WMC: "When creative people want to share a story, they don’t care about the medium", feels Chris Jones

With the advent of digital platforms, the most common conundrum for organisations have been to decide whether to have a consolidated team of journalists, technicians and designers for both print and online, or to have separate specialised team for both. 

 

Chris Jones, editor-in-chief, National Geographic, USA opined against the idea of creating multiple teams. He said, “When creative people want to share a story with commitment, then it makes no sense to say that we should bring someone else in who might know the medium better; because, if creative people want to share a story they don’t care about the medium.”

 

Contrary to Jones’ thoughts, Mathias Plica, managing director, Chip Xonio Online, Germany stated that Chip has been following the idea of having “one brand, two media; one brand strategies and two separate product strategies.” 

 

Jim Jacovides, vice president - international, Time Magazine spoke on another contentious point — blurring lines between editorial and sales. He said, “It’s never a choice between one or the other, editorial and sales go hand in hand.” Talking about the challenges posed by the new digital evolution he said, “We believe in the strategy, where you pay and we give you content everywhere. Any tablet, any device. We give you the power to choose the medium.”

 

He also shared that by 2012, they will have all our titles on iPad. And that they aren't going to replicate the print version. “We will bring premium digital edit-created content and designed for tablet. It will be based on paid consumer model and stress upon consumer data retention.”