Dont miss this Spring date: The business of visual journalism will be under the spotlight at the Spring 2014 DEN meeting to be hosted by The Financial Times

Mark your diary; you'll definitely not want to miss this one. 

We’re delighted to announce that the theme for the Spring Digital Editors Network meeting on 5 June 2014 is VisualDEN and that our hosts are The Financial Times, London.

The convergence of journalism and technology as we move to a digital world opens up countless rich possibilities for presentation, for innovation and creative display. From web design, to user experience (UX), sharing to navigation; data visualisations to slideshows and interactive. The way we offer our content to readers is richer and more diverse than it ever was on paper, and the speed of digital development is lightning fast.

So, who is doing good things? Who is doing it best? What do we need to know? And what do we need to avoid at all costs?  

Over the coming months we’ll be working with FT Associate Editor Lisa MacLeod, who is head of Head of Operations of FT.Com, to put together a programme that will aim to answer those questions - and to examine the practical implications for your business, your team and you.

If you'd like to contribute ideas, speak, host, sponsor or collaborate on the VisualDEN event, or a future DEN meetup or workshop, don’t hesitate to contact any of the other convenors: François Nel at FPNel @ uclan.ac.uk, Nick Turner at nick.turner @ cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk , or LuciaAdams at lucia.adams @ news.co.uk

Since 2007, the Digital Editors Network has worked to link media innovators, whether they work inside, outside or alongside mainstream media organisations. You can connect with DEN by liking our Facebook page, joining our Linkedin group , or following us on Twitter @DENupdates or this blog .

Follow the #smartDEN conversation live here on October 15th (or catch up later)

What a line-up we have for today at 3 Thomas More Street, as the programme below shows!

For those who can't join us in person, we'll be showcasing the #smartDEN Twitter conversation here, too.

 

 Today's event is supported by these smart  companies: Ciklum , Byte9, News UK, University of Central Lancashire, and the CN Group.

 #smartDEN Programme

   

13:30 Registration and coffee

14:00 Intro:  François Nel

14:05 Welcome: Katie Vanneck Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at News UK

14:15 SESSION 1: Towards a Smart Content Strategy: how publishers are approaching digital at a strategic level (Chair: Lucia Adams)

14:15-14:25 Mary Beth Christie of the FT: making a success subscriptions and digital transformation

14:25-14:35 Kevin Delaney, disruption and the Quartz journey

14:35-14:45 Julia Hutchison of FMG Group on how brands are getting into the editorial game

14:45 Q&A Discussion

15:00: Pause

15:15. SESSION 2: Strategy in motion: case studies of how news publishers are crafting smart content (Chair: François Nel)

15:20-15:30 Jo Alicata, ex ESPN, now at Chartbeat on the challenges of data and cultural change  

15:30-15:40 Dan Owen, digital editor for Daily Post, Wales, on piloting Trinity Mirror’s Newsroom 3.0

15:40-15:50 Ola Henriksson of Svenska Dagbladet on experimentation in the newsroom  

15:50-16:00 Angus Phillipson of Byte9 on smart content curation

16:00-16:10 Tom Whitwell, of The Times and Sunday Times, on paywalls and using CIA-grade tech to better understand reading habits

16:15 Q &A Discussion

16:30 BREAK & coffee

17:00 SESSION 3: Roundtable on Implementing SMART / Leading Innovation (Nick Turner, chair)

17:05 Alison Gow, editor of Daily Post, Wales

17:15 Lucia Adams, deputy head of digital for The Times and Sunday Times  

17:25 Stijn Debrouwere, Knight-Mozilla OpenNews fellow working at the Guardian

17:35 Q&A with key lessons for SMART media organisations

17:50 Thanks + what’s next: François

18:00 Closing remarks: John Witherow, Editor of The Times & networking reception

Please  direct questions to the convenors at digitaleditorsnetwork @ gmail.com .

#smartDEN Smart Content (not Smart Data) in the spotlight at the Autumn 2013 DEN meetup in London

There’s been a lot of talk about ‘Smart Data’ of late, but the focus shifts to ‘Smart Content’ at the next Digital Editors Network meetup on 15 October at News UK, 3 Thomas More Street, London.

‘I see Smart Content as Social, Measurable (yes, we need data too), Audience-focussed, Rewarding (for all involved) and Timely,’ says François Nel, a co-founder of DEN and director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancashire, who worked with Lucia Adams, deputy head of Digital for The Times and The Sunday Times, and Nick Turner, head of digital for the CN Group, to convene the event.

To help further define the concept, share lessons learned through practice and to consider the way forward, they’ve invited a variety of media innovators to what is being called #smartDEN. John Witherow, acting editor of The Times, will welcome participants and presenters, including:

• Julia Hutchinson, head of content for the global marketing solutions business Group FMG, whose clients include Net-A-Porter, Associated Newspapers, Asda, John Lewis & IBM
• Mary Beth Christie, online product management director at Financial Times (FT.com)
• Lucia Adams, deputy head of digital for The Times and The Sunday Times
• Ola Henriksson, project manager of the pioneering SvD.se (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden)
• Alison Gow, editor of Daily Post, Wales, site of Trinity Mirror’s Newsroom 3.0 pilot.
• Joe Alicata, principal product owner of the real-time data analytics tool, Chartbeat (formerly head of ESPN.com )
• Kevin Delaney, editor in chief and co-founder of Quartz, which describes itself as ‘a digitally native news outlet, born in 2012, for business people in the new global economy”.
• Tom Whitwell, head of digital for The Times and The Sunday Times, London

The programme will run from 2pm to 6pm on the 13th Floor of NewsUK’s offices near Tower Bridge, where the great views are sure to provide a suitable backdrop for the lively discussions and networking reception that will follow until 7:30pm. There is no charge for DEN meetups, though donations are invited to cover expenses.

Additional presenters to be confirmed. And, as always, suggestions for speakers and sponsorship are welcome.

Please REGISTER HERE.

Since 2007, the Digital Editors Network has worked to link media innovators, whether they work inside, outside or alongside mainstream media organisations. You can connect with DEN by liking our Facebook page, joining our Linkedin group , or following us on Twitter @DENupdates or this blog .

If you'd like to contribute ideas, speak, host, sponsor or collaborate on a future DEN meetup or workshop, contact the convenors François Nel at FPNel @ uclan.ac.uk, Nick Turner at nick.turner @ cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk , or Lucia Adams at lucia.adams @ news.co.uk .

#smartDEN Mark your diairies: we're off to Wapping in the autumn

This autumn 2013 meeting of the Digital Editors Network on 15 October will definitely not be one to miss.

We're being hosted by News Corp on the 13th Floor of their offices near Tower Bridge, where the great views are sure to provide a suitable backdrop for the lively discussions on how innovating news media companies are using data to inform smart content and commercial strategies.

Speakers to be confirmed. And, as always, suggestions are welcome.
  

The Digital Editors Network has worked since 2007 to link media innovators, whether they work inside, outside or alongside mainstream media organisations. You can connect with DEN by  joining our Linkedin group , following us on Twitter @DENupdates or this blog .

If you'd like to contribute ideas, speak, host, sponsor or collaborate on  this or a future DEN meetup or workshop, contact the convenors François Nel FPNel@uclan.ac.uk or
Nick Turner nick.turner@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk.

Follow the discussion at Big Ideas, Big Data on 7 June 2013

The Digital Editors Network is partnering with Martha Stone of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University to stage the first Big Ideas, Big Data conference in the UK on 7 June 2013.

Join the conversation here.


 Amongst the speakers are:
 •Gerd Leonhard, media futurist and Big Data guru
•Jim Roberts, Executive Editor, Reuters Digital, and former Assistant Managing Editor, New York Times
•Neelay Patel, Vice President, The Economist
•Stephen Doig, Pulitzer Prize-winning data journalist & computer-assisted journalism expert and academic
•Andy Mitchell, managing director at ANyMedia network, part of DMGMedia, formerly A&N Media including Daily Mail
•James Ball, Lead data journalist, Guardian •Sanjeevan Bala, Channel 4 Head of Data Planning and Analytics
•Simon Thomas, Strategic Systems Director, Global Analytics and Insight, GroupM EMEA
•Dr. Bernie Hogan, Big Data scientist, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
•Martha Stone, Big Data researcher, Reuters Institute and conference organiser
•Marco Billeter, CEO, Premium Publisher Network Switzerland.

Follow the action at the 20th World Editors Forum in Bangkok

For those in the Digital Editors Network who, like me, are too wrapped up to join the 1000+ participants at 20th World Editors Forum in Bangkok from June 2nd to 5th, here's a great way to keep your finger on the pulse.

Regular DEN participant (and JLeaders grad) Steve Matthewson, Managing Editor: News for Business Day and BDLive in South Africa, will be in Thailand and has kindly agreed to keep an ear to ground for issues and opportunities that would be of particular interest to DEN folks.

In addition, we'll be feeding in the Twitter hashtag  #editors2013 - so join the conversation, too.

#responsiveDEN Coming to you live from the Media Factory

#responsiveDEN Responsive Design isn't just about design or technology

There's little doubt that forward-thinking news publishers big and small will be ramping up their mobile efforts in 2013.

But while that may be strategically straightforward, implementing an effective cross-media publishing strategy will continue to present significant technical, organisational and business challenges.

With the array of channels and devices increasing, it's probably not surprising that the RWD (Responsive Web Design) vs AWD (Adaptive Web Design) is a hot debateright now. Or that the title for the next Digital Editors Network meetup on 21 Februrary in the Media Factory in Preston is #responsiveDEN.

Sure, we'll be taking an indepth look at the various approaches to web design that intends to provide an optimal viewing experience — easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling — across a wide range of devices from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones. But we'll also be thinking more laterally about what Responsive Design means, including the need for content to be in formats that enable innovation in presentation forms (across channels, devices), functions (customisation, curation, repurposed, conversation, etc ) and financing (costs savings, additional income). These obviously have implications not only on operational level, but also for the business.

To help us unpick the issues, the #responsiveDEN programme, which kicks off with lunch  at 12:45 and runs until 5pm, followed by a networking reception until 6:30, will include: 

Indepth case studies: "Implementing RWD at leading news publishers in the UK and US"

• MNA Digital development manager Mark Cadmanand electronic editor Abigail Edge who led the team that charted the Express and Star and Shropshire Star’s route to responsive web design will be lifting the lid on that innovative project - and how their efforts have paid off.   
• [Update: 15/01/2013] Seattle Times managing editor for digital Erik Ulkin will be discussing their responsive-design election app - and lessons learned.
• [Update: 15/02/2013] Hayden Evans, creative director of the Trinity Mirror-owned digital agency Rippleffect, will be discussing TM's new adaptive design website. 

Panel Discussion:  "What now, what next? Designing and Managing Responsive Channels, Content, Communities and Commerce" with: 

• Aidan McGrath of Aetopia will talking about managing and monetising so-called "digital assets" (images, video, and pdf's etc.) including:  geotagging assets at point of capture to enable the aggregation and delivery of hyper-local content;  "project-based" content acquisition, curation and workflow; and  monetising assets through B2B and B2C channels.
• Carl Savage of Mobiletech will be giving a Scandanavian  perspective of responsive design. "I’ll be looking beyond the hype of responsive design at the challenges editors face in creating great reader experiences and how to monitise them," said Carl, who has been involved with Internet businesses since the mid-90’s and currently helps Nordic businesses such as MobileTech with their UK sales and marketing.  
• Grig Davidovitz is CEO of RGB Media and regular workshop presenter for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Grig will be presenting a new concept: Journalistic Responsive Design. Using this methode, the journalistic experience is defragmented into its components: modules and article templates. The dynamic connection of the article templates is generating an ever-changing, engaging content experience perfectly fitted for each device and screen size. 
• Paul Egglestone of  Digital Coordinator at UCLan's School of Journalism & Digital Media will be demonstrating the award-winning  Interactive Newsprint project which is bringing together communities, technologists, researchers and professional journalists to develop and test a new way of telling stories using paper that connects to the internet.  

• Rick Waghon is CEO of Addiply. On the back of funding from the Technology Strategy Board to make Addiply's API Public this summer, Addiply ceo Rick Waghorn will outline the opportunities he foresees for mobile app developers to make their designs more responsive to in app advertising.

The discussions will be chaired by DEN co-founders Nick Turner (@nickincumbria), Head of Digital Content for the CN Group, and François Nel, Director of the Journalism Leaders Programmeand the MADE (Media And Digital Enterprise) Project at UCLan.

You can register for one of the 50 spaces at #responsiveDEN  here. 

Since 2007, the Digital Editors Network has worked to link media innovators, whether they work inside, outside or alongside mainstream media organisations. You can connect with DEN by liking our Facebook page, joining our Linkedin group , or following us on Twitter @DENupdates or this blog .

If you'd like to contribute ideas, speak, host, sponsor or collaborate on a future DEN meetup or workshop, contact the convenors François Nel FPNel@uclan.ac.uk or
Nick Turner nick.turner@cumbrian-newspapers.co.uk.