CMT Local News Symposium Adelaide Sprint

 © Tony Lewis

Last month, the CMT and the Google News Initiative facilitated the inaugural Local News Symposium in Adelaide. Dozens of regional editors and publishers from across Victoria and South Australia came along to brainstorm ideas and share their wisdom.

The symposium built on the idea that what unites regional and independent news media is far greater than what divides it. There are shared challenges – and opportunities – at every turn.

The day came in two parts: the first half identified the challenges, drawing on insights from attendee's experiences while including up-to-date research by Caroline Fisher from the University of Canberra, and Eric Sidoti from the University of Western Sydney.

CMT Caroline Fisher - Local News Symposium Adelaide

 © Tony Lewis

The second half of the day was dedicated to working on potential solutions. Google had on hand two experts in teasing out solutions to problems using user design skills and methods. Some themes and questions that arose from the day were:

  1. How to best turn readership into revenue; 
  2. How to build a sustainable business through innovation;
  3. What role, if any, should government play in helping publishers;
  4. What role, if any, should digital platforms play;
  5. What skills are lacking – and how to grow them; and
  6. What regulatory changes could assist regional news media.

Opinion Media also screened their short film featuring brief interviews with people on where they get their news. Watch it below.

UBGZ-9Jq8lI

Transcript

[Screen text: Barossa Valley, South Australia] [Text: Opinion Media] [Text: Where do you get your news from?]

Speaker 1: Mainly from the local papers, The Herald and The Leader, just for local news, and just an app on my phone.

Speaker 2: Mostly the ABC, Triple J.

Speaker 3: I get most of my news from The Herald, that’s free delivery, of course.

Speaker 2: I tend to watch ABC News in the evenings.

Speaker 3: Facebook – friends often are going to different events around, so I pick up on that. My hubby works at Yalumba, so that seems to be a fountain of information.

Speaker 4: So everything is kind of online now for the most part. I use my iPhone and use the news app on there quite a bit. But being in the country as well, we have a pretty unbelievable local country newspaper. For me, I come from a big city, Vancouver, so coming to the country is like a step back in time.

Speaker 5: We get the local newspaper from The Advertiser – I can pick up that daily – and also our local Leader paper, which is done weekly.

Speaker 6: I get my local news from social media. I do use social media quite a lot because I am a youth.

Speaker 7: I get my news from the radio while I am travelling in the car.

Speaker 8: Mostly from Facebook – we’ve got the Cross Valley Chat page, which is where I get most of what’s going on around the area.

Speaker 9: I love looking on YouTube. I find out all sorts of things on there. I also, as I said, buy the newspaper as well.

Speaker 4: I read the local newspaper called The Leader, and you actually read stories about people you interact with on a day-to-day basis. There’s quite a bit of good news in it, as opposed to sitting down and watching any of the major news channels at night. So yeah, mostly online but also local papers.