A workshop brought to you by the Guardian Publisher Network

Virtual reality is now on the cusp of mainstream adoption and offers media companies new opportunities to bring content to life. But how can this be done in an authentic way? In this workshop, attendees will learn how to translate journalism into virtual spaces and why it is important to think about visual formats, audio and your audience. We’ll showcase what the Guardian has done, our strategy for the future and look at best case examples by other media outlets and outside our industry.

This workshop, hosted by WAN-IFRA's Publish Asia 2017 will include a step-by-step guide to developing these projects, providing insight on what VR means for storytelling and the pitfalls to avoid. We’ll also look at how to finance these pieces of content, futurecasting and trends.

Other sessions in the workshop will focus upon:
- Other new content formats and innovation in storytelling
- New content formats targeted at new platforms
- Automated journalism

The Publisher Network was launched to offer publishers the unique opportunity to share knowledge, stay up-to-date with vital industry developments and build an unparalleled network with peers, industry experts and Guardian staff.

Original, authoritative journalism that stands out is the mark of a quality news brand. However, in the age where newsroom resources are under pressure, copy's shelf life is only minutes, and content is everywhere; how do editors steer their newsrooms to meet the needs of the times? What are the new formats and workflows developed by leading publishers for enhancing their storytelling?

Insights from The Guardian’s Virtual Reality team
Since its award-winning first virtual reality project - 6x9: a virtual experience of solitary confinement – the Guardian’s Virtual Reality team, leaded by Francesca Panetta, has created impressive, immersive and impactful stories using the latest technology available. Why does the Guardian believe in this format for enhancing its journalism? How advertisers can also use this platform to bring life to their brands?

A fast transition driven by design
The Times of Oman relied on outstanding design and visual journalism to consolidate its print operations on a competitive market and to develop its digital presence. While trying to make print more relevant, the news media experienced a 10,000 per cent leap in digital revenues by selling 100% of it inventory through direct sales only.

The role and impact of AI and machine learning on news
Hype or Fad? Will the likes of Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home significantly change the way we consume and relate with news content in the near future? Should newsrooms start to invest in and experiment with producing content fit for these new and still uncommon devices. What can the latest technology developments can teach us about the future of news?

Facebook recently launched the Facebook Journalism Project, a new program to establish stronger ties between Facebook and the news industry. Facebook will be collaborating with news partners to build better products for journalists and publishers, and work more closely with publishers and educators on better equipping people to be informed readers in today's digital media age. Ken Teh will give an overview of the Facebook Journalism Project initiatives, including early efforts to tackle false news, product updates and Blueprint for Journalists.

In December of 2016, Facebook acquired CrowdTangle, a leading social analytic and discovery tool used by hundreds of publishers around the world. Since the announcement, CrowdTangle has been made free and has announced a series of major product updates. In this session, Asha will take a close look at how leading publishers use CrowdTangle across their entire newsroom and show you how to use it to source trending content and measure the impact of your own content and competitors. The session will also touch on latest updates to CrowdTangle, including a partnership with Reddit, as well as the future roadmap of the platform and what’s coming next in 2017.

Publish Asia participants who did not get the opportunity to attend the Google workshop on April 18 will get a chance, while we are setting up the Asian Media Awards cocktail and gala dinner, to learn about resources and tools that Google makes available to newsrooms for developing innovating storytelling through VR and 360 videos. Try on Google cardboard with your smartphone and sample cool 3D Video content easy to replicate at your own publication...

Even though newspapers enjoy unmatched credibility in the media world, new audiences trust even more user generated content and their peer’s reviews and opinions (50% considersocial networks trustworthy, vs. 44 % for newspapers). 

Re building and strengthening trust in news is major challenge for the future of the kind of journalism practiced by legacy media organisations. This imply that we must, on the one hand, taking into account the huge pressure for speed imposed by social media platforms, constantly improve our editorial practices in order to retain the same levels of accuracy and credibility in the information that forged our brands. We must, on the other hand, educate our readers, promote and defend our brands.

What it takes to produce credible, independent news
Tempo is one of the most respected news magazine in Asia as a result of its longstanding fight against corruption in Indonesia. The trust people put in their independent reporting allow them to charge users for access to their online content. Tempo also regularly participates in global investigations such as the Panama Papers.

Journalism that stands apart: lessons from the NYT
The latest report by the New York Times’ 2020 Group points out the importance to focus on great quality journalism and defines priorities that every newsroom can learn from: become more visual, embrace and expand new storytelling forms, invest in service journalism, listen to your readers… What are the implications of these key objectives in terms of newsroom staff and organisation?

Gaining credibility and trust online only
Malaysiakini has made a name for itself by offering an independent online coverage of Malaysian politics that its readers are happy to pay for. Factwire is an online-only, independent news platform which was originally created through crowdfunding for producing investigative journalism reports in Hong Kong. Their publishers will explain who the internally guarantee the authenticity and trustworthiness of the news they publish, how they deal with social media and how they consolidated their media brands across platforms. 

This break out session will take further the debate initiated around fake news in the previous session. Editors from across Asia, internet pure players and civil society groups will discuss the threats that represents the Fake News phenomenon to the news business. This session ambitions to set the basis for concrete initiatives and projects that Asian publishers and editors could lead in order to turn this threat into an opportunity for improving their journalism, strengthen their credibility and give a better service to their communities.

Can we create an Asian Fact-checking task force?
This session ambitions to set the basis for concrete initiatives and projects that Asian publishers and editors could lead in order to turn this threat into an opportunity for improving their journalism, strengthen their credibility and give a better service to their communities.

Panel discussion

Big data has been a big topic for news publishers for already several years. Still, most media organization are still unclear about the kind of resources and investment they should make in order to effectively benefit from this technology in a way that is adapted to their operations size and business culture.

How can multimedia groups connect with readers in new and deeper ways and increase the impact and ROI of their news content? What are the latest trends in using social media and Big Data for multiplying touch points across news publishers' content portfolios and increasing revenue per user?

From data to relationships: How NRC Media grows in readership and revenue

NRC Media, one of the most inspiring European news media companies for its Big Data usage, combines the fields of data analysis and improvement of customer experience. This session will show how NRC Media put data to work to optimise acquisition and retention offers, and explains how data insights can be enriched by listening to real subscribers to release the power of empathy. 

Embedding a data engineer in the newsroom

Fairfax Media – the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald – hosted last year a data scientist for 8 weeks as part of a Google News Lab fellowship program. In this short amount of time, the research fellow built a recommendation engine for similar content to increase reader on-site time and analysed changes in Sydney's nightlife using transport data.

Advanced statistical model to optimise print distribution

The Straits Times is the English flagship daily of Singapore Press Holdings. With a daily average circulation of almost 400,000 print and digital copies, the paper reaches its readers through a  distribution system which includes over 1,000 retail outlets. Using time series data, advanced statistics and machine learning techniques, SPH's team of data scientists have built an automated demand forecast model to optimise between retail availability and returns. Early testing of the model has yielded positive results, with potential to extend the application of the model to other titles and even non-newspaper products