Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Today because of the mobile technology it is enough to invest one million euros to reach 10 million users, while in 2000, 10 million euros were needed to generate one million users.

This was said by Heiko Scherer, a developer of products and systems for film and television, electronic media and advertising, in the course of the European Newspaper Congress that started in Vienna on May 4.

The event, which drew more than 500 media professionals from 35 countries to discuss the latest developments in the industry, is supported by the company “Japan Tabacco International.”

"Mobile technology allow to do what has not been yet made, so digital printing today is the most popular," said Scherer.

He said the main problem of established media houses today is the condition of IT-supported processes in the editorial office and production. “In short: a crisis of content management systems. The responsible issues are rather the old infrastructure than the development of new content since they fundamentally prevent new innovations. Successful new editorial offices like “Business Insider“ or “Buzzfeed” have their own powerful system, there’s a big technological advantage in the competition of articles.”

Often the innovative and flexible developments get stifled by expensive and relatively slow enterprise-technologies of the 2000’s or even the 90’s, he added. The most important question is “how to get to a constant improvement of the systems (“Constant Beta”) and how to fill it with life in the organization?”

He spoke about the demands of the mobile Internet and modern solutions that enable management and editors to focus entirely on content development.

According to leading experts of the "New York Times" who studied the development of the media sector for six months, today the printed version remains the main source of income, rather than the internet version.

Meanwhile, if in 2011 most of the visitors read a newspaper through a web site, in 2013, the advantage was of mobile technologies. This, in the opinion of the newspaper, is normal, because the future of media is for the gadgets and mobile solutions.

Founder of the European Newspaper Congress, Johann Oberauer told AzerNews as part of the conference, that the media market has been struggling for existence in recent years.

"If 10-20 years ago, newspapers were in the doldrums, now they have become more enterprising and prone to generate new ideas, mostly related to the mobile technologies," he said. Commenting on the future of the printed and digital media, Oberauer said he did not imagine them separately from each other.

"Sustainable development of media is possible only in their combination, and I think discussions in the framework of this event will help to find an effective solution," he said, noting that newspapers will not be as profitable as 20 years ago.

According to him, they will be able to maintain its financial stability at the optimal average level. Such events allow media organizations to form their strategy for future developments. The Congress concludes its work on May 5.

On the first day of the event, the best publications were nominated in various categories: The Mayo News - in the category the local newspaper of the year, Tubantia - in the category of regional newspaper of the year, Publico – the best above regional newspaper.

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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar

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