Joachim Voegele: On-line News Will Prevail over Print Editions in 10 Years

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | June 17, 2003, Tuesday // 00:00
Joachim Voegele: On-line News Will Prevail over Print Editions in 10 Years Joachim Voegele

Joachim Voegele is a German trainer and journalist. He participated in developing and launching the on-line editions of two regional newspapers (http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de) and (http://www-stuttgarter-nachrichten.de). As an on-line editor he was responsible for the computer channel of these on-line-editions and the youth magazine "S-Trip". He is now focusing on new methods of on-line knowledge-building and on-line learning.

Mr. Voegele answered questions of Milena Hristova, Editor-in-Chief of novinite.com and The News

Q: You conducted recently in Sofia a training course on "Writing for the Internet", which involved participants from Southeastern Europe. How do you assess the development of on-line media in these countries in comparison with Western Europe?

A: There is a very high "density" of on-line media in Western Europe. Most publishing houses maintain their on-line-editions, radio and TV-stations are on-line and there are various independent news-sites. The internet-boom of the late 90s pushed a lot of money into those developments. In a contrast to that I found much less on-line-news media in Eastern Europe, but some of those I evaluated were of high standard. One of the differences of development is that they often target an audience abroad. In Western European countries, on-line-media focus on national and regional audiences. A high percent of the population there has internet-access and people are very interested in local news. While in Germany we entered a phase of consolidation after the end of the "dotcom"-boom with many on-line-media putting on the break and reducing staff, some vanishing, I felt a lot of enthusiasm among Eastern European on-line-journalists. I think on-line media have a different role here - because on-line-publishing is rather inexpensive, it's a chance for small and independent media to provide information to a broad audience.

Q: How does the work of an on-line editor in Germany differ from the responsibilities of his/her colleague in Bulgaria?

A: In Novinite.com I found an example of an on-line edition, where editors produce original content by gathering material and writing on-line-stories. You don't find this kind of on-line-journalism very often in Germany any more. On-line-editions usually are huge sites with lots of content and services, and the job of the on-line-editor is to compile and manage this content, using sources such as news-wires, content syndicators and content from the "mother-media" (print edition, TV station). The editor's responsibilities depend on the size of the department. Sometimes there are only two editors in charge of the whole site. In those cases, most of the content consists of automized news-feed from various sources. Sometimes there are up to 20 journalists working in the on-line-department, each of them being responsible for a certain section. Generally speaking my impression is that wire-services, which play a crucial role in Germany, are not that common in Bulgaria and that here you find on-line-journalists who grab the phone and do hands-on research.

Q: A number of Bulgarian news providers exist independently and not as a supplement to print editions that publishers have for prestige. Is this the case in Western Europe and Germany in particular?

A: There are news-sites which are not on-line-editions of print-newspapers, radio- or TV-stations in Germany. We have Netzeitung.de, which is a big "on-line-only" newspaper in the Internet. Besides, not all publishing houses produce on-line-editions for prestige mainly. One of the most renowned news-site in Germany, Spiegel.de, is run by a big publisher who publishes a print-magazine and broadcasts a TV-channel. Their news-site is an independent media-development, a new channel. However, as news-sites don't generate much revenue yet you still need to put money into them. Only those can survive who have a financially potent partner or mother-company.

Q: Which do you consider the most important principles for the success of an on-line news provider?

A: Relying on a well-established brand-name in the offline-world helps a lot. If you start with a new on-line-project from the scratch without that, you have to find ways to spread you name, to make other media talk about you and users forward your articles to others, because they are so good. Services such as a newsletter, to which the readers can subscribe, are beneficial.

It's important that you know who your audience is and what are their expectations. Don't try to reach everyone by offering everything! It's more important that you do really well what you do. In my opinion, quality is a key aspect of success in the Internet. There is so much poor quality out there, and if something is really well done and useful, the news will spread and people will stick to it.

As to the design, stick to the conventions and be different at the same time. People don't want to get bored by your design, but they need orientation and don't want to have to adjust to new navigation principles with every site they visit.

Q: How do you get the morning news - on-line, by print editions on radio or TV?

A: I listen to the morning news show on Deutschlandradio, a nation-wide public radio station, which delivers latest news and background information, interviews and so on. At breakfast I scan the local newspaper to recapture yesterday's news. Depending on whether there are developments I want to follow I log on to my favourite news-sites various times during the day in my office. In the evening I like reading the cultural and local section of the newspaper. Later I usually watch the late-night news-show "Tagesthemen" on public TV.

I am not naturally a "heavy-internet-user" and love radio and print-newspaper. If I hadn't subscribed to the print-edition, I'd read much more news on-line, though. During work hours I spend quite some time reading on-line-news for research for my job.

Q: What is the Internet penetration rate in Germany and how does it reflect on the number of people who get the news on-line?

A: In 2002, 43 percent of German households had access to the Internet. In average, in Europe 40 percent of households were on-line. The latest numbers show, that in Germany in the first three months of this year 46 percent of the poupulation have used the Internet. In average, a quarter of all Germans are daily on-line. Among the top ten services that users look for are world news (42 percent) and local/regional news (34 percent). Those numbers show that reading news is a very important reason for users to go on-line.

Q: What will it take for on-line editions to become more attractive to advertisers?

A: At first glance it seems simple since Internet provides very good measures for tracking. You can tell exactly how many people looked at a page and saw the ad, how many clicked on the ad, and so on. That means that if your page is successful, the advertisers should be interested. It also depends on your target group, of course. If your target group is spread all over the world, it will be hard to attract local advertisers. If you are too small, big international advertisers aren't interested. In Europe, prices for advertisements have dropped enormously due to the "dotcom"-crisis and many publishers rather don't place ads than selling space for dumping prices.

I personally don't believe in the benefit of advertisements for news-sites too much. They disturb the design and the flow of reading, readers don't like them - you shouldn't have too much of them on your homepage. News-sites need to apply a whole set of measures to make money: Selling their content to other media, billing of premium-content, sponsored newsletters, subscriber models. In Germany, most news-sites are not generating enough revenue to sustain themselves without external financing.

Q: Do you believe one day on-line media will prevail over print editions? Is their central role unassailable?

A: I believe that future generations, who grow up with the Internet and maybe never had their father reading newspaper at the breakfast table, will be lost for the print editions. For them, reading news on-line will be the natural thing - they won't miss the look-and-feel of the newspaper. Newspapers won't die, though, for there will be always people who love them - just like books in the video-age still are very popular. But I think in 10 years, on-line news will in fact prevail over print editions. Radio and TV will be equally important sources of information.

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