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| Going Convergent in the Arab World | ||||
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The Awan daily in Kuwait was the first Arab newspaper to employ a convergent newsroom back in November 2007. "We started by differentiating from other traditional Arabic newspapers where there are rankings: the editor-in-chief and sub-editors. What we have is three editors, one for the website and two for the printed paper," said Dr. Rumaihi, founder and editor of Awan, in an interview with APN. By Alexandra Waldhorn At the Awan daily, where walls and barriers no longer exist between departments or production, the newspaper has remained as the focal product of which new platforms for news dissemination supplement. "It is not just a newspaper, but a viewspaper," said Dr. Rumaihi. In an age of multi-platform news, the newspaper offers in-depth news that can be augmented with other media forms. The Awan newsroom, which is based in Kuwait and has offices in Beirut and Cairo, is the first convergent newsroom in the region. Online, print and mobile news is written, edited and disseminated from an open and converged newsroom. News is also given a modern dimension and technologies have merged, along with the job duties of journalists and editors. "The old journalist, he just writes by hand and when you ask him for a photo he'll be reluctant. We are pushing them hard to become, what we call in the trade, a comprehensive journalist, meaning he can do a number of things at the same time," said Dr. Rumaihi. "It is difficult to design such a newsroom. People were very hesitant to start working. We started with the Awan training centre to attract young students to go through training. We have recruited some of them afterwards and I think that has helped us. Our newspaper focus is on a number of basic issues and one of them is youth," Dr. Rumaihi said. In Kuwait, between 72 and 75 percent of the population is below the age of 24 years old. "Today, with the advance of technology you can hear the news immediately, on the telephone, over the internet, on the television, but to give the listeners or readers the background of the story, the newspaper is important," said Dr. Rumaihi. Social forces rather than government pressure In Kuwait, similar to many other countries in the region, there is a low level of professionalism in newsrooms. Awan is a sophisticated and technologically advanced newsroom, but to help with professional shortfalls, Dr. Rumaihi said training is the most crucial prerequisite for success. "Most of journalists have not been trained to [work in a convergent newsroom] so we have had to do a lot to train them. I can't say they have been trained fully but a good number of them have been familiarized with the general idea of the work." This is his main worry today. Awan is at the forefront in newsroom creativity, but to make it work, the journalists have to know how to handle the new technology. To manage content, RAPID Brower has been installed to set up editorial workflows in the newsroom and to easily publish news through a variety platforms. Concurrently, Dr. Al Rumaihi has ensured to keep a human element in this futuristic, convergent newsroom. "We started by differentiating from other traditional Arabic newspapers where there are rankings: the editor-in-chief and sub-editors. What we have is three editors, one for the website and two for the printed paper," he said. Each day the managers and journalists come together to discuss the direction of content and coverage. "At noon we get together to discuss an agenda consisting of three elements: 1). What is the fault of our day's issue? 2). What has been covered in other newspapers that we have not covered? 3). What are we going to cover today?" Again, at six o'clock the managers meet to decide the layout of the front-page. "We have established as well, a new idea that we finish our meetings with a joke by one of our colleagues. It gets heated and when you finish with a joke, you go back to human relations and people can go back to their work on a positive note." The physical design of the newsroom has also contributed to fostering a productive workplace. "All of the staff and journalists can connect with each other directly. The contact is quite high. You can turn your chair and have a meeting. Everyone can even say "hi" to everyone. The human environment is very positive," he said. Mobile and video Convergent newsrooms have swept the global media scene at varying speeds in different regions. "I think that within the Arab culture reading is really important because of the Koran. Muslims have been taught since childhood to read it so the written word is very important to us - more than the spoken or broadcast one. In Egypt, they have a practice of publishing the names of the deceased in the newspaper so there is a saying, if you don't see someone's name in the paper, he hasn't died yet," said Dr. Al Rumaihi.
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