OSCE WEBINAR ON DIGITIZATION OF PRINT MEDIA WITH PARTICIPATION OF FOREIGN EXPERTS

On November 10, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Center in Ashgabat held a webinar entitled “Digitization of Print Media and Digital Distribution: Major Challenges”.

The online meeting was held as part of the project aimed to provide assistance in media reforms and the modernization of media legislation.

Director General of Altapress Publishing House Yuri Purgin (Barnaul, Russia), who told about the rise and evolution of digital newspapers taking Altapress as an example, highlighted the role of feedback from readers and digital platform users, and analyzed the impact of communication devices (computers, tablets, mobile phones) on the content of electronic mass media websites.

The expert pointed out that it is not quite right to divide publications into print and online versions. He believes that it would be more effective to teach journalists how to work in digital editions.

In the second part of the webinar, journalist Vadim Makarenko (the newspaper “Gazeta Vyborcha”, Warsaw, Poland) traced the development of ways of distributing digital publications via online kiosks, aggregators, and other platforms that feature several publications on the same website.

The expert addressed the problems and difficulties that publishers can run into on this way and showed the need for joint efforts and cooperation among various publications in the transmission of digital content, stressing the increased role of audio-visual content dissemination.

Selling news in the world where a huge amount of information is freely available is the main problem digital newspapers are confronted with. How can a local newspaper operating on a modest budget compete for readers with media giants with unrivalled human and financial resources? The experts looked at two ways, at least. The first way is to improve the level of local news. Detailed coverage of social life will lead to its intensification and will provide more news stories.

The second way is to increase unique, original content that is interesting to the public, but is lost in the flow of information.

To illustrate his point, Mr. Makarenko gave an example of three Dutch journalists, who provide transport sector workers across the world with information on services operated by Maersk, a container shipping company.

Then, webinar participants asked the experts a number of follow-up questions and discussed issues of further cooperation in the context of providing assistance in the digitization of print media of Turkmenistan. The next meeting that will focus on the same theme is scheduled for November 19. It is going to be interesting!

http://turkmenistan.gov.tm/_eng/?id=15356