With powerful technological tools at our disposal—and significant market trends at play—the process of breaking news has changed forever. How can news professionals adapt to the changes while taking full advantage of the unprecedented possibilities that technology is allowing? Let’s take a look.

Catalysts of Change

To better understand the market forces at work, let’s first consider three key catalysts that are driving change across the entire media industry, and affecting news organizations in particular: the accelerated digitization of media assets, the increased “consumerization” of content and a relentless pressure for operational efficiency. Each makes a huge impact on the way content is produced and distributed, and presents unique challenges and opportunities for news professionals. 

• The accelerated digitization of media assets
  In the news industry, digital formats are quickly becoming the norm. Even if footage isn’t captured digitally, it’s almost always converted to a digital format during the production process. This puts news organizations under pressure to connect and automate their entire creation-to-consumption workflow. By embracing an all-digital workflow, organizations develop new revenue streams, realize efficiencies in news production, and make the most of valuable media assets.
• The consumerization of content creation and distribution
  In the last few years user-generated content has increased exponentially. When the Arab Spring of 2011 erupted, the entire world watched via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. News is happening everywhere, and stories break much faster than before. Additionally, sophisticated viewers are demanding instant access to high-quality, target content—anywhere, anytime, and on a variety of devices and platforms.
• Relentless pressure for operational efficiency
  News organizations around the world are faced with the challenge of being competitive and profitable in a rapidly changing industry. At the same time, it’s becoming increasingly complicated—from a technical and monetization standpoint—to create, protect and distribute high-quality, branded news assets.|

These macro trends impact all news professionals—from chief engineers and news directors to general managers and station directors. But while the challenges are many, the opportunities are significant. Technology makes it possible for broadcasters to get more from their resources and beat the competition on any platform. Newsrooms can produce more—and higher quality—stories than they could previously.

How can organizations take advantage of these opportunities while mitigating challenges in this fast-paced industry

The New Normal

They say that old habits die hard, but if news organizations are going to succeed in today’s world, they need to adapt their methods for creating, distributing and monetizing news assets.

Putting together a segment used to involve an editor and producer sitting down and going through a stack of tapes to create a story that developed over the past week. However, that model simply isn’t sustainable any more. The news is moving much too fast. News professionals have more responsibilities and require greater efficiency to keep up, and organizations aren’t limited to preprogrammed time slots anymore—the news cycle is 24/7.

So what’s the new normal for breaking news?

It’s a reporter in the field writing stories, capturing footage and interviews, editing the story together and submitting for approvals—all from their remote location. It’s everyone in the organization staying completely connected and working with the same media assets. It’s stories that are continuously updated for a variety of platforms and distribution channels.

In short, it’s a whole new world for news production.

The Answer is in the Cloud

It’s not difficult to imagine that in the future, news production will be centered on the integration of a number of tasks, people and processes, all operating simultaneously in different times and locations, with cloud-enabled technology acting as the glue that binds them together.

By implementing a cloud-based newsroom solution organizations enjoy the following benefits:

• Secure asset to digital assets— anywhere, anytime
• A streamlined user experience
• Enhanced productivity through automation of non-creative tasks
• Real-time encoding, transcoding and streaming
• Easy repurposing of content
• Delivery of final assets via a variety of platforms and devices

Cloud-enabled technology lets news organizations manage assets intelligently, leverage virtually unlimited interaction between every part of the operation and accelerate the creative process. It also empowers broadcasters to get journalists into the field where their stories are actually happening, and speeds the process of uploading content from remote locations by reducing the number of steps involved.

To better understand how cloud-based solutions can revolutionize the news production process, it helps to consider an example.

Why Implement a Cloud-Based Solution Now

Competing effectively in today’s news market demands a more agile and efficient approach to news production. Cloud-based solutions allow news organizations to meet today’s challenges while laying the groundwork for the future. In a world where the digitization of media is accelerating, cloud-based solutions allow organizations to connect their entire end-to-end workflow, enabling users around the world to access, edit and finish media. By accelerating content creation and automating distribution, producers can provide the high-quality, breaking news that viewers demand, across a variety of viewing platforms. This leads to increased operational efficiency and drives revenue growth.

The universal connectivity of a cloud-based solution enables news organizations to bring a full spectrum of resources together as contributors produce and collaborate on high-value, emotionally resonant stories targeted at new audiences for whom news is not just a story, but an experience.