The WEF report’s top 10 newsroom trends for 2014 are:
1. Moves to shield journalism in the post-Snowden era
2. The rebooting of mobile strategy as “wearables” hit the market
3. How social media verification is supporting trust and credibility
4. The way data and analytics are driving the news agenda
5. Newspapers’ video starts to challenge broadcasters
6. The rise (and fall) of women editors
7. Global collaborative journalism breaks new barriers
8. The need for digital mega-stories
9. The ethical challenges of native advertising
10. The evolving role of the editor
The report is based on interviews conducted with more than 30 editors and senior journalists in more than a dozen countries and incorporates trends that were tracked by the World Editor Forum’s editorsweblog.org over the past year. It includes in-depth analyses and is framed by interviews with five of the world’s news business “thought leaders”, including The Guardian’s Janine Gibson, The New York Times’ Margaret Sullivan, Knight Foundation’s Michael Maness, Twitter's Vivian Schiller and Nation Media Group's Joseph Odindo.
“The past year has been a defining one for newsrooms,” said Erik Bjerager, President of the Paris-based World Editors Forum, the organization within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for chief editors and other senior newsroom personnel.
“The exposé of the extent of state surveillance through Edward Snowden’s leaks sparked stellar investigative journalism and unprecedented global collaboration between publications and editors,” he said. “But the consequences for the way we practice our craft and communicate with sources are significant.”
The report also focuses on the evolution of news in the face of constant and rapid technological developments.
“The relentless advances in digital technology continue to redefine the newsroom,” Mr Bjerager said. “They affect the way we organise ourselves, engage with audiences, find and verify increasingly diverse content and tell our stories.”
“The tipping towards the digital first environment has shown how many practices need urgent revisiting, ethical codes need updating, and new skills need to be introduced to allow news producers to remain competitive and relevant. The result is a unique space for creation, innovation and reinvention,” he said.
Trends in Newsrooms 2014 is available (in English) free to members of the World Editors Forum and for purchase by non-members.
Nearly 1,000 chief editors, publishers, CEOs, managing directors and other senior newspaper and news publishing executives are attending the World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum in Torino, Italy, this week, where Trends in Newsrooms was launched. Live updates are available on the conference blog at or via Twitter: live coverage @NewsConf, curated updates @NewspaperWorld and via the hashtags #wnc14 and #Editors14
