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a story remotely – whether it’s in an internet cafe, a hotel, my home or the front lines. The question we’re seeing in every other industry about remote working is also now critical to news operations,” explains Hedley. EXPANDING THE REGION Some of the key customers for Sony’s Media Backbone Hive are the regional broadcasters. They are not – or not yet – among the handful of top-tier global networks, but are producing news and filing stories in volume and often across large areas. One of the biggest areas they have to cover is the online world. These broadcasters are looking for improved workflow, especially among their social media teams and web teams. Until now, these organisations have had multiple systems interacting, but are at the point where they need to share content much, much faster. “The goal of news has now moved from being the first to air on television. It’s the first to publish now. It’s becoming really critical to get the story, even if it’s just text, out and onto social media or onto the website straightaway – then the story evolves,” says Hedley.
CUSTOMERS WERE STARTING TO SAY, ‘I DON’ T WANT TO HAVE ALL THIS EQUIPMENT TICKING OVER ON MY PREMISES’
It’s a hard truth that TV news is not the first to break a news story. Now, stories usually break on social media – and are frequently broken by members of the public instead of journalists. When speed is not going to be your USP anymore, which quality is going to keep people tuning into a news brand? “Broadcasters are now competing with the large internet organisations – and even with the consumers – in sourcing stories. There’s a lot of content being generated by non-journalists and newsrooms have to use those as their first sources. So the real driver for broadcasters we see at the moment is not only speed, but the creation of a trusted brand,” says Hedley. Increasingly, the new style of newsroom is incorporating as much speed and flexibility into operations as possible. But the key differentiator now is quality; the
ability to provide trusted news consistently across a range of platforms, including social media, website and television. “There’s a real drive now for broadcasters to become that trusted provider, rather than just the first to break the story. I think they see real value in effectively curated news and being the source people go to because they trust the people writing it. There’s a real battle against the whole ‘fake news’ phenomenon. “The drive from our side is to give them access to the content and access to newsfeeds, so their editorial teams and their journalists can actually build those stories for them,” concludes Hedley.
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