Prof. Dr. Christoph Moss
CEO Mediamoss
Corporate Newsroom
Consulting
Lara Behrens
CEO Mediamoss
Corporate Newsroom
Consulting
Hörder Burgstraße 18
D.44263 Dortmund
We are living in a digital world. Mediamoss supports you in setting up your Corporate Newsroom, whether you work in a medium-sized company, a group or an organisation. Corporate Newsroom is independent of size. Newsroom starts in your mind.
Breaking down barriers, creating transparency in digital communication and effectively targeting different audiences is critical to today’s successful organisations. Establishing a Corporate Newsroom is the answer!
It requires organisations to adapt their mindsets away from the traditional models of media management. Thus, they embrace a model where topics and media channels are separated and managed independently via the establishment of a strong strategic control centre. The control centre disseminates information across multiple media channels to a dispersed number of target groups.
Founded by Christoph Moss, Mediamoss is the leader in inititating and supervising your Corporate Newsroom right from the very beginning. Our approach has turned out to be very effective, and we have a great track record of managing projects for clients including Siemens, Fraport, DATEV and Swiss Life.
Marco Leeuwerink:
Why is the Newsroom helpful for the Dutch police?
“The Newsroom model that we use in The Netherlands at the Dutch police is helping us to be effective in communicating with the people inside and outside the organisation. It’s really helpful to be effective and produce effective content in order to fulfill the needs for the public for instance the witnesses or the victims.”
Marco Leeuwerink, Coordinator Newsroom and Digital Media, Dutch Police
Social media has revolutionised the way in which companies manage their channels. Journalists, customers, shareholders, product fans and influencers all have a common interest in the product or in the enterprise itself. For instance, the emergence of these disparate groups motivated Porsche to establish a virtual Newsroom. The Porsche Newsroom is not only made for journalists, bloggers and online multipliers, but also for everyone else who is interested in the brand.
Isabel Sabisch:
How can the Corporate Newsroom help to reach people better?
“The newsroom helps us in our corporate communication but also to become much more flexible in the entire company when communicating internally as well as externally. We can approach our target groups much more precisely and reach the individual more effectively.”
Isabel Sabisch, Corporate Communications, TRILUX Germany.
People’s increasing consumption of media, coupled with drastic channel growth, means that enterprises must be able to cope with changing media demands. Today, both internal and external parties surrounding a business can becomeinfluential communicators. We will help you adapt to the current communication environment.
A Corporate Newsroom is a lot more complex and more complicated than traditional journalism, but also a lot more exciting!
Our conventional communication structures are quickly reaching their limits. Who wants to discuss the communication and marketing personnel’s areas of responsibility nowadays? Which department still weighs up the meaning of media relations versus product PR? Who wants to be accountable for giving all social media responsibilities to the IT department?
Furthermore, businesses are under pressure to direct their message as far as possible by only using integrated communication, storytelling and content marketing. With limited resources, additional channels cannot be created randomly. In this context, businesses are inevitably questioning the structure and strategy of their communication.
Carsten Sichler:
Why do you think that the Newsroom is a question of mindset?
“The exciting thing about the newsroom idea is that no matter the set-up, you can just start. Today, we often heard the phrase: The newsroom is a question of mindset and I believe most organizations have so many fascinating stories to tell. So just give it a go!”
Carsten Sichler, Head of Brand and Marketing Communications, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG.
On the other hand, apprehensions such as fear of change and worries about losing control may arise. These concerns can only be dissipated when all parties are involved in the new concept. If no common participation is possible, the company risks compromising the quality of its communications efforts due to internal policies.
Not everything that has Corporate Newsroom on the cover is actually about Corporate Newsroom
In the long run, communication is only controllable if the enterprise puts content, not functions, in the centre of organisation by using a well-structured model for communication.
Mediamoss will support the launch of your Corporate Newsroom – no matter if it is digital or physical.
- preparatory phase
- communication design phase
- implementation phase
During all phases, you and your employees will need professional support. The introduction of a Newsroom is a change project which will take a few months. The project starts with analytical work, followed by the creation of change objectives and finally, the actual implementation of the new strategy. Throughout the whole process, technical and structural questions are likely to arise. Our experts will help you to communicate regularly with your employees and to introduce them to new tasks. Please feel free to contact us!
Source: Christoph Moss 2016
#Structure: The Corporate Newsroom model
A Corporate Newsroom is a spatially combined unit for corporate communications. There are separate responsibilities for topics and channels. Coordination is carried out by a managing editor.
Corporate communications face the task of coping with dramatic changes in the media. People’s consumption of media is increasing, and the number of channels is growing drastically. Today, anyone can become an influential communicator. People comment, upload a video or manage their appointments via smartphone. Enterprises must be able to cope with changing media demands. They should establish a Corporate Newsroom. The basic idea is the consistent separation of topics and media.
Strategy team
The strategy team is at the head of the Corporate Newsroom. The team members perform strategic communication work through planning, control and monitoring. The members set impulses in terms of content for the managing editor and the topic desks. The team has the right to issue directives and to make final decisions on all content issues. The strategy team is comparable to the editor-in-chief in journalistic Newsrooms. Similar to the editor-in-chief, the strategy team also exercises personnel and subject responsibility in the Corporate Newsroom.
Managing editor
The managing editors are the link between topic desks and media desks. The position is of central importance and should therefore be filled by at least two people. They can work deferred and replace the other in case of vacation and illness. The managing editors are informed about all topics and communication channels. They carry out operative communication work by deciding on the weighting of individual topics. They issue work orders to the topic and media desks. The managing editors also chair the editorial conferences. They receive proposals from the topic and media desks and have the final decision-making power. This is modelled by the role of the managing editor in journalism who coordinates the internal processes (Moss 1998: 121). In the Corporate Newsroom, this position has a high potential for conflict. Therefore, the managing editors must be experienced professionals. These experts must think journalisticallyand act decisively while keeping an overview of the topics and media. Detailed knowledge of the topics and media, on the other hand, is not absolutely necessary. This is the responsibility of the topic and media managers.
Topic desk
One or more topic managers sit at a topic desk. They are comparable to reporters in journalism. The employees at the topic desks are the link to the specialist departments of the company. In this way, they gain knowledge of many topics and thus embody professional competence in terms of content. The topic desk regularly proposes topics to the managing editors. It researches, produces and edits content. The topic managers also ensure the necessary coordination with the specialist departments. Whenever the topic desk delivers the texts, images or original sounds to a media desk, it informs the managing editors. The head of the topic desk takes part in the editorial conferences.
The topic desks should represent the company’s content strategy. They are geared towards the business areas of the company. The tasks of the topic desks can be adjusted in the medium term. In addition, some topics and projects cannot be clearly defined. Therefore, it makes sense to set up a project desk for such cases. The size of a topic desk varies, depending on the workload. The topic managers are responsible for their topics. They propose new topics to the managing editors and enter the information into the topic planning tool. Topic managers deliver the finished texts to the media desks and inform the managing editors about them.
Media desk
The media desks represent the media channels of the company. They each consist of one or more media managers. The media manager is at the top of the media desk. They have the right to propose topics to the managing editors they think a topic is suitable for a medium. The media manager maintains close contact with the managing editors and participates in the editorial conferences. The role of the media manager is like that of an editor in journalism (Moss 1998). Editors are the typical page-makers or those responsible for the online site. They determine which topic is presented in their medium and how relevant it is. They edit and follow the news flow of the agencies. The editors work like lawyers for the reader, user or viewer. Thus, they represent the counterweight to the topic manager and thereby guarantee a four-eye-principle.
In the Corporate Newsroom, media managers listen to the market by following discussions on social media or in journalism. The media desks are organised according to the channels the company wants to use and the target groups they want to address. Possible media desks are print, online, social media, audio or video. The media managers control the various channels because they have the competence to do so. The size of the media desks depends on the workload. The media managers have the right to propose topics for their media to the managing editors. They can adapt and publish existing material produced by the topic managers themselves for their respective media.
Newsroom Study: Companies want to overcome silos
What do companies expect from introducing a Newsroom? A recent study by the Brand & Retail Management Institute @ ISM in cooperation with the newsroom agency Mediamoss examined these questions. 172 communication and marketing managers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the survey.
Two out of three respondents see the Newsroom as “a spatially combined control unit for corporate communications. There are separate responsibilities for topics and channels” (66.9 percent). The number of those who think primarily of a virtual Newsroom or a website is significantly lower (12.8 percent). A good half of those surveyed already work in a Newsroom system or plan to introduce it within the next year (53.8 percent). “The Newsroom system has become a very important topic in the companies,” state authors of the study Christoph Moss, Arne Westermann and Mijka Ghorbani.
40.8 percent work in an open-plan office or have a designated room for the Newsroom. The most important communication disciplines are public relations (81.5 percent), internal communication (73.2 percent) and marketing (59.3 percent). In addition, experts say, “It is very clear that the trend towards content marketing is allowing the historically separate disciplines of communication and marketing to grow together.”
Integrated communication across all channels and media, as well as the One Voice Policy, are the most important objectives that respondents associate with a Newsroom. Rigid structures and silo thinking are the main obstacles. “The Newsroom requires radical rethinking: moving from channels to topics,” say 55 percent of respondents. Moreover, 51 percent agreed with the statement, “The newsroom overcomes silo thinking and creates synergies between departments.“
“Newsroom is a question of mindset. The respondents see it as a chance for rethinking and renewal,” according to the authors of the study. “The question is no longer whether companies want to introduce a newsroom, but when and how.”
The survey was conducted from June 2019 to September 2019 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. If you are interested in the study, we gladly send you a summary of the results. Please send an e-mail to: newsroom@mediamoss.com.