How many times a day do you check your smart phone?, asked the moderator of the European Newspaper Congress held in Vienna to one of the speakers, the Director of Google News, Richard Gingras. 212, he replied. If you have to give up the toothbrush or the smart phone, which one would you choose?, asked the moderator. Google News Director gave up the toothbrush. The times for such easy choices for the mass media are over. The editors gathered in this Congress were the evidence that the journalism is in crisis, and the transition to online plane changes very little as the financial problems are still available. Major newspapers have been closed down, the print run of the others is reduced. Media, in general, have started to earn less money, but are forced to work more. Instead of subscription and advertising sales, media companies need also to have other sources of income. What should media companies do in this period of radical changes? How to withstand the Facebook-Google competition? This is one of the key topics that was discussed in the Vienna Congress on May 5-6 (the major sponsors were the City of Vienna, as well as Japan Tobacco International and other companies). At the Congress, six unique projects, success stories, were presented by the European media companies. For example, the Dutch NRC representatives told about their own established appendix, the NRC Reader. On February 2013, nine months after its establishment they had 11 million subscribers. For about six euros of subscription fee per month, the subscriber gets 7-9 stories a day, high quality articles, good photos. “Better few, but good,” says the NRC Reader operator in confidence. Most remarkable was the Norwegian Hallingdólen’s three-day experience of how to get success with a small team. It conducts subscription not only by print, but also by online and mobile versions. It has a print run of 9460 copies. They are writing only about regional problems and local residents. And all of these with just nine journalists, one photographer and two pagination specialists. Many journalists are losing their jobs because of the crisis. Plus, also the unemployment started because of the “robot journalists”. This is also one of other important topics of this Congress – automation in traditional editorial offices. And do not say that this is not a topical problem for Armenia. Weather broadcast in Armenia has already oftentimes become automated. At the European Newspaper Congress, sport-psychologist of the German national football teamHans-Dieter Herrmann delivered a special speech. Comparing the journalists with football-players, was advising how to form a team of them and achieve changes in an editorial office. At the European Newspaper Congress, the representative of de Volkskrant newspaper cited the comparison, which is made the title of this article. The editor-in-chief of this periodicals told that he thinks he is the captain of “Titanic”, and the journalists are the band that should play to the end, the shipwreck.
Anna ISRAELYAN
Vienna-Yerevan
