News Journalism Online: A Future Guide To Key Trends And Predictions

What are the key trends influencing the future of news media and online journalism? Are the news being commoditized and used as a free-marketing vehicle to sell higher-value premium content, or are we going to see more and more news sources finding ways to charge for their previously free information services?

Photo credit: Paulino Figueirido

Mobile platforms, social sharing, custom interests, personalization, immediacy, are just a few of the new variables that are shaping how the news are being collected, written, edited and served on the web.

News curators and dedicated specialty news channels may soon provide relief for many passionate readers interested in staying up-to-date in a certain field without needing to spend hours to browse through multiple sites, blogs, Twitter channels and more.

Data visualization tools, news crowdsourcing and real-time news filtering by live location are also new factors at play which are enabling new opportunities for a whole new breed of news reporting formats.

In this MasterNewMedia digest, I have brought together from the many available out there, a selected set of articles detailing which are these new variables and how they can be leveraged by online news publishers. Specifically:

1. Ten Predictions for the News Media in 2011
2. What Journalists Predict for Journalism in 2011
3. 2011 Is The Year News Orgs Move Past the Borders of Their Own Content
4. Smartphone Growth, Murdoch's "The Daily", and Journalism for the Poor: Predictions for Mobile News in 2011

If you are interested in understanding where journalism and online news are headed, I strongly suggest reading the following set of predictions:

News Journalism Online: A Future Guide to Key Trends and Predictions

1) Ten Predictions for the News Media in 2011

In 2011, the focus on online news will continue to grow with the launch of mobile- and iPad-only news products, but the greater focus for news media in 2011 will be on re-imagining its approach to the open social web. Here an insightful analysis on the future key trends and predictions for news journalism online.

URL: http://mashable.com/2010/12/20/news-media-predictions/

 

2) What Journalists Predict for Journalism in 2011

At the end of 2010, the Nieman Journalism Lab asked some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year would bring. In this piece you will find the predictions from Paul Bass, John Paton, Philip Balboni, Martin Moore, Mark Luckie, Adrian Monck, Ken Doctor, Keith Hopper, and Vivian Schiller.

URL: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/12/in-car-app-stores-success-for-xinhua-and-more-social-media-predictions-for-journalism-in-2011/

 

3) 2011 Is The Year News Orgs Move Past the Borders of Their Own Content

"2011 will be the year that news organizations finally start talking about integrated products designed to serve the complete information needs of consumers, but it won't be the year that they ship them." This is what AP interactive technology editor for Jonathan Stray foresees for next year.

URL: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/12/jonathan-stray-in-2011-news-orgs-will-finally-start-to-move-past-the-borders-of-their-own-content/

 

4) Smartphone Growth, Murdoch's "The Daily", and Journalism for the Poor: Predictions for Mobile News in 2011

One of the common threads inside journalists' predictions for 2011 was of course the mobile landscape - the impact smartphones, tablets and apps will have on how news is reported, produced, distributed. To see what influential journalists foresee for mobile news next year, check out this interesting set of predictions from the Niemen Lab.

URL: http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/12/smartphone-growth-murdochs-daily-and-journalism-for-the-poor-predictions-for-mobile-news-in-2011/

 

5) Future of News: The Newsmaster Role as Seen by Gerd Leonhard, George Siemens and Nancy White

How important is going to be the role of the "newsmaster" in the future? Is this network middle layer of human filterers and scanners actually emerging? What about serious business talk: Could the newsmastering practice ever become a professionally sustainable role? And what is its value?

URL: http://www.masternewmedia.org/future-of-news-the-newsmaster-role/

 

6) Online Journalism: New Skills for Passionate Online Journalists - Alan Murray

In this video interview, Alan Murray, online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, paints the profile and the key skills needed by online journalist wanting to become indispensable asset to his newsroom.

URL: http://www.masternewmedia.org/online-journalism-new-skills-for-passionate-online-journalists-alan-murray/

 

7) Real-Time News Curation - The Complete Guide Part 7: Business Applications and Trends

Can real-time news and content curation provide enough value and unique content to potential readers to make it possible for curators to charge for access or for complementary services?
By scouting and researching what has been written on this topic and by tapping on my own experience and intuition, I have prepared this "curated" guide to the business side of news and content curation. In it you can find, often in the original words of who had it, the best insight and ideas on this topic, and what are the key drivers, opportunities and trends to pay active attention to.

URL: http://www.masternewmedia.org/real-time-news-curation-the-complete-guide-part-7-business-applications-and-trends/

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on February 22th, 2011 as "News Journalism Online: A Future Guide To Key Trends And Predictions".

Photo credits:
Ten Predictions for the News Media in 2011 - Dima Lomachevsky
What Journalists Predict for Journalism in 2011 - IreneK
2011 Is The Year News Orgs Move Past the Borders of Their Own Content - Ndul
Smartphone Growth, Murdoch's "The Daily", and Journalism for the Poor: Predictions for Mobile News in 2011 - Nimbuzz