Summary

When journalists walk into the IfraNewsplex at the University of South Carolina for the first time, it feels familiar to them. It feels like a newsroom. CNN and BBC on the video monitors. Text and imaging editing software on the computers. Cameras and recorders ready to be taken out on assignment. People in a news meeting debating the merits of a story. At the same time, they realize this isn’t like any newsroom they’ve ever been in before. See-thru/talk-thru walls that aren’t walls. Lots of sunlight. Stand-up workstations near the entrance. Lots of sunlight. A big video news display to one side. Completely wireless networking and communications. Lots of sunlight. A knot of people working together on a newspaper page, a desktop video production, a microsite web shell and a mobile web log all at the same time. Did I mention how light and airy it is? Especially compared to the typical editorial dungeon. Some first-time visitors literally spin around trying to take it all in. This mixture of familiarity and head-spinning wonder is precisely what Ifra was aiming for when it set out to develop a prototype newsroom for convergent newshandling. It is the Newsplex’ home-field advantage. It is mind-opening. Whether the visiting journalists consciously realize it or not, they invariably wind up thinking to themselves, “Well, if a newsroom can be so different and still be a newsroom, perhaps we can do news a little differently here, too.” And with that first step, the journey begins. In the first 18 months after the Newsplex opened its doors in November 2002, more than 1,500 professional members of the news industry trekked to Columbia, S.C., USA, to visit the future. Out of that number more than 170 stayed up to a week to study the philosophy, tools and techniques on which that future is built. Regardless of whether they are participating in a full five-day Newsplex Roles Training for a Converging Newsroom or just a day-and-a-half executive briefing on convergence trends for corporate communicators, one particular point is impressed on everyone who comes to the Newsplex to learn: It’s really not about the impressive architecture or the even more impressive technology with which the Newsplex is endowed. You know this thing they are interested in that goes by the name convergence but that is so hard to define? It’s really much more about the journalism. It’s much more about the multiple-media workflow, the collaborative organization and the cross-format editorial management implemented in the newsroom. And perhaps most significantly it’s about the mindset of an editorial staff realizing they now work in the news and information business, not anymore in the newspaper or television business. With that established, we then make a point to dissuade our visitors of any idea that the Newsplex is simply going to present them with a one-size-fits-all solution for the complicated transition from monomedia to multiplemedia news business. The Newsplex is descriptive, not prescriptive. Its purpose is to demonstrate the possibilities for how the news industry can advance and improve in this information economy, how it can serve and prosper in the converging marketplace of print, video, online and mobile media. It is the job of the trainees, after graduating from a Newsplex course, to help their newsrooms select and adapt the Newsplex’ lessons to their particular situations. We confer graduates of our training programs with the title Newsplex Legates. The distinction has a dual meaning. A legate is an envoy, a representative. We have conveyed some of the Newsplex concepts and expertise to our legates and now expect them to represent these concepts to others in the industry who have not had the opportunity to interact with IfraNewsplex firsthand. It is only in this way that Ifra’s Newsplex initiative can reach its fullest potential in support of the future of news, newsrooms and newshandling organizations. A Newsplex Legate is also someone who is now personally invested in the legacy of the IfraNewsplex. Our success is their success. So we hope and expect that they will continue to interact with us, give us feedback, suggest ways to improve our effectiveness, alert us to new ideas and trends that they discover in their work and that we might incorporate into our ever-evolving programs and services. This special report is a compilation of Newsplex lessons and experiences during its development and start-up. It is intended to serve as a guide and an introduction to convergence theory and practice. As with our Legates, Ifra welcomes your feedback and contributions as our experience in this field continues to grow.