Understanding and Implementing Innovation in News Media and Journalism

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a media company in possession of a good fortune (an audience, brand recognition and decent revenues), must (still) be in want of innovation.The pace of change in our industry means that even the biggest, most successful, companies need to continually innovate, refresh and reinvent what they do and how they do it. Those who don’t risk being left behind, overtaken by digital upstarts, or blown away by more established players with deeper pockets and a longer transformational runway.I asked 10 experts — leading media practitioners, researchers and scholars around the world — for their insights around what constitutes innovation, the barriers to implementing it, and how to overcome these roadblocks.This report is based on a series of in-depth email interviews with ten leading media practitioners, researchers and scholars around the world.It would not have been possible without the thoughtful and insightful contributions provided by Federica Cherubini, Professor Lucy Kueng, Joon-Nie Lau, Nic Newman, Rishad Patel, Professor Devadas Rajaram, Thomas Seymat, Professor Jane Singer, Patricia Torres-Burd and Dr. Gillian Youngs.The report was produced as part of the Journalism Breakthroughs project, run by The Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS); a research center for the study of media, communication, and information policy and its impact on society and practice