Summary

On 28 March 2006 Ifra started the new multi-faceted research project “Where NEWS?”, the media futures research initiative, which will run for at least three years. “There is a void of understanding about how people will use media and where they will get their news 10 to 15 years from now, where and how people will be receiving it, where it will come from, where the companies that provide it and that provide the technologies behind it will be,” said Ifra CEO Reiner Mittelbach. “In order to fill this gap authentic and credible research into trends and scenarios together with the involvement of many participants is required. Ifra is one of only a few such organisations in the world with the membership and resources to undertake such a task.” The kick-off meeting at the end of March 2006 gathered industry experts from all over the world representing publishers as well as suppliers to the industry. During this first meeting the working group agreed on the scope of the project, the research methods and the first steps to be taken to accomplish the project. Since the future of media usage is strongly dependent on the development of society, technology and markets, the project will analyse those conditional and environmental questions before researching the changing media consumption behaviour. The identification of long-term social, technical and market trends will be based on solid research of facts and developments in the saturated newspaper markets of Europe and America. Scenario planning will complete the methodology of Ifra’s “Where NEWS?” project. With a better understanding of the range of possible futures, publishers can make better decisions on how to position themselves, and maybe even how to influence the more likely futures they will face. The results of the project will provide the basis for workshops around the world to train newspaper managers to understand the options they face and how to adapt to them in terms of organisation, technology and market development in their specific regions. Ifra has decided to start publishing first research reports that provide an insight in the process of publishers’ orientation development in a changing world of multiple media. The first reports will present new knowledge in following areas: