Avid Customers: Navigating the Evolving Newsroom
Staying competitive in today’s fast-changing media environment is a challenge newsrooms everywhere face. As consumer habits evolve and technology accelerates, broadcasters are navigating the evolving newsroom to stay relevant and sustainable.
Several news executives recently shared how they are addressing these needs, from meeting the demand for quick, mobile-accessible news to optimizing digital content for social media platforms. Their experiences reflect what the future holds for the news industry.
Hejar Berenji, CTO, Rudaw Media Network, based in Kurdistan; Dina Nimer, Head of Operations, Al Arabiya, based in the United Arab Emirates; and Sohail Noor, CTO, Nukta, based in Pakistan, spoke with Avid Product Evangelist Craig Wilson about the solutions they are finding.
Catering to diverse audiences and languages
A significant concern is the need to create localized content that resonates with different cultural sensibilities. Many news organizations now operate in multilingual environments to serve audiences in various regions. Content must be tailored to the specific needs of each audience while maintaining consistency and quality. For organizations like Rudaw, in Kurdistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, managing multi-language services is an ongoing challenge requiring sophisticated systems and workflows. Rudaw publishes in English, Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish.
“They need short news, some entertainment, but for others they want serious, solid news but not on a TV. They need that on a handheld device in a couple of seconds,” Berenji explains. “This is what we are now trying to achieve and provide either from our website, app, YouTube channel, and our Instagram.”
He added how the end-to-end Avid news solution, including the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX, enables his team to work efficiently and collaboratively together, which is especially helpful for the diverse needs of multi-cultural content creation.
From linear to multi-platform
The traditional linear broadcasting model, where viewers tune in at specific times to watch scheduled content, is rapidly losing ground. This shift is driven by changes in consumer behavior, with audiences increasingly turning to digital platforms like websites, apps, and social media for their news. In addition, advertisers increasingly prefer to target audiences on digital platforms rather than traditional TV. The move toward multi-platform broadcasting is essential for news organizations to remain sustainable.
"The future is here now because the advertiser has already shifted," Sohail says.
News organizations must also cater to platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and mobile apps, delivering content that aligns with user preferences and consumption habits.
"We are trying to push that," said Berenji about their ongoing efforts to ensure news is accessible through mobile apps, websites, and social media.
The need for speed is critical—newsrooms can't afford to wait to publish content on social media, adds Nimer. If they do have to wait for content to air on TV before extracting segments for social media, the process can be incredibly time-consuming.
The concept of centralized intake and output is key for operations across networks. Berenji credits Avid with providing the necessary ecosystem to ensure that all inputs, whether RTMP, NDI, SDI, or SMPTE 2110, are integrated efficiently into the system, making it possible to handle multiplatform content. This flexibility and scalability are vital, especially in quick, dynamic environments where editorial teams need to work in a variety of ways. Avid’s ability to streamline workflows behind the scenes empowers editorial teams to deliver content quickly and effectively to audiences across the globe.
Avid recently enhanced its ingest and playout portfolio with Avid | Stream IO, a software-based solution which can deliver SDI, compressed IP streams such as SRT or RTMP, and uncompressed Video over IP using SMPTE 2110.
“When you have cross platforms coming into each other with a centralized intake and output, that's where exactly Avid comes into play,” Berenji says. “That's why Avid | Stream IO made me excited because I can get RTMP in, I can get NDI in, I can get SDI in, I can get 2110 in. Without Avid, that wouldn’t be possible.”
Transitioning systems in multiple locations
Al Arabiya faces a unique challenge in managing its operations across several locations in the Middle East.
With its headquarters initially based in London, then relocated to Dubai, and now with a new headquarters in Riyadh, the network is tasked with coordinating its teams and media content across these different regions. The key challenge is seamlessly sharing and managing media content between locations while maintaining operational consistency and efficiency. This requires innovative systems and workflows to ensure that content flows smoothly and is accessible to teams in both Dubai and Riyadh, ensuring no disruption in their news environment.
“How to have two systems and share the media content between them?” Nimer remarks. “And, with people also on the field in all of the different countries, which system do they share content to?”
The demand for speed and efficiency
As news consumption habits evolve, so too, does the demand for faster and more efficient news production. Audiences no longer wait for evening news broadcasts or scheduled updates—they expect information at their fingertips, in real-time.
The power of the Avid solution is the way it enables instant collaboration, whether for video or for stories. MediaCentral | Newsroom Management (formerly known as iNEWS) is the rock-solid foundation of linear broadcast shows. MediaCentral | Production Management with Avid NEXIS shared storage delivers secure, immediate access to video for all authorized users for fast turnaround of packages for distribution on any platform.
"They need that information on a handheld device in a couple of seconds," Berenji says.
This demand has forced newsrooms to adapt quickly, developing processes and technologies that allow for rapid content creation, editing, and distribution.
The integration of AI and automation is becoming increasingly critical in meeting this demand. Tools that automatically transcribe, translate, and distribute content across multiple languages enable newsrooms to stay ahead of the competition. Avid has introduced Avid Ada, a framework of solutions to support a variety of AI related workflows within products.
Better monetization models
With the decline of traditional linear advertising, news organizations are exploring new monetization strategies.
"We need to cater more to bite-size news that’s different, fast and accurate at the same time. The types of stories with the right use of efficient systems that allow us to cater to all the platforms so we can actually build on them and have better monetization models," Nimer says.
This shift requires newsrooms to rethink advertising strategies, moving away from traditional TV commercials and embracing digital advertising, subscription models, and sponsored content. The ability to efficiently cater to different platforms and audiences also opens up new opportunities for targeted advertising. By leveraging the data available through digital channels, news organizations can create more relevant and valuable advertising opportunities, ultimately driving revenue.
The role of technology in bridging the gap
As the future of news production evolves, technology will play an increasingly important role in bridging the gap between content creation and audience delivery. Berenji has a vision for an integrated technological system that could transform newsroom workflows:
"A journalist goes in, creates a story in Kurdish, comes back, writes the script... and Avid would take that story, take the transcript, turns it into a text-to-speech... and recreates the story instantly in English or Turkish or Arabic," Berenji says.
The ability to instantly translate and distribute stories in multiple languages, while ensuring that information is fact-checked and accurate, could revolutionize the way news is consumed globally. This type of technological advancement will be crucial for newsrooms looking to stay competitive in an increasingly globalized and fast-paced media landscape.
“Everyone was working on the conventional system in Pakistan. We were the first to start pushing people toward a fully automated and intelligent system,” Sohail explains.
Older systems tended to be more fragmented, rather than supporting the type of instant collaboration which is needed today. Sharing of media assets was cumbersome and manual. The Avid news solution solves that challenge by establishing a system where it is easy for material to be shared and for multiple people to be working on stories at the same time – whether it is to create a story for a social platform or a post for online distribution. Everything is at the users' fingertips with MediaCentral.
Embracing change for a successful future
The challenges faced by newsrooms today are vast, but they also present exciting opportunities for innovation and growth. By embracing multiplatform strategies, leveraging new technologies like AI, and adapting to the diverse needs of their audiences, news organizations can thrive in an ever-changing industry.
For Avid customers and other broadcasters, the key to future success lies in their ability to stay agile, experiment with new formats and monetization models, and continuously innovate to meet the evolving demands of the modern news consumer. Those who can deliver news quickly, accurately, and across multiple channels will be best positioned to succeed.
Watch the full panel discussion
In this exclusive video, Avid's Craig Wilson discusses the challenges facing newsrooms and the solutions they need to address them with three newsroom leaders.