a descriptive study about the efforts of Kompas Newsroom to face the challenges emerging the technology. Kompas is a large media industry in Indonesia, which starts from its magazine, daily newspapers, to online and television broadcasting. Moreover, Media Convergence is being believed as a new technique and business to survive in media industry where media is not just compete with others mass media but also came from the new media. Kompas was not the first media which implement the Convergence model, there were also some such as Tempo or Bisnis Indonesia. However, this research is aimed to figure out the convergence model in Kompas and the impact to internal, especially the newsroom, because they need to change their management. Moreover, to be a convergence is a process and take a long time. Every media industry has their own convergence model, which not always suitable with others.
TOWARD THE MEDIA CONVERGENCE (Descriptive study: Efforts of Kompas Newsroom in The Challenges of Emerging Technology) THESIS Presented by : Name : Cindy Silviana Sukma Student ID : 02404022009 Concentration : Journalism and Media Studies In Partial Fulfillment of of the Requirement for The Magister of Communication Art Degree MASTER OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES The Postgraduate Programme of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Komunikasi The London School of Public Relations – Jakarta JAKARTA OCTOBER, 2011
Transcript
TOWARD THE MEDIA CONVERGENCE (Descriptive study: Efforts of Kompas Newsroom in
The Challenges of Emerging Technology)
THESIS
Presented by :
Name : Cindy Silviana Sukma Student ID : 02404022009 Concentration : Journalism and Media Studies
In Partial Fulfillment of of the Requirement for The Magister of Communication Art Degree
MASTER OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES
The Postgraduate Programme of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Komunikasi
The London School of Public Relations – Jakarta
JAKARTA OCTOBER, 2011
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks to God who always accompany the journey of my life, especially when
he guided and blessed me in this thesis work, from beginning to end this thesis
completed.
This thesis has been prepared by one of the main goals is to complete the
final task in an attempt to obtain a Master's degree in Communication Sciences
STIKOM LSPR-Jakarta. Furthermore this thesis also aims to understand and
analyze the level of convergence implementation on Indonesian media, especially
Kompas, as the news company. The Research is conducted on the Kompas
newsroom and print journalists, the work flow and newsroom structure when Kompas
is going toward the convergence.
The author realizes that this thesis can be solved not solely due to the efforts
of the writer himself, but also thanks to the help, advice and guidance from various
parties who contributed either directly or indirectly involved in the writing of this
thesis.
Therefore, on this occasion the author would like to express the gratitude to:
1. Ms Prita Kemal Gani, MBA, MCIPR, APR (UK) as Director of LSPR-Jakarta
STIKOM. Thanks for the encouragement and motivation has been given so
far.
2. Ms. Giselle S Buot, as the dean of Post graduate Programmes. Thanks for the
help and guidance that has been given.
3. Mr Tunggul Pannindriya as the supervisor of this thesis writing. Thank you for
your guidance, encouragement, assistance and patience during the process
of developing this thesis.
4. Mr. Taufik H. Mihardja as a Deputy of Chief Editor Kompas, Content Director
General Manager of Kompas.com, Mr. Edi Taslim as the Business General
Manager of Kompas.com and Kompas, Mr. Budiman Tanuredjo as the
Managing Editor of Kompas, editors, and other journalists in print and
Kompas.com, who have spent their time in providing the information about
Kompas strategy and newsroom, which are very useful for the primary data in
the research.
5. Families who may not know much about the process of making this thesis, but
always give moral support and material to the author.
6. To the journalism and media class mates, which not only gives moral support
but also provide assistance in the form of information that contribute to the
completion of this thesis.
7. The whole family, colleagues, and others that cannot be enumerated that
have helped and supported the authors during their lectures and writing this
thesis.
Presumably the results of this study can provide the mutual understanding for
scholars and media practitioners in implementing the convergence inside the
newsroom of Kompas.
Jakarta, August 12th 2011
Cindy Silviana Sukma
ABSTRACT
GRADUATE SCHOOLS OF COMMUNICATION THE LONDON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC RELATIONS- JAKARTA
MASTER OF ARTS IN COMMUNICATION STUDIES POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMME
Name : Cindy Silviana Sukma NIM : 02404022009 Thesis Title : Toward The Media Convergence
(DescriptiveStudy: Efforts of Kompas Newsroom in The Challenges of Emerging Technology).
This study is concerning on the convergence implementation in the Kompas newsroom, as the dealing of the future of newspapers, technology changes, consumers behaviors in reading news and information, and the presence of new audiences who aware with the technology savvy. Whether some international media organizations have done the convergence, a media and newsroom convergence, has not been implemented yet among the media industries in Indonesia.
The researcher choose descriptive-qualitative method to conduct the research. The research use triangulation method which consist of document review, in depth-interview, observation as the information source. Document review based on some literature reviews, such as communication journals, dissertation, online presentation which explained the convergence method in some newsrooms organizations. To understand the structure and work flow in Kompas newsroom, in-depth interview was set up for primary data. The interview was addressed to Kompas management, some print journalists, and editors in Kompas.com. Moreover, the observation was also conducted to analyze the condition deeper.
The objective of the study is aimed to analyze the implementation of convergence model in the media organization, focused on Kompas newsroom. Moreover, media convergence has not been implemented yet in any media in Indonesia. Therefore, Kompas might be the pioneer to change the media organization by doing convergence.
To analyze the structure and changes of Kompas newsroom and work flow, the conceptual framework provides three theories, which adjust to the research. They are Difussion of Innovations Theory, Change Management Theory, and Adaptative Structuration Theory. Each theory describes step by step Kompas’s position in reaching the newsroom convergence.
From the research analysis, the finding is obtained that Kompas as the news company is on the progress of cross-media platforms, or in the level newsroom 2.0., which collaboration and integration has been occured between the media platforms, to gather and define the news contents for each platforms. However, Kompas has not restructure the newsroom as a full newsroom convergence, which could integrate the high level of convergence.
The print journalists also required to do multi-tasked. Besides writing
for print, they have to contribute for online and make news video, as the compulsory of their assessment in the Key Performance Indicator.
To do the changes and restructure of newsroom and the work flow
process, the management admits that they find some constraints in doing the convergence. However, Kompas continuely make some efforts, so that Kompas would reach the full convergence, as the way to maintain the brand as a news company in diversity of audiences.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
RESEARCH ORIGINALITY STATEMENT
CURRICULUM VITAE
ABSTRACT i
TABLE OF CONTENT iii
TABLE OF PICTURES CONTENT viii
TABLE OF FIGURES CONTENT ix
TABLE OF TABLES CONTENT x
CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. Background of The Study 1
Consumers as The Controller 3
1.2. Problem Statement 14
1.3. Study Objectives 14
1.4. Siginificance of Study 15
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1.5. Scope and Limitation 16
CHAPTER II – THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 17
2.1. Theoretical Framework 17
2.1.1. Diffusion of Innovations 17
2.1.2. Change Management 21
2.1.3. Adaptative Structuration Theory 23
2.2. Conceptual Framework 25
2.3. Operational Framework 28
2.4. The Convergence Continuum Model 30
2.5. Definition of Term 33
2.5.1. Media Convergence 33
2.5.2. Newsroom 37
2.5.3. Components of Newsroom 38
2.5.4. Types of Newsroom 39
2.5.5. Smart Newsroom 42
2.5.6. Knowledge Management 43
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CHAPTER III – RESEARCH DESIGN & METHOD 44
3.1. Research Design and Method 44
3.2. Data Generation Procedure 47
3.2.1. Document Review 47
3.2.2. In-Depth Interview 48
3.2.3. Observation 49
3.3. Data Generation Schedule 51
3.4. Data Analysis Procedure 51
3.4.1. Transcribes 51
3.4.2. Read the Transcribes 52
3.4.3. Categorization 52
CHAPTER IV – RESEARCH ANALYSIS 53
4.1. Company Profile 53
4.1.1. History of Kompas 53
4.1.2. Kompas Goes Digital 55
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4.2. Convergence Implementation Among Indonesian Media 57
4.2.1. Technological Convergence 61
4.2.2. Media Convergence 62
4.3. Introducing “Three M” Toward The Media Convergence 62
4.3.1. Multimedia 63
4.3.2. Multichannel 63
4.3.3. Multi paltform 63
4.4. The Role of Newsroom Convergence 66
4.4.1. Toward The Newsroom Convergence 68
4.4.2. The Components of Newsroom 72
4.4.3. Planning on The Future Convergence 75
4.5. Measuring The Convergence Model 76
4.5.1. Convergence Continuum Model 76
4.5.2. Boundaries Convergence Level 78
4.6. Observing The Journalists’ Attitudes & Mindset in The
Convergence Implementation 83
4.7. The effect of Management Changes on News Coverage 86
4.8. Constructing the Knowledge Management in the Newsroom 89
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4.9. The Agent of Change Among Journalists 90
4.10. Featuring Kompas as A News Brand 92
4.11. Theoretical Analysis 93
CHAPTER V – CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMENDATIONS 98
5.1. Conclusions 98
5.2. Suggestions 100
5.2.1. Academic Suggestions 101
5.2.2. Practical Suggestions 101
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TABLE OF PICTURES CONTENT
Picture 1.1. Media Convergence Process 10
Picture 4.1. Kompas in Multiplatforms 64
Picture 4.2. Newsroom Convergence Model in Zurich 67
Picture 4.3. Kompas performs in the same content 70
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TABLE OF FIGURE CONTENT
Figure 2.1. Change Management Focus on Convergence 22
Figure 2.2. Conceptual Framework 23
Figure 2.3. Convergence Continuum Model 32
Figure 2.4. Pit Gottschalk’s Components of Organizational Allignment 49
Figure 2.5. Pit Gottschalk’s Types of Newsroom 49
Figure 2.6. Newroom 1.0 40
Figure 2.7. Newsroom 2.0 40
Figure 2.8. Newsroom 3.0 41
Figure 4.1. Kompas 3M Logo 63
Figure 4.2. Three Types of Newsroom 69
Figure 4.3. The Work Flow in the Print Newsroom 71
Figure 4.4. The Structure of Newsroom in Kompas 72
Figure 4.5. Convergence Continuum Model 77
Figure 4.6. Kompas Position From The Conceptual Framework 82& 96
x
TABLE OF TABLES CONTENT
Table 2.2. Operational Framework 28
Table 4.1. The Trends of Media Industry 65
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of The Study
Siang malam ku selalu menatap layar terpaku untuk online online Jari dan keyboard beradu, pasang earphone dengar lagu Aku online online on line online.
(Online – Saykoji)
(Every day and night, I always stare at the screen for online online. Fingers and keyboard clashing, pairs of earphones to hear the song. I’m online online online online)
This song which is popular by Saykoji, might describe the overview of
our activities today, especially for youth who live in big cities. A common
scene is seen in the bus, where people use their mobile / smart phones to
listen songs or radio in their iPod / phones, browse the internet, update the
status on facebook / twitter, or read news or information from news
applications. The interests of urban to newspapers are less than decade ago,
since the euphoria of 3G- third generation mobile telecommunications is
available in many mobile phones.
“Newspapers is used to set the news agenda for the rest of the media
agenda” (‘Who Killed the Newspapers?’, The Economists, 2006). However,
the circulation has decreased since the web is raised and the internet users
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are expanded. Many newsprint organizations in west countries have to be
closed and bankruptcy, such as Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune,
Los Angeles Time, The Rocky Mountain News, etc. Moreover, the book
writer of “The Vanishing Newspaper”, Philip Meyer calculates that newsprint
in America will die in the first quarter 0f 2043 (‘Killed the Newspapers’, 2006).
Although the condition of newsprint business in Indonesia is not
certainly calculated, but the growth of internet users are very significant.
According to Communication and Informatica Department (Depkominfo), “45
million people in Indonesia have used internet, which meant Indonesia was
the 5th of the largest countries in number of internet users on 2010.”
(Antara.com & Kompas.com).
Some of news industries have realized the trend of global media and
digital technology development. Part of them have launched and operated
their online version, from print to electronic media; not only text, but pictures,
audio, and video. This movement is a forward step for news industries to
survive in the business in dealing with new media. However, ‘what’s the next
step to be prepared by industries?’ is the main discourse for media
practitioners. Furthermore, the changing of technology affect to individual’s
behavior in consuming information. The overview will be described on the
next page.
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Consumer as The Controller
In the 1920’s news media were believed as the powerful tool to set the
public agenda, primarily when the election of United States president. The
prominent journalist Walter Lippmann argued that “not the advertisement or
the way of public relations practitioners culprits the hindering US
newspapers’ s objective, but the journalists themselves did” (Turow, 2009,
p.154). News media could persuade public by framing and setting the
agenda.
However, since the new media emerged, and users are more pay
attention to social media, spending their time more to notebooks or other
digital technologies rather than newspaper and other conventional media.
The popularity of conventional media becomes decreased. Social media
become the alternative way for audiences in getting information. Moreover,
they could actively as part of the news. The information work flow is faster
rather than the conventional. Many cases were come first in social media,
such Twitter or facebook, then been followed by conventional after.
New media also breakthrough the tyranny of geography which has
limited the distribution of information, news, and other products to
unreachable regions. “Shelves and their contents are available only to people
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who happen to be in the same place as they are” (Anderson, 2008, p.162).
With the decreased power of this tyranny, media coorporations need to
improve the distribution channels, so the information could reach them who
lived in difficult area to access.
Internet or new media affect personal behaviors in receiving
information. People are getting more selective and active to information and
news they need to know and their interests. Selective means they can
choose what kinds of the information they need to know, or types of media
they would get from. Meanwhile, they are more active, not just as audiences,
but they could produce and distributes information, news,and other contents
in new media. It opened and increased the freedom of expression to people,
where they free to express, share, publish their opinions and information. The
technology has changed the culture of consumers in getting the information.
Social-economic changes in society as another part of changes, would
impact to mass media. People ‘tend to be time-poor, but asset -rich’ (Quinn,
2005, p. 27) . In fact, they are willing to pay more to get a better treatment
and People are willing to pay somethinginternet is getting easier to be
accessed everywhere and no time limit, and people think ‘surfing information
in the internet’ is better than other mass media, they might move to new
media, and leave conventional mass media. It would impact to profit and
political interest media industries.
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The cultural change of personal’s behaviors, technology alteration,
and social – economic causes force the existing media to deal with it. The
competition between media industries is getting harder, in order to anticipate
audience erosion. “Audience erosion (Turrow, 2006, p. 190) refers to a
decrease in the percentage of the population using a particular mass medium
or a specific media outlet.”
Some scholars and media practitioners predict that the print media
era (especially, the newspaper) would be dead. Philip Meyers, in the
Vanishing Newspapers, calculated that “the first quarter of 2043 will be the
moment when newsprint dies in America as the last exhausted reader tosses
aside the last crumpled edition,” (The Economist, August 24, 2006).
Why print? As The Economist wrote if “newspapers have the most to
lose from the internet, rather than all of the “old” media” (The Economist,
August 24, 2006). It is proofed that the circulation of newspapers in America,
western Europe, Latin America, Australia, and some other countries has
been falling, and some organizations bankruptcy.
In Indonesia, the prediction on the end of the newspapers has not
been calculated systematically. Some still feel optimistic about the future of
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newspapers in Indonesia. However, not a few of them also predicted that the
end of newspapers in Indonesia will ended in 2050 (Eisy, Ridlo, 2009).
In The Economist (2006) stated that, the decline of newspapers
circulations was hastened by the web. However, Chris Anderson in 2010,
analyzed that “the web is going to decline in two decades after its birth, and
replace with the applications” (Anderson and Wolff, 2010), which much easier
and more flexible to audiences in getting the information and data, rather to
find on the web. It may another threat for the newspapers organizations.
To break the projections and opinions of media analysts, the
conventional mass media, especially print, need to deal with these changes.
Kompas as the largest national newspapers has concerned with these issues
since 1998. Therefore, Kompas transformed the contents and news platforms
into digital media, such as Kompas.com, Kompas ePaper, Kompascetak, etc.
Transforming the content from text to bytes format (digital) can be called as a
part of convergence.
Convergence is a key point to maintain the relationships and build two
way communication models between traditional media and their public.
Lawson-Borders (2006, p.8) viewed if “convergence could also as the
window of opportunity for traditional media to align itself with technologies of
the 21st century.”
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A. Nachison of the American Press Institute’s Media Center (cited in
Lawson-Border, 2006, p.3) defined convergence as “the strategic,
operational, product, and cultural union of print, audio, video and interactive
digital information services and organizations.” For Henry Jenkins (2004), an
American scholar from Media studies, “convergence is not just about
technology shift, but relates with the brain of the consumers.”
The concept of convergence is not a new thing. Before internet was
popular, some media have used convergence model, by using the term of
‘synergy’. Ithiel de Sola Pool, a revolutionary of social sciences field, has
found the ‘convergence of model’ in 1983.
“A process called “convergence of models” is blurring the lines between media, even between point-to-point communications, such as the post, telephone, and telegraph, and mass communications, such as press, radio, and television. Conversely, a services that was provided in the past by any one medium—be it broadcasting, the press, or telephony—can now be provided in several different physical ways” (Pool, 1983, p.23).
The concept of media convergence was raised from a merger
between the large media corporation Time Warner (old media) and AOL (new
media) in 2000. AOL dropped from the stock ticker and company name in
2003” (Laura-Border, 2002). Many viewed that the merger between both
were not equal, however “Time-Warner and AOL successfully become ‘an
Internet-driven media entertainment company‘“(p.29).
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However, debates of convergence often buzz between academic
scholars and media industries. Dailey, Demo, & Spillman (2003, p. 1) found
two different views about convergence, “people who see convergence simply
as a technological development driven by new available digital tools and
others who say convergence must be defined in terms of fundamental
changes in storytelling.”
Regarding with the development of media industries in Indonesia,
some people think if our national media has not convergence yet, but others
said, it has become convergence, because it applies content-sharing from
one news platform coalescence with the other platforms in one medium.
The very common things we could see regarding the convergence
term and application, among news platforms in Indonesia is cross- promotes,
and cloning level between some media platforms.
Cross-promotion level occurs when the media organization promote
the content of their partners through text, visual, or audio elements. For
instance, a television news anchor might direct viewers to newspapers or
web site to know more information about the story.
Meanwhile, at the Cloning level, “one partner republishes the other
content with little editing.” (Dailey, Demo, & Spillman, 2003, p.4). For
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example, the news announcer read some articles from the newspapers and
add some information relates to the story. At this level, the information or
news is not gathered together, and no-shared plans among news outlets.
Based on some studies of media convergence, researchers found if
the convergence is not just occured between the technology utilization and
content transformation, however the newsroom cultures, which has been
formed and adapted in the newsroom, is also changed within the
implementation of media convergence.
The role of newsroom is important for media organizations, because it
such a heart or nucleus of the organizations, where the news produced every
day in the newsroom. Besides, the work flow of journalists, editors, and
members of media organizations occurs in the newsroom everyday.
Therefore, if the organizations implemented the new innovations, the largest
impact from whole of changes is the core (newsroom), which is a center of
news production and published.
The executive director of Ifra’s center for Advanced News Operations,
Kerry Northup, (Quinn, Steven, 2002) noted several prominent changes
when he came to some newsrooms media organizations in America and
Asia. First, the mindset or attitude change, second is the work flow of
employees.
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Changing in the newsroom’s structure also impact to the role of
journalists in the multimedia environment. In a study case of Media General’s
Tampa News Center by Garrison & Dupagne (2008), journalists for print,
online, or broadcasts, should be able for multi-tasked. “Some newspaper
journalists function even more like television reporters and prepare reports on
the air”. Steve Yelvington, news consultant, “the new role of Journalists’ is as
a guide rather than gatekeeper” (Quinn, Steven, 2002.p.6).
Figure 1.1. Media Convergence Process
S
Source: Primary data (literature review), 2011
As a moment of convergence era in Indonesia, some of large media
industries have turned their business strategies to convergence, such as Viva
Media Group (ANTV and TVOne as tv platforms, vivanews.com as online
news), Media Nusantara Citra Group, which has three television broadcasts
networks and other cable televisions, four radio broadcasts, newspapers and
magazines, and online), and others such Tempo Media Group and Kompas
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Gramedia Group. Those big groups are some media which are seen move
forward to convergence, rather than others.
However, Kompas is selected to be the media on this research, due to
some reasons. Since 46 years ago, Kompas has been known as a national
newspapers, which exists untill today. However, it is not easy to maintain the
audiences’ loyalty among the competition of other media, the presence of
media technology transformation, and the difference of audiences’ interests.
They (media) which don’t aware and prepare might be displaced with those
factors.
To maintain the loyalty and reach new audiences, Kompas expands
some power and strategies with combine the technology, audiences, and
products (content). In 2010, Kompas achieved awards from World
Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) as the “Best
in Digital Content – Cross Media Editorial Coverage.” The coverage news
have displayed in multi-media platforms, such as print form in Kompas
newspaper, internet on Kompas.com, and video (Kompas.com, 24 Nov
2010). The cross-content between the media platforms is seen as a
beginning of convergence for Kompas, as a news company.
As the largest national newspaper media in Indonesia, Kompas made
some new movements in media technology approach, by introduce and
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promote the new readers’ culture in reading news. The newspaper
transformed into several news outlets and able to be viewed in many
application technologies, include e-Reader in iPad, and e-paper. In digital
world, Kompas offers as the largest mega portal in Indonesia, Kompas.com.
It offers several canals, include Kompas video and radio streaming.
It began publication on June 28,1965, with circulation 4800 copies.
Kompas dominates the newspaper sales in national. In 2004, the circulation
is up to 530.000 copies, especially on Sunday raised up to 610.000 copies.
The readers are around 2.25 million people surround Indonesia.
On the internet, Kompas established Kompas online, and reborned as
Kompas.com in 1998, as the largest portals in Indonesia. From Kompas.com,
audiences find the contents in multi-media, such text, images, video,
animations. The online units increased the audiences for their needs on
information, that reached until 20 million active readers per month, and a total
of 40 million page views / impressions per month. (Kompas.com’s company
profile, 2008).
Kompas has transformed the newspaper to digital paper, or to be
called as Kompas e-paper, which was launched on July 1, 2009. Moreover,
Kompas launched Kompascetak, which the content is same as the
newspapers, but without the advertisement.
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Media convergence is viewed as the new way for media organizations
to deal with the emerge of technology (new media), consumers’culture
alteration, and accomodate with the economic politic interests. Even Lawson-
Borders (2006), noted if convergence has not empirically prooved as the best
business model.
Among the editor of Kompas.com (personal communication, April
11,2011), “Kompas is in the progress to be media convergence, but need to
take the map how the convergence will be implement in the company”
(personal interview, 11 April 2011).
On this paper, the research focuses on the effort of Kompas
newsroom toward the media convergence in dealing with the alteration of
technology, consumers’ cultures, and other interests. Taking a quotation from
Steven Quinn that, “For knowledge management to flourish, change has to
start in the engine-room of the information driven organization-the
newsroom.(p.32)” Therefore, newsroom is important to start the change and
implement new technology.
To facilitate this research, it requires a case that has been
successfully experienced media convergence. I will take the case of the
Tribune Company as a convergence pioneer since the 1990s.
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1.2. Problem Statement
1. In what way Kompas would implement the media convergence in the
newsroom and structure?
2. How does Kompas accomodate the implementation of media
convergence to the journalists (editorial staff) and newsroom?
3. How does Kompas accomodate the changing of newsroom in purpose
the media convergence?
4. What are the perspectives from journalists and other staff about the
media & newsroom convergence?
1.3. Study Objectives
1. To understand the newsroom structure in adopting the new concept of
technology, toward the media convergence.
2. To define media convergence model for Kompas, as media
organizations.
3. To figure out the role of journalists in each news platform in gathering
and sharing news for digital contents.
4. To see the readiness of Kompas newsroom to be media convergence.
5. To understand obstacles which are faced by Indonesian media
industries in implementing media convergence.
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1.4. Significance of Study
Besides to fulfill the requirement of passing the Post Graduate
Program, the study is significant for academic scholars, because the changes
of media environment, include the technology savvy and audiences cultures,
would affect the structures and job descriptions of professionals in the
conventional mass media.
It might changes and generates more new theories rather than the
previous communication researches. Moreover, the media convergence in
Indonesia is quiet new, as the media in Indonesia have not implemented the
convergence yet. Therefore, many topics would be gained related on the
convergence in the newsroom.
In addition for academic studies, the media scholars would
understand the changes of newsroom structure, the work flow and roles of
journalists, so that the scholars also learned some multi-tasking roles of
journalists, such writing for print, online, and producing news video.
For media industries and communication practitioners, the study is
very useful in mapping the organizational work flow structures, progress and
steps toward media convergence, by adjusting with the condition of
technology and audiences in Indonesia. Furthermore, the research could be
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a reference for them in considering the convergence implementation in their
organizations.
1.5. Scope and Limitation
This research will focus on organizational newsoom’s work flow and,
structure in Kompas newsroom, include the management, the journalists and
editorial staff. The research also based on some literature reviews, as the
reference to understand the changing and efforts of Kompas newsroom in
achieving the goal to be media convergence. The research will take two
months, on June & July due to the submitted date line of thesis.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. Theoretical Framework
2.1.1. Diffusion of Innovations
Following the previous research of Lawson-Borders in her observation
to media convergence in some media organizations, Diffusion of Innovation
theory from Everests Rogers is one of theories which applicables with this
research. Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory is believed for some
scholars as the most suitable theory where the organization adjust with the
technology inside it. In his book, Rogers (1995) described two terms, before
he discussed about the theory. “Diffusion is the process by which an
innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the
members of a social system.”
Among Rogers and Kincaid (1981), “communication as a two way
process of convergence, rather than one way, a linear act in which one
individual seeks to transfer the message to another, in achieving certain
effects.” It is such an interaction between a change agent and new client to
adopt an innovation. The client perhaps have some problems with the
innovation and seek the solution with the agent. It takes several process in to
decrease the uncertainty which involved in diffusion. Therefore, “diffusion is a
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special type of communication concerned with the spread of messages that
are perceived as new ideas.”
In his seminar (1995, cited in Lawson-Borders,2006) viewed, two
perspectives rose when new media adopted. “From audience perspective,
media organizations must assess how to meet their interests in an electronic
environment. From media organizations perspective, they need to bring in
line the progress and concepts they use, for purpose of convergence.”
Rogers (as cited by Lawson-Borders) suggested five steps of
innovation, and described in the below table.
Table 2.1.
The Innocation Process in an Organization
(Source: Lawson-Borders, 2003, p. 93)
Rogers noted two broad activities as it is seen in the Table 2.1;
Initiation and Implementation. Initiation defined as “all o f t he in f o rm at ion
gat her ing, concep t ualizing and p lann ing f o r t he ad op t ion o f an
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innovat ion , lead ing up t o t he d ecision t o ad op t ,” and
implementation, def ined as “all o f t he even t s, act ions, and d ecisions
invo lved in p ut t ing an innovat ion in t o use” (Law rence-Bord ers,
2006,p .44).
The p rogress o f in it iat ion is cat egor ized in t o t w o st ep s, are
Agend a set t ing and Mat ch ing. It is con t inued w it h
im p lem ent at ion p rogress, w h ich includ e Red ef in ing and
rest ruct ur ing, Clar if ying, and Rout in izing. Those st ep s are
exp lained b elow t he line.
1. Agenda Setting
When the company has recognized if the emergence of technologies,
internet, and new media are appear, and the Rogers’ theoretical arguments
are applicable to media in the agenda-setting stage. “Here is where the
media industry recognized that new ways of connecting (pardon the pun) to
readers and viewers were necessary to remain a viable commodity in the
lives of busy users and readers” (Lawson-Border, 2006,p.46).
2. Matching
Media organizations reach the matching stage by developing online
divisions with staff and resources within the organization or as separate
20
business units. For example, nytimes.com as the alternative news of The
New York Times as the presence in online world. “The Web site is applicable
to discussions of the matching stage because its creation is a response to
the agenda that was set in the public and media industry as computerand
Internet use escalated.” (Lawson-Border, 2006, p. 49).
3. Redefining & Restructuring
When the technology is adjusted to meet the needs of the
organizations, the media organizations could be placed in the redefining /
restructuring stage. As the reaction of innovation adjusted, the media
organizations could do the business change, even it change to the economic
models, merge with other company, cutting staff for eficiency, or cross
promotions or media platforms to optimize the delivery of contents and
information. “This redefining / restructuring stage is where multiple
adjustments can be made by an organization to tweak an innovation to its
best potential” (Lawson-Borders, 2006, p.52).
4. Clarifying
When the significance and functions of innovation has been
understood in the organizations and staff. For example, journalists are
trained in other business units, such as newspaper photographers, video
journalists, broadcast cameraman, etc. Furthermore, the management style
change in line the innovation adjusted.
21
5. Routinizing
This stage indicates when the innovation becomes a routinity of the
organization. The industry continue to develop their strategy for the future.
The research use Difussion of Innovations to understand the way how
media organization handles and prepares the new technology to the
organization until the innovation is implemented inside the organization. The
theory is suitable for the first layer of technology implementation in the media
organization, such as Kompas. However, the theory would be supported with
other theories, Change Management and Adaptative Structuration Theory to
seek the changes of newsroom after implement the innovation.
2.1.2. Change Management
To understand the change inside the organization, the research
combine the diffusion of innovation with the management approach, change
management. The second theory is applied Among Jeff Hiatt, the author of
Employee's Survival Guide to Change, “Change management is the process,
tools and techniques to manage the people-side of business change to
22
achieve the required business outcome, and to realize that business change
effectively within the social infrastructure of the workplace.“
To learn the change management is important because nowadays, the
emerge of technology and new system force many companies to adjust with
changes. “Change management assist the organization to break down old
mindsets, and effective in culture change” (Smith, 2005). Hence, change
management has grown up as knowledge and skills in the field of study.
Some example of change management (‘Change management’, n.d.) are:
5. Changing the attitudes and behaviors of personnel
Due to the applications in organization changes, change management works in the media organizations either. For example, BBC (Smith, 2005) involves change management for doing a successful internal communication function, besides marketing, organizational development, journalism, etc. “Those making a life-long career of an organization will bring a different perspective from those passing through” (p.46).
Figure 2.1. Change Management Focus on Convergence
23
Source: Jeff Hiatt. The Definition and History of Change Management. (n.d)
Above the Figure 2.1, there are two converging and predominant fields
of thought to understand change management is considered.
a. Engineers (mechanical focus on change),
“This mechanical system perspective focuses on observable,
measurable business elements that can be changed or improved,
including business strategy, processes, systems, organizational
structures and job roles” (Hiatt, n.d.)
b. Psychologists (human focus on change).
Concerned on the way individual thinks and behave to change and the
environment.
After the innovation had implemented in the organization, Kompas
Gramedia Group, found if the newsroom structure and editorial
managements need to be changed. Technical change and human
management change occurs inside the newsroom. The changes need a
process, tools, and a techique to support the collaboration. The most
important, concern on the human management, which difficult to be changed.
2.1.3. Adaptative Structuration Theory
24
Many scholars believes if the effects of technology to the systems are
less than to human reacts. Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), derived from
Anthony Giddens’s Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984) addresses issues
of human behaviour in the context of technology based on social structure.
De Sanctis and Poole proposed adaptive structuration theory (AST) as
a framework for studying variations in organization change that occur as
advanced technologies are used. The process between people incorporate
with the advanced technologies described in two main concepts,
structuration and appropriation. In the below following are descriptions of two
concepts, which taken from e-paper of Darshana & Nor Hidayati (n.d.).
1. Structuration (Giddens, 1984), a basic fundamental in AST, which
posits that systems and structures exist in a dual relationship with
each other such that they produce and reproduce each other in an
ongoing cycle.
2. De Sanctis and Poole measure some levels of appropriation is
captured through these dimensions; the (1) Attitude towards
appropriation, the (2) Faithfulness of appropriation, (3) Instrumental
uses and the (4) consensus (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994).
“Attitude captures the user’s feelings and emotions of users as he or she applies and adopts the structures. Attitude is considered to be the vehicle that reflects the stability of the appropriation process (Gopal, Bostrom, & Chin, 1992). Faithfulness captures the intentions for the
system as perceived by its users. It is important as the authors compare and align these intentions for the system as perceived by its users against those goals and values as posited by its developers(Chin, Gopal, & Salisbury, 1997). Instrumental uses capture the extent of one uses the system. It is important to understand the different purposes in which the users employ the systems for in an attempt to identify any deviant or defiant use. Stakeholders may choose to appropriate the features for different instrumental uses, or purposes such as tasks or exploratory (DeSanctis and Poole, 1994). Consensus captures the extent of innovation technology accomodates the needs and demands of all employee cohorts” (ibid, n.d).
AST would be used as one of theories besides Difussion of Innovation
and Change Management on this research. It is focused on the human
reaction to the technology adjustment in the organization, especially in
Kompas newsroom. How do newsroom’s staff, include journalists, find their
ways in adaptation with the new system?
2.2. Conceptual Framework
Source: Primary Data, 2011
26
The conceptual framework or namely as “Boundaries Convergence
Level” in Figure 2.2., explained three theories framework that would be
applied to seek the relation between the implementation of innovation in the
organization (read: newsroom). The newsroom is surrounded by three
conceptual theories, which build the convergence innovation in the
newsroom.
The first boundary is Difussion of Innovation. According Rogers’ note
about five steps innovation progress in media organizations, which are
Agenda setting, matching, redefining & restructuring, clarifying, and
routinizing. Agenda setting is the first step when the media organizations
recognized the emergence of technology. It was influenced from the outside
organization, the social-cultural of audiences, the globalization, technology
and environment. In this phase, media organization consider to use the new
innovation, and haven’t implemented the innovation yet.
The second step is Matching. In this phase, “the media organization
develops the online divisions with staff and resources within the organization
or as separate business units” (Lawson-Borders, 2006,p.48). Kompas has
reached this step since 1998, by establishing news online business,
Kompas.com which become one of the powerful news brand in online,
27
ranked as the 14th of the most visited sites in Indonesia (Alexa.com, July
2011).
When the innovation adjusted and meet the needs of media
organization, and the media organization take the action that change the
structure inside, includes the resources, the media is doing the redefining
and restructuring phase. In this phase, the organization restructure the
management style, such as cutting the staff, combined resources, and other
ways, to find which ways that suitable to implement the innovation. If Kompas
restructure or change the management style, it means it try to find the
innovation which suitable for the organization.
Kompas enters the Clarify phase, when the use of innovation
becomes widespread and the importance is clearer to all members of
organization. This phase is also begins to enter the outermost layer of
Adaptative Structuration Theory.
To reach a fully convergence, the structure of organization need to be
re-organized, which converge the newsroom and the work flow of the
business unit. However, to change the newsroom and its inside, should
concern on the attitude and mindset of journalists, editors, and other staff in
the new system adaptation. When all the system, management, and
resources are collaborate in a good path, then the media will become fully
28
convergence. However, toward the convergence is a continuing process, and
need strong commitment from every level.
2.3. Operational Framework
This research provides the framework and description of theories
which assist the readers to seek the steps would be implemented for
doing the research of Kompas newsroom.
Table 2.2. Operational Framework
Theory Implementation
Characteristic Indicator
Diffusion of Innovations
a. Agenda Setting
a. The organization recognized with the emerge of technology.
- Kompas recognize the emerge of technology and the changes of public interests.
b. Matching
b. The media organization develop online divisions as the response of agenda set by public and technology.
- Kompas has its own web site or online news as alternative news sharing in new media.
c. Redefining& Restructuring
c. The technology is adjusted to meet the organization’s needs.
- Kompas restructures its organization, include the newsrooms. -Cutting staff for eficiency. -Doing business change, such as economic model change, merge, or affiliation.
d. Clarifying
d. The significance and functions have been understood in organization and staff.
- Journalists and newsrooms staff understand the media convergence functions.
- Training for journalists to be multitasking roles.
e. Routinizing e. The innovation has been a routinity of the organization.
- The change of structure and new role become a routinity in Kompas newsroom.
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Change Management
a. Business Process Change: implementing the agreed-upon changes across a range of disciplines.
- Does Kompas and its under news platforms have some agreements to do some changes in the business process?
- Has Kompas implemented the business change in its organization or news divisions?
b. Communication process
change: intiative to communicate for stakeholder management and all levels within the organizations, include external communications.
- Is there any internal communication between the organization to staff and management about the changes?
- Does individual or staff recognize the change among them?
c. Training & user support: initative in planning and training for needs/ skills gap analysis for preparing the change.
- Any training for journalists or users to prepare the change?
Adaptative Structuration
Theory
Structuration - What the advantages of new system that works with the newsrooms?
- What do users (journalist and editors) feel when they adopt new structure in newsroom?
- How does the intention to the new innovation that perceived by users?
- How far the users use the system for their purpose?
- How far the system could accomodate the needs of users?
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2.4. The Convergence Continuum Model
The Convergence Continuum Model is a conceptual framework which
is developed by some communication scholars, Larry Dailey, Lori Demo, and
Mary Spillman from Ball State University in 2003. The framework is made to
assists researchers in measuring the parameter of convergence level in the
newsroom organizations. It consists five levels convergence – 5C’s – cross
promotion, cloning, coopetition, content sharing, and full convergence.
“Five circles on the continuum illustrate that each position is characterized by a range of behaviors that can overlap as the degree of interaction and cooperation activities increases. The arrows shows that a partners’ place is not fixed, it can be moved forth or back depends with the nature of news and commitment to convergence by workers and managers. For exam p le, p ar t ners m igh t d em onst rat e a great er d egree o f in t eract ion and coop erat ion on a sp ecial p ro ject – such as elect ion coverage – b ut exh ib it lesser d egrees o f in t eract ion and coop erat ion d ur ing t he average new s d ay.” (Dailey, Demo, & Spillman, 2003, p.4).
At the left end of the continuum is the cross-promotion level, which the
least amount of interaction and coopetation between members in the different
news organizations. Commonly, the media organization promotes the content
of their partners through text, visual, or audio elements. For instance, a
31
television news anchor might direct viewers to newspapers or web site to
know more information about the story.
The right side of cross-promotion level is clonning. It occurs when “one
partner republishes the other partner’s product with little editing. For
example, the news announcer read some articles from the newspapers and
add some information relates to the story. At this level, the information or
news is not gathered together, and no-shared plans among news outlets.
The third continuum model is coopetition, which news outlets both
cooperate and compete. The news platforms promote and share their stories
about their working on. They might work together on the information-
gathering. However, in the same time, their level of distrust is quiet high,
which limits their interaction and collaboration. “The print journalist might
appear as a comentator or expert in the television for same projects, however
both of them might keep their special information, which might be exclusive
for their products” (Dailey, Demo, & Spillman, 2003, p.5).
The right side of coopetition, content-sharing, when “media platforms
regularly (but not always) share information between them, and the content
will publish after it’s repackaged by the organization’s staff members. They
might share news budgets or attend to other’s planning session.” (Dailey,
Demo, & Spillman, 2003, p.5). At this level, the collaboration has been seen
32
by each other platforms, especially on doing special projects, but the news is
still produced by their ownselves.
The last or the right level of the continuum is full convergence in which
the partners collaborate in gathering and disseminating the news. “Their
common goal is to use the strenghts of different media to tell the story in the
most effective way” (Dailey, Demo, & Spillman, 2003, p.5). Hybrid teams of
journalists form from media platforms, the team works together to plan,
report, and produce news. They also decide in what way the content is
effective for print, television, online, and digital. After the team gathered and
produced the news, they dsperse as the project’s finished.
Figure 2.3. Convergence Continuum Model
Source: Dailey, Demo, & Spillman, 2003
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2.5. Definition of Term
2.5.1. Media Convergence
The definition of convergence does not have any clear
standardization, which generate more buzz between academic scholars and
media industries. The term of convergence is basically from two Latin words,
con- (means: together) and vergere (means : to incline). Convergere means
to incline together. (‘Con-verge’, n.d.)
Kung, et al., in their paper ‘The Impact of digital revolutions in media
industries, noted that “convergence is a ubiquitous but loosely defined term
commonly understood to denote the blurring of boundaries between the
media, telecoms and information technology sectors.”
The European Union (cited by Appelgren, 2004, p. 239) in 1997
suggested two possible uses for convergence concept, “the first one being
the possibility for many types of networks to distribute principally similar
services and the second being the merging together of different electronic
appliances such as telephones, television sets and computers”.
34
Appelgren (2004) also cited the statement from Golding and Murdock
about the phenomenon of convergence, in the following.
“For the first time, all forms of communication - text, statistical data, images both moving and fixed, music and speech, can now be encoded, stored and forwarded with the same fundamental digital vector of zeros and ones, the language of the computers. The result is that the boundaries for what up until today have been separate areas of communications are now dissolving. We are now entering the era of convergence. The potential is impressive and new combinations are becoming possible.”
From journalism perspective, according to the Missouri Group
(Lawson-Borders, 2006, p.3) “convergence - is the practice of sharing and
cross-promoting content from a variety of media, some interactive, through
newsroom collaborations and partnerships”.
Another definition which focused on multimedia applications, by Wirtz
(cited in Lawson-Borders,2006, p.3) was
“Convergence can be defined as the dynamic approach or partial integration of different communication and information-based market applications. A further aspect of convergence is that it brings out integrated multimedia products and services that render possible the satisfaction of additional and multiple consumer preferences.”
A.Nachison of the American Press Institute’s Media Center (cited in
Lawson-Border, 2002, p.3) defined convergence as “the strategic,
35
operational, product, and cultural union of print, audio, video and interactive
digital information services and organizations.”
In the cultural perspective, Henry Jenkins, an American scholar from
Media studies, noted if “convergence is not just a technological process, but
takes place “within the brains of individual consumers and through their
social interactions with others.
Kung, et al. (1999), in their paper ‘The Impact of digital revolutions in
media industries, noted that “convergence is a ubiquitous but loosely defined
term commonly understood to denote the blurring of boundaries between the
media, telecoms and information technology sectors.” [Hence], “media
convergence is an ongoing process, occurring at various intersections of
media technologies, industries, content and audiences; it’s not an end state
(Jenkins, 2003-2004).
To avoid the confussion in leading media convergence, Jenkins (2001)
described convergence into five processes, namely:
1. Technological convergence – when words, images and sounds are
transformed into digital information, we expand the potential
relationships between them and enable them to flow across platforms.
2. Economic convergence - the horizontal integration of the
entertainment industry, which the result has been the restructuring of
36
cultural production around “synergies,” and thus the transmedia
exploitation of branded properties, such as Star Wars, Pokemon,
Harry Potter. For example: AOL Time Warner which controls interests
in film, television, books, games, the Web, music, real estate and
countless other sectors.
3. Social or organic convergence - Consumers’ multitasking strategies
for navigating the new information environment. Organic convergence
is what occurs when a high schooler is watching baseball on a big-
screen television, listening to techno on the stereo,wordprocessing a
paper and writing e-mail to his friends.
4. Cultural convergence - The explosion of new forms of creativity at
the intersections of various media technologies, industries and
consumers. Media convergence fosters a new participatory folk culture
by giving average people the tools to archive, annotate, appropriate
and recirculate content. It foster consumer loyalty and generate low-
cost content. Media convergence also encourages transmedia
storytelling the development of content across multiple channels.
5. Global Convergence - The cultural hybridity that results from the
international circulation of media content. In music, the world-music
movement produces some of the most interesting contemporary
sounds, and in cinema, the global circulation of Asian popular cinema
profoundly shapes Hollywood entertainment. These new forms reflect
the experience of being a citizen of the“global village.”
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2.5.2. Newsroom
“While the newsroom is at the centre of the newspaper’s knowledge
capabilities, the newspaper is also a manufacturing company which produces
and distributes a new product every day.” Vince Giuliano, chief executive
officer of SimVenture (Quinn, Steven, 2002, p. 19).
Newsroom is often likened as the heart of news industry, which is the
wheel center of news circulation and work flow of editorial and journalists.
Quinn (2002) noted, newsroom is such as the engine-room of the
information-driven organization. Newroom is a part of media industry, where
journalists, editors, producers, and other news staff together in gathering-
selecting- producing, and supporting information and news to be published
on newspaper, television broadcast, or radio.
Some understanding of the media convergence that media industries
not only distribute news and cross several news platforms, but its newsroom
structure also changed.
38
To deal with changes, Quinn concluded from several media
practitioners, and found three categories related with changes in the
newsroom, like in this following:
1. Attitudinal – change in mindset and perception of people of their role.
2. Physical – the new structure of newsroom.
3. Technical – links with attitudinal, about the ways of people in adjust
the technology.
2.5.3. Components of Newsroom
Pit Gottschalk, a former editor- in- chief of the German newspaper
“Sport-Bild”, and also responsible for conglomerate projects of the
newspaper arm at Axel Springer, analyzed specifically four aspects in an
organization: “culture, tasks, people and systems. To evaluate it, a
questionnaire is used with cover topics,such as journalist practice, newsroom
management, working organization, and convergence” (Schantin, October 6,
2010).
1. Culture – involves the culture of the newsroom of media
integration, such as the whole behaviour pattern, the thought
pattern, the belief system, shared values, the informal culture .
2. Tasks – involves the roles, responsibilities in the newsroom.
However, in each type of newsroom, the tasks are different. For
instance, in the newsroom 1.0, a journalist is responsible in writing
39
Figure 2.5. Pit Gottschalk’s Types of Newsroom
the article for newspaper, but in the newsroom 3.0, the role is more
complex. The journalist would make the story across different
platforms and write in different versions.
3. People – examines the area of skills, knowledges and abilities of
resources (journalists). Are they capable of thinking across media?
4. Structure and systems – the systems involves the management
systems, such as the processes and organizational structures.
Moreover, how about the leadership and the management sytems?
For instance, are there incentive systems when they become a
multi-tasking journalist?
Figure 2.4. Pit Gottschalk’s Components of Organizational Allignment
Based on Pit Gottschalk Source: WAN-IFRA NEWSPLEX Presentation, 2010
2.5.4. Types of Newsroom
Pit Gottschalk also measured the development of convergence and
integration in the level editorial. He found three types of newsrooms, that also
could be used for the measurement in every newsroom.
Source: Schantin, WAN- IFRA, 2010
40
Source: Schantin, WAN-IFRA, 2010
Source: Schantin, WAN-IFRA, 2010
Figure 2.7. Newsroom 2.0
1. Newsroom 1.0
The newsroom structure is not changed, each newsroom in every
media platform running on their own tasks. There has been no
collaboration between platforms. The editorial performance still work
with the main task, for example, a print journalist writes only for
newspapers.
Figure 2.6. Newsroom 1.0.
2. Newsroom 2.0
The collaboration occurs in the newsroom. It is seen from the workflow
on each section, not only making for one media platform, but
contributing for all platforms. The content, then is selected and
41
decided by editors from each platforms. In this newsroom, the
structure is slowly changing.
3. Newsroom 3.0
A full collaboration, both in term of content, resources, and the layout
of the newsroom. Journalists become multitask resources. Each
section is not only responsible for gathering content, but also selecting
and taking decision to display the content for each media platform.
The article written by Jason Fry (ex- reporter, columnist, and editor in
The Wall Street Journal Online) might give some pictures of the changing of
newsroom.“Technologically speaking, many newsrooms are still a Rube
Goldberg machine of awkward handoffs between different systems, code
Source: Schantin, WAN-IFRA, 2010
Source: Schantin, WAN-IFRA, 2010
Figure 2.8. Newsroom 3.0.
42
thrown over walls of incompatibility (often with messy landings) and people
forced to be human bridges across technological gaps” (Fry, 2009).
2.5.5. Smart Newsroom
The convergence in the newsroom not only brings together the
editors, journalists, contents from multi-platforms in one single newsroom. It
also creates a smart newsroom.
In his book, Stephen Quinn defines three meaning. First, “knowledge
management processes can improve the newsgathering process through
smarter use of information. In another sense, smart means that media
organizations need to recruit, train, and retain better educated staff” (Quinn,
2005, p.153). In the knowledge age, journalists need to be smart to use story
telling methods to accomodate the complex audiences. In other way, the
journalist need to learn multi-media skills therefore their curicullum vitae are
good to apply the job.
43
The role of journalists is very important for the information process.
Information is raw material before it processed become news for audiences.
David Shenk (1997), “The major challenges for journalists was their
willingness to share information,to manage thoughtfully, and to transform it
into knowledge,” (Quinn, 2005, p.155).
Knowledge is sit at the top of pyramid of data, information, and
knowledge, which is valuable and the product of education, training, and
experience. (2005, p. 155). Knowledge is not simple, it needs to be manage
carefully. Different from information, knowledge is hard to be undersand,
because to understand need the logical terms.
2.5.6. Knowledge Management
Creating a smart newsroom relates on the knowledge management
based on the newsroom. According to Karl-Erik Sveiby, who runs the
consultant company, Sveiby Knowledge Management in Australia described,
knowledge management as “the art of creating value by leveraging an
“Knowledge management was vital for implementing the kind of
newsroom needed for doing multi-platform journalism,” Kerry Northrup said in
1999, as the executive director of Ifra’s Center for Advanced News
44
Operations in the seminar “the Battle of newsroom’s mindset”. According to
him, knowledge management could be an investment for newsroom. (Quinn,
2005, p.158).
Guiliano said, knowledge based newsroom would create a long term
investment possiblities for news organizations, but changed of mindset in
journalists is needed (Quinn, 2005, p. 158).
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH DESIGN & METHOD
In order to reach the objective of this research, the researcher designed a
work plan which will explain more details in this chapter. This chapter consists of
research design and method, data generation procedure, data generation
instrument, resource persons, data generation schedule and data analysis
procedure.
3.1 Research Design and Method
The methodology used in this study is qualitative research methodology,
which mainly relies on the analysis of words that reflect everyday experience.
Qualitative research is a methodology that concerns more about issues of the
richness, texture, and feeling of raw data because the inductive approach
emphasizes developing insights and generalization out of the data collected
(Neuman, 2006).
Denvin and Lincoln offered another definition qualitative research if the
research has relations with naturalistic approach surround the researchers.
45
“Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that makes the world visible. These practices..turn the world into a series of representations including fieldnotes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them. (cited in Ritchie&Lewis,2003, p.2-3)” Ritchie, Lewis and others view that qualitative research as the empirical
investigation and creative discovery, a mix of science and art. (Ritchie & Lewis,
2003). Doing the qualitative research is aimed to understand the meaning of
social actions in the people’s live. Max Weber (1864-1920) proposed two types
of understanding: “direct observational understanding, and explanatory or
Entertainment, Kompas Otomotif, Kompas Properti, Kompas Image, and
56
Kompas Karier. As the largest mega-portal in Indonesia, Kompas.com by its
own, has reached 120 million for total page view in a month.
Kompas.com decreases audiences’ passivity by engaging citizens and
professional journalists in Kompasiana, a citizen media for express and share
anyone ideas. Kompasiana seems to be one efective way on Kompas.com,
to engage in social media emerging in this time. Within two years,
Kompasiana able to achieve several awards, include national and
international levels, such as Best Channel Citizen Journalism Blog of Pesta
Blogger 2010, Marketeers Netizen of Marketers Magazine, and Silver awards
(ranked second) Best Digital Content User – Based Content category (Best in
Digital Content Award- User Generated Content) (Kompas.com, Nov 2010).
The failure hit TV7, did not stop Kompas Gramedia Group to re-
engage in television broadcasting. In October 2009, Kompas Gramedia TV
was born, which was on internet based, and incorporated on the
Kompas.com site, or namely as vod.kompas.com. During the journey,
Kompas Gramedia TV enters the network of local or regional televisions and
aired on July 2011. It is claimed as a vehicle of the company to drive the
television business industry, and become the part of Kompas 3M (Multi
media, Multi channel, Multi platform) (‘KompasGramedia’,n.d.).
57
4.2. Convergence Implementation Among Indonesian Media
Having an online news site is a good move for conventional media to
survive and adapt to technological change and the information consumption
to audiences. Most of large media in Indonesia have have their own website
as an alternative way to engage public on the internet.
However, if having a web is an alternative way to survive, then media
industries still have to compete with each other, especially with some online
news sites that have already existed, such as detik.com, or greater number
of bloggers who capable as citizen journalists. The rise of internet users in
Indonesia and the unlimited range increasingly tightened the competition of
conventional media.
Transforming to digital also means the industry need to provide more
resources, spaces, new technologies, and a business strategy to attract the
audiences and stakeholders. For the instance, to get same news, sometimes
news company Kompas should deliver the journalist of Kompas newspaper
and Kompas.com also delivers its own journalist, which it shoul be done with
one person.
Some media practitioners and scholars realize that they need to
integrate with the technology and the market, so as not to fall behind in the
58
competition. Media convergence is blooming and becoming the trend among
media practitioners around the world. Although, the ‘convergence’ is not a
new buzz word in media studies, but the default definition and technical is
blurred. Moreover, not all media in Indonesia understand the implementation
of the convergence itself.
“Media researchers often describe convergence as a ‘melting together’
of information systems, telecommunications and media technologies,” (John
Erdal, 2007, p. 52). According to the Missouri Group (Lawson-Borders, 2006,
p.3) “convergence - is the practice of sharing and cross-promoting content
from a variety of media, some interactive, through newsroom collaborations
and partnerships”.
Meanwhile, media convergence according Henry Jenkins (Jenkins,
2001), is “an ongoing process, occuring at various intersections of media
technologies, industries, content and audiences; it’s not an end state. There
will never be one black box controlling all media”. Jenkins (Jenkins, 2001)
mentions, there are five processes that describes the process of media
convergence, as the following:
1. Technological convergence – when all the media content are
digitized. The content might be words, images, sounds, which are
transformed into digital information. Therefore we expand the
potential relationships and enable them to flow across platforms.
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2. Economic convergence - the horizontal integration of the
entertainment industry, which the result has been the restructuring
of cultural production around “synergies,” and thus the transmedia
exploitation of branded properties.
3. Social or organic convergence -Consumers’ multitasking strategies
for navigating the new information environment.
4. Cultural convergence - The explosion of new forms of creativity at
the intersections of various media technologies, industries and
consumers. Media convergence fosters a new participatory folk
culture by giving average people the tools to archive, annotate,
appropriate and recirculate content. It foster consumer loyalty and
generate low-cost content.
5. Global convergence - The cultural hybridity that results from the
international circulation of media content.
From the five processes above, I analyze that there is one process of
convergence that commonly have implemented in Indonesian media. Those,
such as Kompas Gramedia Group, MNC Group, Detik.com, Viva news
Group, Tempo Media Group has transformed their contents into digital bytes.
Although the concept of convergence have not been implemented
fully, some media platforms have reached the level where the collaboration
and integration between members from other platforms are formed. Based on
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the Convergence Continuum Model, which created by Dailey, Demo, &
Spillman (2003), our media platforms has implemented the collaboration
level, such as cross-promotion, cloning, and coopetition level (Read Chapter
II, page 29). Those levels were some basic ways for the media platforms to
be integrated in the full convergence.
At the cross-promotion level, the media platform places the logo on
the news stories, which published on other media platforms. At the
newspapers, for instance, in some articles, we might see the logo of news
media platforms, which direct the audiences to see the related story.
Cloning level, when the media platform displays the partners product,
without edit the story, such as, the content of news online or social media is
published on the news television. The next step is Coopetition Level, where
both of platforms cooperate, but in some time, they compete each other. For
instance, the senior print journalist appear on the television as a
commentator, however both parties have their own interests, such an
exclusive news, that won’t be shared with each of them.
Observing the level of convergence among Indonesian media, I also
see some media organizations which have planned and prepared the
strategy to be a full convergence. They are Kompas Gramedia Group (the
news businesses) and Tempo Media Group. Later, my research is
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concerning on Kompas convergence model. I will describe the convergence
process in Kompas, from the technical until the newsroom and the journalists
work flow. However, I also give a short brief about Tempo Media Group
planning, as a comparison. (read at the Appendix).
4.2.1. Technological Convergence
The most obvious thing in proofing the technological convergence is
the transfomation of content in each media platforms owned by Kompas
Gramedia Group. Today, Kompas does not only appear with text, but
transform to digital and multimedia, such as news online (Kompas.com),
video (Kompas TV), pictures, graphic, and other multimedia platforms.
Kompas rely on the richness of content as one of media advantages.
Moreover, Kompas achieved some international awards, which one of
them is “Best in Digital Content-Cross Media Coverage” from WAN-IFRA in
2010, on the coverage “Jelajah Musi” which was published on three plaforms,
such as Kompas daily (newspapers), Kompas.com (online), and KompasTV
(video). The diversity of contents and multiplatforms show that Kompas has
applied the technology convergence to the business. Furthermore, Kompas
is preparing to be a media convergence, which is explained details in the
following sub-bab, from the strategy to the future plan.
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4.2.2. Media Convergence
A media organization is said as a media convergence, when all parts
of media organization, such as newsrooms, professionals (journalists,
editors, staff), products, technology, and the environment in the media
combined and integrated as a collaborative structure.
“The phenomenon might be analyzed from four perspectives:
technological, management, communicative and professional, which are
intertwined in a media environment in continuous evolution (García Avilés, et
all, 2004, p.4)”.
Hence, to understand the convergence implementation in Kompas, I
will discuss three main parts in Kompas as news organization, from the
strategy, the condition and structure of the newsroom, the workflow of
journalists in adapting the convergence concept. Hereby, the strategy and
the reason behind the plan to be a media convergence.
4.3. Introducing “Three M” Toward The Media Convergence
In 2007, Kompas introduced “3M (Multimedia–Multichannel-
Multiplatform)” concept as a strategy in facing the change of the media trend
today, with the following explanation.
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4.3.1. Multimedia
Reading Kompas is not just reading text in the newspapers. Thanks to
the technology today, that we find it with many formats, from graphics,
photographs, animation (by using Augmented Reality), video and audio from
Kompas TV, etc. The content is same, but it came with different variation
formats, which enrich the content of Kompas.
4.3.2. Multichannel
Since entering digital life, audiences find Kompas through the wire, 3G
wave, or sattelites. Yesterday, we just got Kompas from a handyman
paperboy or stores. Now, we don’t have to wait to get the information.
4.3.3. Multiplatform
Today, people consume news and information in various ways. In the
morning before we’re going to work, we read the newspapers. During the trip,
Source: Taslim, 2011
Figure 4.1. Kompas 3M Logo
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we can open Blackberry. At the office, we may open the laptop or computer,
reading news online. To meet the needs of various audiences, Kompas
should transform itself into many platforms. According to Business General
Manager Edi Taslim, Kompas has become the most complete multiplatforms
news media in Indonesia.
“The concept of 3M was arised from a thought that the future, we need
to think effectively with limited resources, but could send the content that
reach audiences wider,“ said the Content Director General Manager
Kompas.com, Taufik H. Mihardja (personal interview, 23 June 2011). He
explained, the audiences in consuming news and information widened and
spread, especially youth and adolescents, who actively in social media.
Picture 4.1.
Kompas in multiplatforms, and has won a silver award winner as Asian Digital Media Award 2010 from WAN-IFRA
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Moreover, the media lanscape has changed. Based on WAN IFRA,
there are eight ways, which Kompas is trying to apply some parts of them.
Table 4.1. The Trends of Media Industry
Source: World Digital Media Trends (WAN), Taslim, 2011
As Business General Manager of Kompas, Edi Taslim described, “We
believe that people could not be forced to read one medium only. They could
get news via sms, twitter, or facebook. Hence, Kompas should transform
itself into multiplatform, so it could be found everywhere. Therefore, it reach
all audiences. “How do we reach diverse people in each class. Like or not,
we should present as well ” (personal interview, 24 June 2011).
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4.4. The Role of Newsroom Convergence
The role of newsroom is important for media organizations, because it
such a heart or nucleus of the organizations, where the news produced every
day in the newsroom. Besides it, the work flow of journalists, editors, and
members of media organizations occurs in the newsroom everyday.
Therefore, if organizations implement the new innovations, the largest impact
from whole of changes is the core (newsroom), which is a center of news
production and published.
Implementing the convergence concept in the newsroom means that
the organization has reached the full convergence as the whole parts.
However to implement it, is not an instant job, it takes some process that
need much planning and strategies.
The role of newsroom convergence is different than the common
newsroom. In the newsroom convergence, all members from all media
platforms are working together in gathering the information, data, reporting,
and producing the news for all media platforms. A high integration and
collaboration is very needed. Inside it, there might be the editors of print,
online, multimedia platforms, television, and other platforms.
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A newsroom convergence is not only a place to produce news and
members gathering, but is “a center of knowledge management, where the
data-information-news- are gathered in the newsroom that can be used by
members such a source engine ” (paraphrased from Quinn, Steven, 2002).
Picture 4.2. Newsroom Convergence Model in Zurich
Source: WAN-IFRA Magazine, June 2011
In some giant media industries, the newsroom convergence has been
implemented, such as CNN newsroom, New York Times, Washington Post,
etc. Whereas, none of Indonesian media has implemented it, due to the lack
of skills, technology, and knowledge.
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4.4.1. Toward The Newsroom Convergence
In the term of media convergence, integration involves the
management of the organization, such as newsroom management, staff
(including journalists), technology and operation. As Jane. B Singer (n.d.)
stated that “newsroom convergence—a combination of technologies,
products, staffs and geography among the previously distinct provinces of
print, television and online media—through the framework of diffusion of
innovations theory.”
Generally, media in Indonesia have not yet implemented the
convergence in newsroom, but some of them have planned the future
structure of the newsroom, include Kompas. Today, the newsrooms are still
separated between the print, online, and television. In Kompas, the
newsroom for print is located at the 3rd floor, the newsroom of Kompas.com
is located at the 5th floor. Meanwhile, the Kompas TV building is located near
the building of Kompas print and online.
To describe the changing of newsroom, here explain the position of
Kompas newsroom toward the convergence system. The picture is figured by
Pit Gottschalk, a former editor-in-chief of the German newspaper. He
evaluated and figured three types of newsroom as the result of his research
on newsrooms in Germany in the next page.
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Figure 4.2. Three Types of Newsroom
Source: Pit Gottschalk, 2010.
Based on the picture, I analyzed that the newsroom at Kompas is
categorized as newsroom 2.0, which on the cross-media platforms stage.
There is no changing with layout or newsroom’s structure. However, it
consists a new multimedia section, which some editors and journalists
involve in making multimedia content.
Cross- media platforms occurs when a group of journalists or editors
from each media platform together to define, plan, decide which contents of
news would be effective for the news print, video, and other multimedia
platforms. From their decisions, the richness of contents are formed.
Audiences would get the same content in the print, as similar as news online,
video, and digital mobile platforms, but in the different format and platforms.
The content of news print, online, video, and mobile platforms relate
with each other, and support the news topic between each others, or
70
commonly said as ‘synergy’. The synergy in Kompas, between print-online-
video, is showed very strong in the cross content media, which we could see
in the following bracket:
Picture 4.3. Kompas performs in the same content, but different platforms.
Source: Kompas from multiplatforms, July 22, 2011
Different from the common newsroom, the structure or work flow in
the newsroom 2.0 is changing. Each section or desk (see Figure 4.3. &
Figure 4.4.) is responsible for gathering contents and send the content to
editors in each platforms, who responsible to select and decide types of
content that suitable for their platforms. Generally, every section will send the
Kompas newspaper Kompas TV
Kompas.com
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news to the print editor and editor on-duty. The print editor is responsible for
editing the news for print. Editor on-duty is responsible for editing text of print
journalists for online contents (Kompas.com). The position or structure of
Editor on duty itself is in the Multimedia desk. However, for text and video
content in mobile platforms, will be taken by the editor in Multimedia Desk. In
the Figure 4.3. describes the work flow in Kompas Daily (print) newsroom,
based on the media platforms.
Figure 4.3. The Work Flow in the Print Newsroom
Source: Premier Observation, 2011
The Newsroom 2.0 is the on-going process of Kompas to change the
structure of traditional newsroom. However, in the future, the newsroom will
be developed to adjust the full convergence in the organization, especially
because the newsroom is the nucleus of the convergence process.
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Figure 4.4. The Structure of Newsroom in Kompas (Newsroom 2.0)
Source: Primary Data, 2011
Newsroom 2.0 in Kompas’ newsroom structure, based on the Figure
4.4. described that the Editor in Chief Kompas leads two news platforms,
which are print and online (Kompas.com). The position of it has converged,
which controlled in one position. Another convergence impact is happened to
print journalists. They have to write for online, make a news video, and of
course write for print. Meanwhile, online journalists are still doing the news
coverage just for online.
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Among editors, there is a multimedia desk, which consists multimedia
editor and editor on-duty, as a bridge between print to online and multimedia.
Besides it, according to the Managing Editor Kompas Budiman Tanuredjo,
Kompas has not applied yet single newsroom, but still separate in dual-
newsrooms (print and online), which in each newsroom, consists editors that
responsible for their own responsibilities.
However, to change the newsroom and going to be a convergence
need time. With the existence of Multimedia desk, it might develop the new
infrastructure and convergence level in the newsroom.
4.4.2. The Components of Newsroom
There are some components inside the newsroom, that influence a
change in the newsroom. The four components are the result of analysis by
Pit Gottschalk, a former editor-in-chief of the German newspaper “Sport-Bild”,
who developed an evaluation and measurement in some newsrooms in
Germant. Briefly, I use the four components to describe the condition in
Kompas’ newsrooms, especially the print newsroom today.
1. Culture – The management is trying to create a new routinity, to
change the mindset and paradigm of print journalists to online. From
my finding, it seems that some of them have realize that integrate with
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online is important. However, to change the paradigm and mind set is
a difficult thing, because it must change the work culture in the print
newsroom that has been established for 46 years.
“Print is an arrogance platform. The tradition of print has formed for long time (46 years). Friends at Kompas print are familiar with text journalism and in-depth coverage. Then, when one platform (online) comes, concerns on the speed directly to ‘Blackberry journalism’, it could effect in conflict to online journalism”
(Budiman Tanuredjo, personnal interview, 26 September 2011)
2. Task – The print journalists are multitasking. Besides writing for print
and online, some of them operate the video for multimedia contents.
Writing for online is a compulsory to every print journalist today,
minimum one news for each day.
3. People – The skills and capability of each journalists are different. A
few of them have already operated the video, but not everyone is able
to do the multitask. Therefore, the management give some trainings
for journalists to increase their capabilities. The management optimists
if people or journalists, especially in the multimedia desk would
become agents of changes, who could influence the others.
4. Structure and systems – According to Pepih Nugraha, the ‘Online
First’ policy, originally came from the Commisioner President Kompas
Gramedia Group, Jakob Oetama in early January. Then, it comes
down from Editor in Chief and CEO, to the Managing Editors and
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Editors (top-down management). The structure of the workflow is
slowly changing (see Figure 4.3. & Figure 4.4.).
4.4.3. Planning on the Future Newsroom
According to Taufik H. Mihardja, Kompas is going to prepare a ‘newsroom
bersama’ (read: The Together Newsroom) in July 2011. The newsroom will
gather editors from print, online, and television, which located on the third floor.
In November, the future newsroom will become the control center of
convergence, involves the representatives of Tribune editor, Warta Kota, and
other media brands and platforms, which included in Kompas Gramedia Group,
so that will enrich the content.
Pepih Nugraha, a senior journalist of Kompas daily, and also an editor in
Kompas.com, explained, the future newsroom will be comprised of a conductor,
Managing editors, Editors, and journalists who work in the field. This conductor
will command and determine which news will be posted in the media platforms.
The conductor will also ask the editor not to load the news, which has been in
the online. “Ideally, the structure will be like CNN newsroom,” he said (personal
interview, 24 June 2011).
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4.5. Measuring The Convergence Model
To measure the parameter of convergence in the Kompas newsroom
and other platforms, I use some ways from the literature to gain the objective
parameter of the convergence model. First, I will use Convergence
Continuum Model. The parameter also could be measured with the
conceptual framework from the research explained in Chapter 2.
4.5.1. Convergence Continuum Model
The concept of Convergence Continuum Model is defined by Larry Dailey,
Lori Demo, Marry Spillman to assist the researcher in measuring the
parameter of convergence model, especially in the newsroom. The
conceptual framework identifies five level of activity among news
organizations (Dailey, Demo, and Spillman, 2003, p. 3). The 5C’s of
Newsroom Convergence: A Transnational Comparison. Germany: Medienhaus Wien.
Berg, Bruce.L. (2001). Qualitative Research Methods For The Social
Sciences. 4th edition. USA: A Pearson Education Company. Converge. (n.d). In Wiktionary. Retrieved from March 11, 2011, from
http://en/wiktionary.org/wiki/convergere. Dailey, Larry , Lori Demo, & Mary Spillman.(2003).The Convergence
Continuum: A Model for Studying Collaboration Between Media Newsrooms. Kansas City, Missouri. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Darshana, Sedera & Zakaria, Nor Hidayati. (n.d.). Adaptative Structuration
Theory View of Post Implementation Knowledge Management For Enterprise Systems. Retrieved from: http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2008/PACIS2008_Camera-Ready_Paper_179.pdf
Daymon, Christine & Immi Holloway.(2002).Qualitative Research Methods in
Public Relations and Marketing Communications. London: Routledge. DeSanctis, Gerardine & Marshall Scott Pool. (1994). Capturing the
Garrison,Bruce & Michael Dupagne. (2003). A Case Study of Media Convergence At Media General’s Tampa News Center. Expanding Convergence: Media Use in a Changing Information Environment Conference. Columbia, USA: University of South Carolina.
Gottschalk, Pit. (2010, December 13). 65 Percent Convergence in German
Newsrooms. Retrieved from http://www.pitgottschalk.com/2010/12/65- percent-convergence-in-german.html.
Hiatt, Jeff. (n.d). The Definition and History of Change Management.
Retrieved from : http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-definition-history.htm.
Jenkins, Henry. (2001, June). Convergence? I Diverge. Retrieved from
http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/converge.pdf Jenkins, Herry. (2004). The cultural logic of media convergence. Cultural
Studies, 7(1), 33-43. Keegan, Sheila. (2009). Qualitative research : Good Decision Making
Through Understanding People, Cultures And Markets. London: Kogan Page.
Kompas (surat kabar). (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from
http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kompas_surat_kabar Kompas Gramedia. (n.d.). History. Retrieved from
http://www.kompasgramedia.com/aboutkg/history. Kung, et.al. (1999). Impact of The Digital Revolution On The Media And
Communications Industries.The Public, 6(3), 29-48. Lawson-Borders, Gracie. (2006). Media Organizations and Convergence:
Case Studies of Media Convergence Pioneer. USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Maruli, Aditia. (2010, September 6). Indonesia Urutan Lima Besar Pengguna
Internet. Retrieved from: http://www.antaranews.com/ Pool, Ithiel de Sola. (1983). Technologies of Freedom. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press. Quinn, Steven. (2002). Knowledge Management in the Newsroom. Oxford:
Focal Press. Quinn, Steven. (2005). Convergence Journalism: The Fundamental of
Taslim, Edi. (2011, June 24). Kompas MMM. [Presentation]. The Economist. (2006). Who Killed The Newspaper? Retrieved from
http://www.economist.com/ Turow, Joseph.(2009). Media Today: An Introduction to Mass
Communication.3rd Edition. New York: Routledge. Wahono, Tri. (2010, November 24). “Kompas” Raih Tiga Penghargaan
Internasional. Retrieved from http://tekno.kompas.com/ Zhang, Yuyan Ernest. (2008). Examining Media Convergence: Does It
Converge Good Journalism, Economic Synergies, and Competitive Advantages? (Doctoral Dissertation). Columbia: The Faculty of the Graduate School at University of Missouri.
(n.s.). (May/June 2011). A Newsroom Project Is Never Simply Finished.
The content is not just text. Nowadays, peoiple can visualize, that the content does not only print, video, and
graphics. The concept that we use is the “Three M”- Multimedia, Multichannel, Multipaltform. Multimedia,
as I said that the content is not only text, but also graphic, video, photos. Multichannel – Kompas enters the
new channel. Multiplatform – Kompas appears as a newspapers, television, radio, news online.
Chief Editor Deputy of Kompas
Executive Director Kompas.com
News Director Kompas TV
C: Why Kompas would like to implement the media convergence?
T: Starting from the premis that it the future, we have to think effectively with
limited resources, but could send content, that reach wider audiences.
Print is said increasingly going down, so what we should do, is maintaining our
brand to the audience aware of the technology. With the same content, we
deliver to them. However, audiences are still limited because of the number
and capabilities of the internet is difficult and not yet accessible to all areas. In
addition, we use other mass channels, which is television. Therefore, the same
content could be accessed via all platforms, or it is said ‘one production for all
delivery system.’
The concept of convergence is implemented, is to utilize Kompas brand to anticipate the public interest to
information. ‘Three M’ because the audiences of Kompas is widening and spreading. The content is same,
but the delivery system and it polish differently.
C: Does the newsroom implement the convergence?T: In July 2011, our company will plan to build the ‘together newsroom’, where consists editors of print, online, and tv at the third floor. Perhaps, in the next November, it will become the control centre of convergence. In some projects, the reporters from each plaform cover the news together, or just one of them who represent others. There will be two ways, because it is not easy to find a multiskill journalist, who could write for online and print. Some of them have capable, such as Gatot, a print journalist, who covered a World Cup in Africa in the previous. He’s not just write for print, but also report for radio.
In the September, Kompas is going to prepare for the infrastructure, so the convergence through KG (Kompas Grame-dia) wire, the reporters are placed at KG wire, the future newsroom, and all of the content will be converged. Each work, sharing ideas, sharing resources.
C: Does Kompas have a media benchmark for the references?T: We see Telegraph and nytimes.com as the benchmark. Espe-cially, when the Telegraph implemented convergence activities in totality. From the new building, people moved to the new place and experienced the new setting. They develop the online unit, sharing information, and have a supreme leader on it.
C: What is the difficult thing faced on Kompas to be a media convergence?T: Changing the mindset is the hardest thing that we’ve faced. Changing the culture from print to online journalits. The char-acter of print has been made already for 46 years old. They are educated to be print employees, which it’s made a ‘stumbling block’. Therefore, there must be some internal champions, to spread the influence, that we can change as long as we want.
Meanwhile the New York Times has also created a digital leader, a new structure, and a Digital Deputy Editor in Chief. Then, Kompas creates multimedia. Multimedia is aimed to bridge the digital management of content. There is a special division that will melt.
C: What will be the planning ahead?T: Compass multimedia desk and the editors will be one produc-tion for all. In WAN-IFRA there are 7 media world trend:1. Content media now no longer controlled the shareholders.2. First mass advertising, now customize.3. One is content for one production.4. One is content for all: these points are applied in Kompas.
attachment II personal interviewon 24 July 2011
P e p i h N u g r a h a
The Commander will give the command for anyone (journalists) to cover the news. He also would ask editors,
not to display the same news that has been in online. For example, a plane crash, in the newspaper, the news
is not displayed the same content with online, but should be more detailed analysis.
C: How far Kompas implement the convergence in the company?
P: In Kompas, there’s an existing desk for supporting the convergence, called a
multimedia desk. A multimedia desk is responsible to fill out the content in the
multimedia. For example, they produce videos, contents for QR code,
Augmented Reality, and other contents in iPad. One thing that we’re going to set
up a together (convergence) newsroom. We try to make the structure and the
layout of newsroom, that would exists one Commandor, Managing Editor,
editors, and journalists. Senior Journalists KompasEditor Kompas.com
Hence, what is called multimedia in same contents is, the medium can be different, but the content is same, and leaded by the same conductor. It is also called a convergence process, when he manages, directs every news platforms in one newsroom, such online, television, radio, and also print.
Kompas is also entering to the new application world. We review from the analysis of Philip Meyer: The Death of Newspaper. Anderson: The Web is Dead, Long Live Internet. Kompas that you got from the multime-dia platforms is named as an application.
C: What would be the newsroom in the future? P: The circle consists of Editors, Managing Editors, and Editor in Chief. If we see from the picture, they are online journalists. From my opinion, this picture would be the ideal one. The structure may such a CNN newsroom (he showed the picture of some newsroom). There also giants screening to monitor the news flow.
If I were in the Training Development Department, I would recruit the journalists, who were active in social media, at least they have a blog. If they pass, I will send them to the field, to write for online. In the past, they were training to write news for newspaper, not online. Hence, today, it’s difficult to change their paradigm to be online. They don’t get the feeling on it.
C: Does Kompas apply some rules or policies in order to do changes? P: They (journalists) have to be induced mandatory - 20% of the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is contributed for online. Eventually they had to write to fulfill the 20% scored. Like or not, they should jump over. Before the policy went, the management had implemented a reward, IDR 5000 for each news that sent to online. However, it didn’t effective. By the 20% policy , a journalist have to send the news minimum two news in a day, or 60 news for a month.
In last January, Mr. Jakob Oetama (the founder of Kompas Gramedia) has declared a statement, "Online First". Then, it was translated by the Editor in Chief, Managing Editor and editors.
C: How Kompas maintain the credibility and existency among the media competition?P: The credibility of Kompas still awake. In Alexa, for instance, The credibility of Kompas is still maintained. In Alexa, for instance, Kompas.com rank 13 in Indonesia. However ,we have to change the paradigm, our minds, and action.
A newsroom convergence
source: editorsweblog.com
attachment III personal interviewon 24 July 2011
E d i T a s l i m
C: What is the background of Kompas to be a convergence?
E: In 2007, a strategy called ,‘Three M’- Multi Media- MultiChannel –
Multiplatform launched.
The strategy is based on how Kompas doesn’t make content for print, but
also photos, videos, and audios, so the media has become multi-. The
content we send in may channels, not just in physic (newspaper agent or
books stores), but today from digital channel, such 3G networks, internet
system. Audiences also access from blackberry, iPhone, iPad, notebook,
and others, which called as multiplatform.
Vice Business Director Kompas Business GM Kompas.com
The convergence surely changes the operational. The journalist can’t use old ways. The content used to be sent in the evening, but today, what is the event, and should send the news at that time.
However there are differences between characters of news in each media. The character of online is hard, direct , and need quickness, so it cannot implement in print. Meanwhile, in print, the news is more analyzed and deeper. Therefore, it depends on the level of news
Moreover, the production become the key factor on 3M. How to package Kompas in multiplatform. For instance, how to display content in Nokia or Blackberry. Each platform has different system and characters. Kompas is the most available media in every platforms, such iPad, and playbook. In iPad itself, we got an award in Asia, because of the richness of content.
C: How the convergence process in the newsroom? E: In the newsroom, we made a special department for multimedia, called a multimedia desk. In the future, a multimedia desk is a desk which would be an agent of change. Some of journalists and editors are placed in the desk, then we give a responsibility to them as agents of change in the editorial. They produce the multimedia content for multimedia platforms, which are assisted by layout designer.
C: The circulation of newspaper is going down, and even bankcrupt. Does it happen to Kompas?E: Asia is different, the circulation of Kompas is stagnant, not go down, but it grow slowly since 1995. Many factors affect, such as a digital become the alternative, a reader literacy in Indonesia. However, the newspaper is still growing in Indonesia.
C: How much the budget that spent to prepare the convergence organization? E: We have no exact number of fund. The process just flows. From 1998, Kompas Cyber Media, a subsidiary of Kompas daily, was established. In 2007, a Multimedia desk was built. The expensive thing is not the infrastruc-ture, but the process in the changing.
C: How to implement the convergence in media? E: - We give training to print journalists conti-nously. Such a video training, so a journalist doesn’t only able to write, but also take photo-graph, and make video. For example, in World Cup Africa 2010, the journalist didn’t just write for print, but he reported vith voice. - By influence to others. Some of journalists and editors are placed at Kompas..com, learn online news. During three months, they will be rotated, and changed with others. Moreover, we socialize the ‘Three M’, and some games related the sociali-zation program. We also present some events and seminars from WAN-IFRA to gain our knowledges.
C: What is the future planning for Kompas toward the media convergence? E: The point is, how we empower all the content in Kompas, our journalists. Kompas today is not just a newspaper, but Kompas is a brand, could be in paper, television, online, and digital. In the future, we surely strength our capability, by generating all the new technology. Therefore, Kompas is always become the first in adopting the technology. We believe, technology is some-thing that we have to embrace, not to be scared. When we launched Kompas epaper, we had worried if it may be threatened the print, because the content is same.
This desk is a kind of small silo, but the objective is to influence all journalists to do the same things as they do today. We won’t call them print journalists, or online, or tv reporters, but in the next, we will call them multimedia journalists. However, it is a continuous process, never ending.
