Tag Archives: peter vandermeersch

DNA09: Vandermeersch on the seven bees

In a keynote speech at the DNA conference, Peter Vandermeersch, editor of De Standaard, a Belgian newspaper, outlined his ideas about where his – and other papers – are going wrong and right.

The Seven Bees: “We have four bees: brains, brands, big organisations, broad public … but we need to be bright, bold and brave.”

Mobile: “We firmly believe in our third platform, mobile. Mobile is taking off very quickly and we believe in it.”

Advertising split: online ads – 9 per cent / print ads – 91 per cent.

Optimism: “We’re still alive and kicking… but struggling.”

“We reach more people than we ever did.”

“We’re convinced that unique content we can produce is going to save us in next couple of years ahead.”

Editorial and sales relationship:

“Integration of newsrooms, sales and marketing forces is a must.”

His paper musn’t…

“The fear of cannibalisation shouldn’t be within our four walls.”

What it does wrong:

Not good enough at hiring new people and training new people

Not unique enough in the kind of content we produce … re-doing what’s been done yesterday.

Not creative enough.

Not smart enough in using leverage of social networks.

Not quick enough.

“We are not bold enough in reinventing ourselves.”

DNA09: ‘The Established Media React’

A look at how mainstream media (MSM) is seizing upon, or resisting technological changes.

A panel chaired by Wired Magazine’s Ben Hammersley. He is joined by:

  • Guido Baumhauer, director of marketing, sales and distribution at Deutshe Welle.

Hammersley points out this been happening for a long time. So why are we still having the same conversations about the mainstream media reacting? There wasn’t really an answer to that one but there were some other big questions raised:

Are ‘publishers’ and broadcasters ending up in the same space
?
It’s not really a relevant distinction, the BBC’s Loughrey tells Journalism.co.uk after the discussion.

“I do not see myself as part of the established media,” Hans Laroes is keen to point out at the beginning.

The broadcast enterprise is still quite a separate one from the web at Sky, says Bucks – although web users already have some influence on television content, and maybe, the future could see online increasingly dictating television content.

What on earth is ‘database journalism’?
Neil McIntosh said that while ‘it has to be said it’s being used for extremely boring journalism,’ it’s about pulling together raw material in exciting ways, such as in crime mapping. There is lots of potential for the Wall Street Journal, he added. https://klgirls.net

How do we manage editorial, strategy and sales relationships?

Following on from his keynote speech, Vandermeersch stresses that editorial, sales and strategy will have to work closer together.

However, how far that goes is up for debate he says: for example, do you drop stories which are less good commercially?

Meanwhile, at Deutsche Welle, marketing team, editorial and media sales representatives are meeting in small ‘competence teams’  in order to address monetising and editorial issues in different countries (they have 4,500 media partners worldwide), explains Baumhauer.