Page 22 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

WHAT IS CONVERGENCE AND HOW WILL IT AFFECT MY LIFE?

Table 1.1 “Easy” versus “Difficult” Convergence

“Easy” Convergence “Difficult” Convergence

Central to organization’s strategy Not central; secondary or worse
Committed and focused leadership Other leadership priorities
Culture of innovation and risk taking “Always done it this way”
Coordinating structure No coordinating structure
Same ownership Different ownership
Same values Different values
Aligned systems and processes Systems not aligned
Cable television partnerships Partnerships with over-the-air broadcaster
Past successes together Previous problems or no relationship
Cultures flexible or similar Cultures not flexible or similar
Collocated Located some distance apart
Lack of unions Presence of strong unions

How Widespread Is Convergence?

News organizations around the world have been embracing conver-
12 gence at different speeds, often faster than in the United States.
In 2001 Dr. Juan Antonio Giner, founder of the Innovation Interna-
tional media consulting group, wrote that 7 out of 10 newspaper exec-
utives said their reporters had formal duties in at least another medium
apart from the newspaper (2001b, p. 28). Newspapers were becom-
ing “24-hour information engines” just as broadcast organizations like
CNN had become 24-hour news providers. “Media diversification is
the past. Digital convergence is the present. Multimedia integration
is the future,” Giner wrote in the online edition of Ideas, the jour-
nal of the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA).
Earl Wilkinson, INMA’s executive director, noted after attending a
newspaper conference in Singapore that “The major newspaper compa-
nies worldwide have accepted the multimedia, brand-oriented future
for newspapers.” The next year Martha Stone, at the time a senior
consultant for Innovation International, wrote that in nearly every
country on each continent, mono-media companies were “transform-
ing into multi-media companies, integrating editorial side operations
from print, Web and broadcast divisions.” The benefits of conver-
gence were “overwhelming,” she said. Stone noted that 73 percent
of the members of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN)
had reported some form of convergence emerging at their companies
(2002, p. 1).