the Director of EBTV.
Notwithstanding his commercial
mandate, Stokholm sees one of
EBTV’s key roles as assisting print
journalists to make the jump from
articles to programmes. “Print has
its own life” but “TV is a long haul
that requires a shift of mindset
from the 24 hour cycle to a 365 day
operation, where planning is key”.
One journalist who made this
shift is Anders Berner, the producer
and host of a new motoring format
Topfart
. “It’s a big transition but not
as big as I thought”, said Berner
who sees the willingness to learn as
critical – “it’s actually a nice feeling
when you can evolve yourself and
your skills”. Jon Pagh, the journalist
and host of weekly sports format
Football with Attitude
agrees but says
enthusiasm is tempered by reality.
“If you produce for the paper you
talk to two or three sources on the
phone and write your story. To
produce a video segment you need
appointments, you have to inform
them before you go, organise the
camera, shoot, edit, write the
article, basically you are doing
everything yourself and that’s the
big difference.”
SHIFT INMINDSET
It’s a big shift that Stokholm
believes requires “someone with a
broadcast DNA that understands
the planning, how to work, when to
shift to 6th gear”.
According to Pagh, making the
shift in an under‐resourced unit can
compromise “the quality of the
story, the time you spend
researching and the people you
interview”. The challenge for Pagh
is “to find that balance where you
can still make good stories”. Grillo
believes that extra staff and
relevant training will help but
what’s needed is a change of
culture. “It’s about making TV first
and not thinking we need to make
the article first and then stick the
pictures around it.” This shift in
mindset from article to programme
becomes a consideration when a TV
programme, which may have taken
a week to produce, is relegated
lower down the online site’s front‐
page due to its perceived lack of
news value. Imagine, said Grillo, if
your TV programme was “pulled
five minutes before the news cast
and you were told you can run it
between 9 and 10 pm…try saying
that to a broadcaster. That’s the
hardest thing about making web
TV on an internet news page”.
This clash in priorities plays out
at the various editorial meetings
where assigning editors choose and
shift stories up and down the front
page depending on how they are
trending. Because this page can be
“
”
I was hired
to take the
EB brand
to a new
level in TV
andpossibly
to a full
blown
station by
2015
a metre and a half long stories can
invariably get lost. Berner
acknowledges that “EB is an old
publishing house with news
traditions”. However, from a
marketing perspective he feels “a
15 minute programme is a big
investment” and needs more time
to settle: “if we are only on the front
page for 2 hours we’ll only get 5%
of our readers”. Stokholm says
indications are that people “are
coming to
Ekstra Bladet
no matter
what” and that suggests editors
could “think of slowing (the front
page) to let the people stay longer
rather than read more articles”.
While analysts still predict an
uncertain future for the news
business, Madsen is much more
upbeat as he plots the move from
the ageing notion of publication to
platforms and workflows: “It’s so
easy to create a news channel now,
you just do it, you need content and
programmes.” It’s a two‐year‐
vision that will see the eb.dk portal
sitting alongside eb24 news and
other channels. “We are combining
great journalism with our tradition
at EB and for me it’s a great
pleasure to be head of this
organisation where we can combine
doing it on different media, with
mobile or mojo at the centre of it
all. Yes, there’s a plan that will give
us a great future.”
■
THE CHANNEL
|
ISSUE 1 2014
|
65
www.burummedia.com.au
Blog: citizenmojo.wordpress.com
