Chennai, India – 2019-08-26
‘State of Newsrooms in South Asia’, the first comprehensive study by the South Asia Chapter of WAN-IFRA World Editors Forum on the issues faced by newsrooms in the South Asia region, indicates that newsrooms today are being plagued by a lack of editors, including multimedia editors.
A survey of key editors and journalists across newsrooms in South Asia, whose results formed the basis of the report, was conducted in early 2019. The respondents were chosen from more than 35 large and small newsrooms – both print and digital, operating in various South Asian languages.
The report found the following as the most pressing issues, in this order:
Key findings:
The report also presented the ideas being followed to improve productivity in newsrooms.
Commenting on the report, Mukund Padmanabhan [1], Chairman of World Editors Forum - South Asia Chapter said:
“The report, the first of its kind in the region, provides a comprehensive look from the inside into how news operations are carried out in the region. It finds, perhaps not entirely unsurprisingly, that a shortage of editorial staff with multimedia skills is a new and important challenge that newsrooms are newsrooms are grappling with. Apart from flagging the kind of problems and concerns that editors have about today’s newsroom, it provides a glimpse into what lies in store in the future. The report is a must-read for everyone in the newsroom.”
“The report addresses the long felt need for a report on newsroom operations in the region. The findings of the report would help to focus the industry attention to the pressing issues and look for collaborative solutions. World Editors Forum South Asia Chapter is pleased to publish this report and will come up with other programmes to address the pressing issues,” said Magdoom Mohamed, Managing Director of WAN-IFRA South Asia.
WAN-IFRA member organisations can download the report free of charge at the following link: State of Newsrooms in South Asia [2].
Non-members can purchase the report by using the following link [3]. Learn more about WAN-IFRA membership [4].
Links:
[1] https://events.wan-ifra.org/speakers/mukund-padmanabhan
[2] https://www.wan-ifra.org/reports/2019/08/09/state-of-newsrooms-in-south-asia
[3] https://www.wan-ifra.org/registration/wan-ifra-reports?nid=198796
[4] https://wan-ifra.createsend1.com/t/d-l-plukjuy-l-d/