journalists, product owners, marketers and senior business decision-makers. With the decline of advertising, some publishers are increasingly relying on subscription and membership models as a means of generating revenue. This shift has a number of implications for the way publishers operate, and how they interact with their readership. It has also opened the door to more creative subscription models. #economicsDEN host: The Economist's Denise Law "Our summit will look at how publishers can continue to provide and charge for high-qu...

If the future of quality journalism is on your mind, then you won't want to miss the Spring 2017 meeting of the Digital Editors’ Network meeting on June 20th. Hosted by Twitter's Rob Owers at its London offices in Soho  and co-sponsored by the editorial software firm Desk-Net , the meeting will focus on how quality journalism can overcome two of its biggest challenges – the corrosive impact of misinformation, and the continuing search for sustainable business models. Along with Twitter's Global Head of News Peter Greenberger , speakers from Twitter,   Facebook ,  the BBC , Trinity Mirror , Full Fact ,  the Conversation ,  the   London School of Economics and Political Science ,   and University of Central Lancashire  will lead the discussions that will kick off at 3pm and conclude at 7pm with a networking reception. Confirmed speakers are:  Peter Greenberger , Global Head of News at Twitter   Aine Kerr , Head of J...

This much we have finalized: 1. The time, place & host: Rob Owers  of Twitter has stepped up to host the Spring 2017 meeting of the Digital Editors Network in London on 20 June 2017. 2. The theme: Quality News? "All the concerns about #fakenews raises a key question: How do we get to a working definition of what is quality news?" says DEN co-convener François   Nel .  "This is no small concern. The parameters of 'quality news' will underpin decisions about the news stories, news creators and news brands that get discovered - and rewarded - through social and search. And those deemed to provide quality news are  also likely to get the support of regulators, avoid the wrath of legislators and be foregrounded in public discourse. "What we do know, is that that quality cannot simply be defined by popularity or progeny, on the one hand. On the other hand, it's not helpful to simply say that quality, like beauty, is in the eye (or click) of the be...

  The panel - Google, YouTube, FB & Twitter Our lively #distributedDEN discussion hosted by Benedicte Autret at Google’s London offices around the relationship between publishers and platforms was more than a month ago - but the issue is very much on our minds. If you're also still thinking about it, then we hope you’ll let us know HERE   what you think we might do to move the conversation. To thank you for your thoughts on that - any other suggestions about speakers, hosts and sponsorship of future DEN meetings - we’d like to offer you the opportunity to download the presentations by the Reuters Institute’s Nic Newman on the Digital News Report and AOL’s Oliver Tobias on their Publishers Outlook 2016 study. Aside: If you missed the Chatham House Rule-event or want a reminder, check out Catalina Albeanu 's takeaways on Journalism.co.uk . Also: So far, more than 240 editorial, technology, commercial and senior managers at news media companies have told the...

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 incl...

That social media are playing an increasinly important role in the process of making and distributing news is widely acknowledged. And, not suprisingly, there's lots of talk amongst news publisher about what social media means for their business. What's rare is a conversation with social media platforms about what a sound, sustainable relationship between those who create news and those who re-aggregate and re-distribute news might look like now - and going forward. That's precisely what we aim to convene when DEN next meets on 8 September 2016 in London. We'll soon be announcing our host and the publshers and platforms who will lead the discussion. This is certainly a date to diarise. If you've not been to DEN meetup before and would like to get advance notices, join our mailing list HERE (We don't pass along contact details, ever!)

That social media are playing an increasinly important role in the process of making and distributing news is widely acknowledge. And, not suprisingly, there's lots of talk amongst news publisher about what social media means for their business. What's rare is a conversation with social media platforms about what a sound, sustainable relationship between those who create news and those who re-aggregate and re-distribute news might look like now - and going forward. That's precisely what we aim to convene when DEN next meets on 8 September 2016 in London. We'll soon be announcing our host and the publshers and platforms who will lead the discussion. This is certainly a date to diarise. If you've not been to DEN meetup before and would like to get advance notices, join our mailing list HERE (We don't pass along contact details, ever!)

Are you thinking about innovative ways to engage with news communities?  Then participate in the next Digital Editors Network meeting on November 19th at BBC Broadcasting House, where the discussions will focus on how digital publishers are trying to reach new audiences – on a local, national and global scale. The term itself is quite complex and includes all sorts of audience sub-groups, defined by gender, age, economic status, race or origin. Yet the mobile and social revolution has unquestionably opened opportunities for news sector growth, provided audience acquisition is approached correctly. We’ll learn about the latest research into youth news habits around the world, debate the fragmentation of audiences, and discuss the latest techniques that publishers (and other sectors) employ to engage audiences and build communities on digital platforms. Welcoming participants to the event is someone who is thinking about those topics and beyond is  James Montgomery , ...

Those who joined in the Spring 2015 Digital Editors Network meetup at the Wall Street Journal know it will be a hard act to follow. But the DEN convenors have been working at it. And while we can't yet announce the hosts (details, details), we can confirm that we'll be meeting on November 12th 19th in London. Please book the date. DEN is a community, not a membership association or an events company. So, we welcome (and rely on) contributors. Be in touch if you'd like help by speaking, sponsoring, hosting or helping with arrangements. Our email is digitaleditorsnetwork @ gmail.com. Also on our minds and in our autumn calendar are: Community and Hyperlocal Event on 9th September 2015 in Cardiff. The School of Journalism’s Centre for Community Journalism (C4CJ), in collaboration with the UK’s innovation foundation Nesta , will hold a one-day event about community and hyperlocal media before the bi-annual Future of Journalism academic conference kicks off. The o...

The next Digital Editors Network meeting on June 9th will look at new digital platforms for news - but will also explore how innovative media organisations are grappling with and rethinking the news experiences they create there. Which new formats work best now? What are innovators planning for next?  Hosting the discussion is just such a forward thinker’: John Crowley , The Wall Street Journal’s Digital Editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Speakers at the meeting on the 17th floor of News Corporation’s UK headquarters at London Bridge will include the BBC World Service's mobile Apps editor Trushar Barot on why his WhatsApp experiment convinced management to develop a formal instant-messaging news strategy; Tom Phillips on what new formats work for Buzzfeed and what ’type' of coders they are looking to hire to build them; why Edward Miller of Immersiv.ly believes that the end of Google Glass is just the start of virtual reality; and how Quartz engages audiences with...

Follow live updates from the Digital Editors Network meeting on Thursday 6 November 2014

At the next Digital Editors Network meetup on November 6th we’re asking innovators not only to show us things that will inspire, but also to share how they overcame the obstacles to make it happen - and how they boldly keep going on. We're pleased to announce our host is one such fearless innovator: Trinity Mirror Regionals’ digital innovation editor Alison Gow . Alison Gow of Trinity Mirror “Back in 2008 we hosted a DEN in our Liverpool Echo offices; since then the network has grown considerably and so it's great to be able to offer a new invitation, this time to our Canary Wharf headquarters,” said Alison, who at the start of the year swapped the editor's chair at the Daily Post Wales, where Trinity Mirror piloted their Newsroom 3.0 concept, for the job of helping to deliver editorial innovation across all the titles in the UK’s largest publishers of regional newspapers.  That’s no small challenge.  “We've been accelerating the pace of change in Trinity ...