NewsTECHForum: Rebooting The Digital Product Suite

Many news organizations are undertaking a top-to-bottom reassessment of their products across digital platforms from their homepages to news and weather apps and more. A panel at TVNewsCheck’s 11^th annual NewsTECHForum on Dec. 17 at the New York Hilton, co-presented for the first time with the Online News Association (ONA), will look at major changes coming to UX and UI based on consumers’ changing habits.

The session, Rebooting the Digital Product Suite, will bring together digital leaders from across news media working on the forefront of change, sharing how their digital product development reflects larger institutional goals and anticipates the profound impact of AI for both users and news product developers.

Malik Abdullah, VP, product, NPR; Lora Dennis, EVP, multiplatform, NBCU Local; Sam Guzik, senior director of product, New York Public Radio; and David Schmeltzle, founder of BizBudding, will join moderator Rubina Madan Fillion, associate editorial director of AI initiatives, The New York Times for the panel.

“News media are already in the midst of a sea change in their digital product development, where staid websites and apps just won’t cut it against fast-iterating and addictive social platforms,” said Michael Depp, chief content officer, NewsCheckMedia, and editor, TVNewsCheck. “This session will reckon with the complexities of the arms race for digital news consumers’ attention and how resource-strapped news organizations can lean into their strengths to remain competitive with their far-better-resourced tech competitors.

“This panel is the ideal complement to our keynote interview with BBC Studios, focused as they both are in how essential digital platforms remain in cultivating close, first-party relationships with news consumers,” Depp said. “Both will also consider how AI will play a fundamental role in products we’re only beginning to envisage but will soon enough become table stakes.”

NewsTECHForum is co-located with the Sports Video Group Summit. Its 2024 sessions include:

Keynote Interview: (Re)Introducing the BBC — As part of the BBC’s strategy to expand its reach and relevancy among digital audiences outside the U.K., BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the UK’s venerable public service broadcaster, recently re-launched its international news website and app. Jennie Baird, chief product officer of BBC Studios and board chair of the nonprofit Ethical Tech Project, was one of the key architects behind these new digital services. In this NewsTECHForum keynote interview, Baird will discuss the thinking that helped unlock the brand’s multiplatform potential, as well as broader industry challenges facing publishers and broadcasters in an increasingly digital age.

Rewiring Tomorrow’s Newsroom Today — How can a modern newsroom be seamlessly connected to all distribution points, incorporating AI for vital efficiencies in content production and versioning? How can people be better organized with systemic connection points across the organization, especially when multiple platforms (e.g., broadcast or cable networks, streaming channels and digital platforms) are involved? How can duplication be avoided in reporting efforts and production?

Streaming and FAST News 3.0 — How are news organizations tackling challenges in content strategy, product development and news workflow on their AVOD and FAST channels? How are innovators expanding the content pipeline, fine-tuning the product and simplifying workflows?

Scenes from a Gen AI-Enabled Newsroom — News AI pioneers work through scenarios of embracing the technology from pragmatic, ethical, journalistic, technological and cybersecurity lenses in a workshop context. A technologist, newsroom leader, AI ethicist and security leader will address real-world issues like disinformation/deepfakes, versioning and AI as part of the reporting/story building process.

News Production and the Cloud — How are cloud specialists progressing at moving all or part of news production into the cloud? What are the current challenges in terms of controlling cloud computing costs and latency? Are hybrid models emerging? What about redundancy?

Technology Leaders on AI and the News — News media technologists unpack advancements, including generative AI, that will fundamentally change the newsgathering, storytelling, production and multiplatform distribution. How will “zombie processes” be eliminated and journalists, editors and producers work more efficiently and productively under growing economic pressure using new tools that will revolutionize their work?

Register here.