Thread by @risj_oxford

🗺️Here a few takeaways from our expert panels of journalists at the Africa, Asia-Pacific and India launch events of our #DNR20 👇

🧵Gain a global perspective on the state of news media worldwide in the thread below, with links to our launch videos

🇿🇦“At a time when journalism really matters and the public is looking for good journalism to make sense of this pandemic the industry is not coping. Advertising revenue almost disappeared and print/broadcasters had to introduce salary cuts,” says @hlatseentle, EIC @ewnupdates

“Although trust scores are high we also see people are much more concerned in 🇰🇪and 🇿🇦 about misinformation, with around 70%+ saying they find it hard to tell the difference between what’s true/false on the internet,” says #DNR20 author @nicnewman

🇰🇪“As we come out of the pandemic, we will have to get more innovative on how to monetise content. Audiences want video content more than written content yet it’s harder content to monetise,” says @MukamiPurity on the financial challenges facing Kenyan newsrooms

🇿🇦“People still assume, ‘If I’m paying for data… I should be able to access things for free’. We have quite a long way to go in convincing the public to pay for online news,” says @hlatseentle at the #DNR20 Africa launch

🇿🇦“The media industry in African countries needs to do a lot more to invest to get data and information together, so we can learn from each other rather than having to learn from the data set that comes from Europe and North and South America,” says @ChrisRoper of @Code4Africa

🎬Watch the Africa launch of the #DNR20 held in partnership with @Code4Africa here:

🇮🇳Founder/CEO of @TheQuint, @kapur_ritu says: “I’m constantly having debates with people on WhatsApp who are not willing to look at data or credible news sources, but are happy to look at whatever’s coming to them through propaganda media or [anonymous] ‘news content’.”

“Government advertising is a very big source of revenue right now,” says @panavi of @ABPNews. “Through a network like ours it is close to about 10%.”

“If you can build direct traffic to your site - and part of that includes paywalls - I don’t think advertising is disappearing anytime soon,” says @kapur_ritu of @TheQuint during the 🇮🇳 launch of our #DNR20

🇮🇳“We saw lots of news items related to things like treatments and what doctors said were viewed many times. People have a curiosity and a thirst for knowledge from credible sources. There was a higher level of direct traffic to our site than ever before, up 300%,” says @panavi

🎙️@anantgoenka of the @IndianExpress says, “We see the average time on site as 2-3 minutes, but if someone’s coming and spending 15 minutes on a piece of content in audio format, it’s a really encouraging sign.”

.@rasmus_kleis: “It’s very hard to start charging for news if half the population [in 🇮🇳] has never really paid the cost of the news that they consume. I hope more publishers will convince people that their journalism is distinct and valuable enough that it’s worth paying for.”

🇮🇳“I think news is a unique market where more competition has reduced the quality of news,” says @AbhinandanSekhr of @newslaundry.

🎥Watch the India #DNR20 launch event held in partnership with @newslaundry here:

🌏At our APAC #DNR20 event @rishadist of @splicenewsroom says: “We’re seeing the emergence of such a seeding of ideas for media start-ups. This has afforded them a massive opportunity. You have low costs, a ton of free tools and ideas. We like to call it the golden age of media.”

🇵🇭“In the case of @rapplerdotcom, we launched our crowdfunding efforts and our membership programme at the height of government attacks on the newsroom. This is how our loyal readers saw a way to support us directly,” says @miriamgracego

📈@yingworld: “Hong Kong has seen 29% of readers pay for news, a spike of 12% from the year before. That should make us proud as we support the news. Against a background of traditional, corporate-owned polarised media, you have an explosion of independent media to give a voice.”

🤔At the #DNR20 APAC launch, author @nicnewman says “In 🇲🇾 and 🇵🇭 more people are concerned about the government as a source of misinformation; In 🇭🇰 and 🇦🇺it’s activists; in 🇰🇷 it’s journalists; in 🇯🇵 and 🇹🇼 people are concerned about ordinary people spreading misinformation.”

🇵🇭“Every time there’s a disaster or an emergency, even people who share disinformation, they go to traditional media outlets. And then when things die down they go back to their old habits,” says @miriamgracego of @rapplerdotcom at our APAC #DNR20 launch

Watch our Asia-Pacific #DNR20 launch event held in partnership with @splicenewsroom here: