The Creative Newsroom & The Challenge Of Real Time

“Creative newsroom”, ”digital storytelling“, ”real time content management“…

The world of communication and marketing has for several months now been giving birth to an amazing series of buzz words and concepts that are being called the solution to many challenges that brands are now facing in the field of digital.

In an economy where attracting the attention of the public is highly challenging, brands are struggling to find their place and understand how to engage with, and sustain, their fans/ followers/ public. Behind these attempts lurks the idea of rethinking traditional ways of content production and dissemination of information by retracing how news media operate. Some believe that brands should go to create their own “newsroom” and increase their tempo by producing articles, videos, visuals “in real time”, particularly suitable for use by their followers online.

The “Creative Newsroom”: A Sweet Dream?

Close your eyes and imagine what it might look like. The famous “newsroom”, with no silos- bringing together marketing, retail and corporate or customer service.

Well oriented and hyper-reactive, it would bring together experts who would meet the challenges of the era of “content-is-king”. It would include a creative team, a community manager, an analytics expert, a specialist in e-reputation, a PR professional to create the narrative, a team of developers that can create “digital objects” and an expert on “paid media” who is able to optimize the visibility of each action…

All of them committed to engaging with the brand’s audiences, to tailoring messages according to the news, and to providing real-time responses. All in the service of “brand equity”, the ultimate aim being to create value and drive business.

Very appealing? Definitely. Realistic? Not really, not in the near future.

The Essential Questions to Ask

The complexity of today’s digital age means the ability to link hyper-experts who are able to network and share their expertise was never more crucial. This famous “newsroom” model poses some crucial questions:

• Who is the editorial manager — is it the director of communications or marketing?
• Who runs the “newsroom”, who has the right skills?
• Should we merge departments (customer service, PR, project teams …) or select profiles that are more “digital” to compose this “newsroom”?
• Should there be an independent ad hoc structure, or would it be a “hub” in the service of others?
• How do we create a comprehensive structure that is validated by the central team and ensure consistency across subsidiaries located in different countries?
• Who ends up being responsible for what on both the advertiser and agency sides, and what ultimately is what is done in-house, and what it outsourced (costs and risks but also some important skills)?

In short, behind the imperative to create commitment and enroll in an ever-expanding ecosystem, brands have to solve the larger problem of organization and management.

What Editor for Your Brand?

First, the responsibility of such a structure must be in the hands of a person closely linked to the business strategy. Gone are the days where you could produce deliverables (whether marketing campaigns, annual reports or Facebook page) that are not connected to the corporate strategy.

With resources scarce, the focus must be on creating relevance and driving agility. To establish this, you need a leader that embodies, organizes and ensures the consistency of the structure. The person must be connected to the leadership (in all senses of the word) of the company. So do not launch into an integrated approach without strong support and the specific support of top management. Communication is not merely communication — it is a part of business.

At an organizational level, it is clear that these “newsrooms” must be deployed on the advertiser’s side ultimately. Outsourcing can help get things going but is only a temporary solution. You need to consider the associated issues such as the need to grow the competence and expertise of the teams, clarify decision-making as well develop increasingly creative ideation.

So we see that behind the famous “buzz words” lie real challenges that call into question many gut reactions or established principles. However, this phase opens up a field of possibilities. The question now is if brand-owners are ready to meet this challenge.