Media Rumble 2018, organised at the India Habitat Centre by Newslaundry and Teamwork Arts, and supported by Facebook, was curated around the theme “News: What It Can Be”. I managed to gather 10 points on the possibilities of news media, and I’ve summarised them as follows.

First, the factory of false and fake news in media seems to be winning now, but the battle against it has just started. The warriors of factual news are challenging the fake news industry in every possible way—through the use of reverse image search engines like TinEye, and InVid, which assesses the reliability of video content. Google has developed several tools for fact- and video-checking, and Facebook has started several measures to identify false news and create awareness about it.

Second, the need for media literacy and a higher net literacy is stronger than ever before. Media organisations need to have content and programmes focussing on creating awareness on what type of media to consume, and how to identify and avoid false and fake news. This is an urgent need of the day.

Third, the need for visionary investors today is essential. Technology can be misused, and data is often mined, stored and used for specific interests only, which may be detrimental to the common good. The social values of technology and data can be harnessed by news initiatives backed by visionary investors.

Fourth, though there are women in newsrooms, especially in English media, that is not the reality in language TV newsrooms, particularly in smaller towns. A cultural shift is needed in newsrooms to take the focus away from patriarchy and patronising discourses with regard to women media professionals. Women in newsrooms are seen to bring in more transparency, democracy and collaborative partnerships.

Fifth, news industry revenue is going through a churn like never before. Currently, 38 per cent of total global ad-spending is in the digital medium, gaining heavily from print, which has come down to 9 per cent globally. Television is at 34 per cent globally, but is in decline. The remaining 19 per cent is distributed between radio, outdoor, events, and a myriad other channels. Advertising pundits think that digital will finally stabilise at two-thirds of all ad-spending globally. This makes a strong case for news media to focus further on the digital platform. Different teams don’t need to be created for print, television and digital—an integrated newsroom is the right way to go. We need to create multi-skilled, multimedia convergent teams of journalists in the field and on the desk.

Sixth, it isn’t just digital: mobile first will be the new mantra of news media of the future. Worldwide and in India, the consumption of news on mobile phones—and news on the run—is galloping ahead with the sharp rise in the use of smartphones. It’s important to be able to tell the news in the first paragraph which fits the mobile handset screen, and then creating hooks in subsequent paragraphs to encourage the reader to keep going.

Seventh, digital news media of tomorrow will experiment with diverse revenue sources, apart from traditional advertising on the web. There are various routes, including subscription, crowdfunding, paywalls, events, social campaigns, co-subscriptions with non-competing content platforms, customised storytelling for brands, and collaborative revenue-sharing among media platforms with similar approaches.

Eighth, solutions journalism—taking a stand or a perspective—is growing, creating a niche audience to cater to, through news, views, humour, infographics, events, referrals, and so on. Loyalty to such specific brands can be leveraged through membership drives, which go beyond just subscriptions. The New York Times is a good example of this. The Wall Street Journal has developed a membership model with Fox TV and Harper Collins publishing together, benefitting all three.

Ninth, legacy media needs to be innovative to survive. Just in the US, from 1,410 daily newspapers in 2000, the number in 2018  stands at 1,286. Print news may be in decline, but it isn’t going away over the next decade or more. Newscorp is the world’s largest digital real estate company: it moved from Mansions coverage in print and the digital space to owning digital real estate media brands across the world. Thinking beyond known comfort zones is necessary.

Tenth, with multiple options for news, entertainment and engagement available to each consumer, news media has to creatively be the gate-opener, bringing in newer consumers retaining existing ones. The broad brand concept of the news media has to be to engage people without them asking for it, and creatively, not obtrusively. They could refer to other news sites for further support to readers, give solutions, integrate digital video with textual stories, etc.

So, content is still the king and shall always be, but commerce may help it rule longer. Content-led commerce is important going ahead. For example, a media platform can tie-up with Walmart or Amazon, reviewing the products they offer, and taking a margin of sales. Alongside, news media must know that they need to worry about the time or attention span of their audiences, and not only their competition. They have to move to engage the audience, and not only resort to clickbait journalism.