Providing value-added services to clients are key aspects of
enhancing the relevance of news agencies in an ever-growing digital era, said
The Society of Editors, United Kingdom (UK), member John Spencer.
Spencer, who is Trustee of the CPU Media Trust (previously
known as the Commonwealth Press Union) said one of the value-added services was
page-ready service.
"It s actually taking the material that we've (news
agencies) already written, the photograph we've already taken and putting them
on the pages on behalf of the client and so that the clients themselves don't
have to do it.
"It allows the clients to concentrate their time and
effort and their reporters and resources on the things that they do best, which
is about their area, expertise and locality, rather than getting involved in a
time consuming work that somebody else might be an expert in," the former
managing editor of UK's Press Association (PA) told Bernama in an interview at
Wisma Bernama today.
Spencer is one of the key speakers at the inaugural
Commonwealth
Association for Public
Administration and Management (CAPAM) Media Forum, scheduled for tomorrow.
The forum is to be held in conjunction with the three-day CAPAM
Biennial Conference 2014 which started yesterday at the Putrajaya International
Convention Centre.
Spencer said news agencies needed to adapt to the technology
and services, but without compromising their core values of keeping the news
accurate, fair and fast.
"It's not just because nowadays there are lots of news
that's out there, doesn't mean we
always have to simply take their word for it, we still have to check stories,
we still have to make sure they are accurate, fair and quick as well.
"A lot of organisations just produce same old material and
repeat rumour and material that doesn't have any veracity...they don't survive
and they don't deserve it either. But we shouldn't compromise our values for
that," he said.
When asked on editorial outsourcing, Spencer said it has helped
news agency like PA to provide value for money services for customers and help
keep prices at sensible levels.
"PA provides information on TV listings for almost every
magazine and newspaper in the UK, and that's a huge amount of material and
produce.
"...we also found that in outsourcing some of that work
to (a company in) India, it meant that we could drive economy of scale, we
could recruit well
educated, hardworking people
in India," he said.
Spencer said news agencies would be able to offer additional
materials to their customers by training their reporters to take their own
still photos and videos.
"Just like years ago when I was a reporter, you needed a
notebook and a pencil, now you need a video camera and able to take stills as
well, it's just part of the reporters equipment these days I think.
"It also means that you have additional materials to offer
to your
customers, it continues to
make you relevant, and if you got some videos to offer, it will be used in the
website and newspaper," he said.
He also commended Bernama as "a really busy accurate news
agency".
"I understand your world, it's a 24/7 fast moving
business, always
challenging especially in
the world of digital media," he said.
-- BERNAMA
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