All Sections

View and post jobs in journalism
  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Comment/Analysis
  • Editor's Pick
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Broadcast Journalism
    • Digital Journalism
    • Magazines
    • Media Law
    • National Newspapers
    • People
      • Appointments
      • Obituaries
    • Regional Newspapers
  • Press Gazette Podcast
  • British Journalism Awards
  • Press Gazette Email Newsletter

In the news

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • RSS
Close
[mashshare]
Skip to content
  • About us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • RSS
All sections

Search

Search pressgazette.co.uk

Close

Press Gazette

Subscribe to our email newsletter Journalism email newsletter
  • News
  • Comment
  • Data
  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Marketing
  • Awards
  • Jobs

Menu

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • National Newspapers
  • Regional Newspapers
  • Digital Journalism
  • Broadcast Journalism
  • Media Law
  • Magazines
  • Wires and Agencies
  • Obituaries
  • News
  • Comment/Analysis
  • Jobs
  • British Journalism Awards

In the news

  • Platforms
  • Publishers
  • Interviews
  • Marketing
Close
Prison monitoring board chairman suspended after speaking out to local newspaper about 'bullying'
Savile scoop journalist Meirion Jones joins Bureau of Investigative Journalism as it builds editorial team to 15
June 8, 2016
  • Digital Journalism
  •    
  • News
  •    
  • Regional Newspapers
  •    
  • Social media
  •    
  • Training
  •    

Johnston Press digital chief explains 'platform agnostic' plan for regional press group to boost digital

By Freddy Mayhew Twitter

Share this

  • Tweet
  • Share 0
  • Reddit
Comments
0

Johnston Press has launched an initiative aimed at setting a group-wide standard for digital content and insists it won’t be teaching reporters clickbait techniques.

The We Are Digital training scheme has been created by director of digital content Frank O’Donnell together with a team of thirty editorial staff who have helped establish best practice for online and social media stories now being rolled out across JP’s  200 titles.

It follows website upgrades to the group’s 15 core publications, making up about 50 per cent of its readership, that have made them mobile responsive. Last year the group carried out a structural reorganisation of its newsrooms under the Newsroom of the Future scheme that aimed to separate community content from harder breaking news.

Jeff Moriarty, chief digital and product officer, told Press Gazette the group’s ultimate goal was to achieve what he described as “platform agnostic publishing”.

“The We Are Digital approach is that we are wherever someone wants our content,” he said. “That could be print, that could be social [media], that could be Snapchat, that could be any number of platforms and it’s just about getting better at that multi-platform, platform agnostic publishing.”

He said the best online and social media content “has some element of emotion built in”, adding: “For me I think that’s something that really inspires someone and causes them to feel something, whether it’s great interest, or disgust, or excitement.

“Those are the types of stories that do well and you have to do that without crossing a line into clickbait or similar practices. You have to make sure it still follows the values of the newspaper.”

Video is to be one focus for the training with mobile phones are still to be the standard tool for digital video in JP newsrooms.

“The question is how do you do that well? When do you do it? When does that make sense?,” he said. “I honestly don’t know if anyone has figured it out yet.

“We do have a lot of video capabilities in the group. We have reporters who have been trained to think about how to think about creating video every day.

“I think moving forward and with so much of video consumption moving to social – and Facebook in particular – so how is that different?

“How do you create a video for someone who likely to not have the sound turned on? What does that look like? How does that work? How do you do that effectively? How do you make up these videos that then get someone to click into the story?”

Formerly of the New York Times and Boston Globe, Moriarty said that while he doesn’t believe print’s decline is terminal – “it’s still a very, very popular format and as long as it makes sense economically we will continue to do it” – ways to increase digital revenue were always being looked at.

“We never stop thinking about things like that,” he said. “It’s always on our minds. We are looking at all options right now to figure out how to better monetise the audience that we have.

“I launched the Boston Globe’s paywall when I was in the States before coming here so I have a lot of history with paywalls both at the New York Times and the Globe but the environment I don’t think has really been right for it.”

“I think it could work but I do think it is going to take a shift in the mindset of the reader and the industry for that to happen. But you start to see some of that – I think people are more willing to pay for content here than ever before.”

Related Stories

  • Regional non-daily ABC figures for last six months of 2018 in full
  • The rise of video agency Newsflare - 'when we started, papers had massive picture desks but no-one doing video'
  • News on the Move: How BBC is going mobile-first...Metro's online success story...Why Times is reader-first, not digital-first
  • Mag ABCs: Breakdown of circulation for all 500 titles

Explore these topics

  • Johnston Press
Browse, search and add journalism jobs
Comments
No comments to display

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More content

Post a job on Press Gazette

Most Popular

  1. The new Trump bump: How Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy and far-right outlets are taking on Fox News
  2. The Times Lucy Fisher On the Record: Times defence correspondent Lucy Fisher - 'Working in news is the best job in the world'
  3. PA wins High Court injunction against union issuing 'fake' press passes to 'citizen journalists'
  4. Cash for conspiracies: How David Icke, 'alternative' media and tech giants make money from coronavirus conspiracies
  5. GB News launch: Why advertisers are positive about new anchor-led news channel for UK

Latest Jobs

  • Editor in Chief, Scottish Sun
  • Features Producer, Economist Radio
Savile scoop journalist Meirion Jones joins Bureau of Investigative Journalism as it builds editorial team to 15

© copyright 2021 Press Gazette Ltd. Made in Taiwan.