Making the Media

More than a year after COVID-19 sent shockwaves through news teams worldwide, once-strange notions of remote access and distributed teams are par for the course. So that begs the question, what’s next?

In this episode, we ask: What’s the next evolution of distributed news production? What technology and workflow changes are needed to support this shift? And perhaps most important, how do we get the skeptics on board?

Our Guest This Episode

Adde Granberg, CTO of Swedish Television (SVT), has worked in the television industry since 1991, starting as a sound engineer at Swedish youth channel ZTV before running a broadcast consultancy where he specialized in live events. He joined SVT in 2010 with a remit to improve the technical infrastructure and workflow at the station. He was responsible for managing the remote TV production for the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and is currently moving SVT towards an IP- and cloud-based future.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

One of the most exciting (and, frankly, challenging) opportunities for broadcast news organizations is adjusting to platform fragmentation. Emerging digital platforms can unlock innovative new ways of approaching storytelling and reaching new audiences.

In this episode, we ask: What emerging platforms are ripe for innovation? How can legacy broadcasters learn from and embrace new forms of storytelling? And how can they turn this into new audiences and revenue streams?

Our Guest This Episode

Dr. Marie Elisabeth Mueller is an award-winning professional, new media educator, trainer, and news futurist who guides teams in newsrooms, NGOs, and small and medium-sized businesses to reach a new professional level with smart technologies and digital workflows. Dr. Mueller, who holds a Ph.D. in media science on digital storytelling from the University of Constance, has in-depth experience as a journalist, writer, and creative director at public broadcaster SWR and as a professor of digital journalism and online media management at the Stuttgart Media University.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Top-down technology decisions don’t win tech leaders any popularity awards—but most importantly, they run the risk of missing crucial needs that weren’t properly articulated.

In this episode we ask: What’s a better process for making technology decisions that truly reflect evolving news workflows? How has the democratization of technology given end users a voice? And how do you go about building a user-first tech stack?

Our Guest This Episode

Morten Brandstrup is Head of News Technology at TV2 in Denmark, where he bridges the gap between news production and technology, with a focus on providing the right toolbox for reporters and photographers. He has spent his professional life in news, event, and sports production, having been a sound engineer, cameraman, director, editor, satellite operator, and field producer.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Artificial intelligence is a fascinating--and often thoroughly misunderstood--topic, and it's making its way into the world of news.

In this episode, we ask: What are the cutting-edge applications of AI in the news industry? How can we deploy it responsibly? Is AI only accessible to the largest organizations with the deepest pockets? And perhaps most importantly, what's next?

Our Guest This Episode

Felix M. Simon is a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and a Knight News Innovation Fellow at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. He also works as a research assistant at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) and regularly writes and comments on technology, media, and politics for various international outlets. His doctoral work at the University of Oxford focuses on the implications of AI in journalism and the news industry. His broader research interests include political communication in the digital age and the changing nature of journalism and the media in the 21st century. He also takes an active interest in populism and the future of mis- and disinformation. Felix graduated with a BA in Film and Media Studies from Goethe-University Frankfurt and holds an MSc in Social Science of the Internet from the OII. He is currently a fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Broadcast TV isn’t the only game in town anymore, if it ever was. Being where your audience is—mobile, digital, wherever they may be—is a big challenge, but also a big opportunity to reach new audiences.

In this episode, we ask: Can platform fragmentation actually help broadcasters get closer to their audience? What insights can digital platforms unlock? And how can broadcasters pivot to deliver to new platforms, while still meeting the needs of the platforms where they are well established?

Our Guests This Episode

Matt Goldberg is the VP of Content Strategy for the NBC-owned TV stations, where he leads the team that developed and launched LX. Matt has been with NBC for 17 years, previously as Assistant News Director at KNBC in Los Angeles and at NBC Bay Area. Prior to moving into management, Matt was an award-winning investigative producer. Matt was an elected board member of the non-profit Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and served as Board President from 2016-18. He began his career in TV news while attending Arizona State and has also worked in Houston, Texas.

Philip Bromwell, a pioneer of mobile journalism, is the Digital Native Content Editor at RTÉ, Ireland’s national public service broadcaster. In over two decades as a journalist, he has reported on a wealth of stories at home and abroad, including covering the Olympics, the Oscars, the refugee crisis, and a rare assignment in Tibet. At RTÉ, Philip leads a team of mobile journalists creating original “digital-first” stories on mobile devices for audiences that are increasingly consuming content on their phones.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Other industries have been using the cloud for years, but broadcasters have been reluctant to embrace it—until COVID-19 forced the issue of enabling remote work. Still, it’s an uneasy embrace, and misconceptions about and mistrust of the cloud still linger in the industry.

In this episode, we ask: Are attitudes toward the cloud finally shifting? Where is—and where isn’t—cloud feasible for broadcast workflows? What fundamental misunderstandings still need to be cleared up? And how can leaders who see the promise of the cloud get started?

Our Guest This Episode

Mohamad Fares currently leads broadcast technology at Qatar Television. With over 20 years of experience in the technology field, he works with a team of engineers and workflow consultants to deliver and support best-of-breed broadcast technology solutions and workflows. Under his leadership, the broadcast technology team looks after post production, archive, and playout.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

Story creation is a team sport. Between in-studio talent, reporters in the field, and remote collaborators, news teams have had to balance the need to stay safe through a global pandemic with the practical reality of continuing to deliver a quality service across multiple platforms.

In this episode, we ask: What are the strengths and weaknesses of a distributed model versus a more traditional approach in terms of team collaboration? How do you keep teams feeling connected and engaged, particularly when teamwork is no longer as easy as just leaning over to your neighbor?

Our Guest This Episode

Ilkka Ahtiainen has been the Editor in Chief of the Finnish commercial broadcaster MTV3 since March 2020 after building his career as a political journalist, foreign correspondent, and Sunday Editor at Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest daily in Finland. He lives in Helsinki with his wife and two teenage children.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton, Gina Pryor, and Mary Reynolds

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

News is not a forgiving field. Long hours, tight deadlines, intense subject matter—all are par for the course. Add the stress and isolation of a pandemic, and you’ve got one heck of a pressure cooker.  

Our Guest This Episode

Bob Ellis is the Vice President and General Manager of WJXT and WCWJ in Jacksonville, Florida. Under Ellis’ leadership, WJXT has widened the gap as the most-watched television station in Jacksonville and sharply focused its efforts to leverage their News4JAX brand on its digital platforms, for which they earned the national Edward R. Murrow award as he best local television website in the United States in 2014. In 2013, Ellis was named General Manager of the Year for markets 25-50 by Broadcasting and Cable Magazine.

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Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin

The pandemic has forced us to re-conceptualize the newsroom from a physical location to a collection of people who could, in theory, be anywhere.

In this episode, we ask: What does a virtual newsroom look like? And to follow on: What is gained or lost in a virtual environment? Is it realistic in the long term—or even desirable? And what are newsrooms doing today that could stay with us even after we’ve resumed some sense of normalcy?

Our Guest This Episode

Bobby Hain is STV’s Managing Director, Broadcast. He is responsible for the company’s PSB licenses in north and central Scotland. Bobby has over thirty-five years’ experience in broadcasting across television, radio, and online, having started as a presenter in 1981. He is a member of both BAFTA and RTS Scotland. He is a member of the Management Board of the Industry and Parliamentary Trust and a former chair of Creative Skillset Scotland and Scottish Youth Theatre.

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For more on this topic, check out:

Contact Us

Questions? Comments? Cool ideas? Get in touch: [email protected] or @craigaw1969. Follow Avid at @avid.

Credits

Host: Craig Wilson

Producer: Rachel Haberman

Social: Wim van den Broeck

Promotion: Keri Middleton and Gina Pryor

Theme Music: Greg “Stryke” Chin