Value Added Services Key To Enhance Relevance Of News Agencies - Spencer

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 (Bernama) -- Providing value-added services to clients are key aspects of enhancing the relevance of news agencies in an ever-growing digital era, said The Society of Editors, United Kingdom (UK), member John Spencer. Spencer, who is Trustee of the CPU Media Trust (previously known as the Commonwealth Press Union) said one of the value-added services was page-ready service. "It's actually taking the material that we've (news agencies) already written, the photograph we've already taken and putting them on the pages on behalf of the client and so that the clients themselves don't have to do it. "It allows the clients to concentrate their time and effort and their reporters and resources on the things that they do best, which is about their area, expertise and locality, rather than getting involved in a time consuming work that somebody else might be an expert in," the former managing editor of UK's Press Association (PA) told Bernama in an interview here Monday. Spencer is one of the key speakers at the inaugural Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) Media Forum, scheduled for Tuesday. The forum is to be held in conjunction with the three-day CAPAM Biennial Conference 2014 which started Sunday at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre. Spencer said news agencies needed to adapt to the technology and services, but without compromising their core values of keeping the news accurate, fair and fast. "It's not just because nowadays there are lots of news that's out there, doesn't mean we always have to simply take their word for it, we still have to check stories, we still have to make sure they are accurate, fair and quick as well. "A lot of organisations just produce same old material and repeat rumour and material that doesn't have any veracity...they don't survive and they don't deserve it either. But we shouldn't compromise our values for that," he said. When asked on editorial outsourcing, Spencer said it has helped news agency like PA to provide value for money services for customers and help keep prices at sensible levels. "PA provides information on TV listings for almost every magazine and newspaper in the UK, and that's a huge amount of material and produce. "...we also found that in outsourcing some of that work to (a company in) India, it meant that we could drive economy of scale, we could recruit well educated, hardworking people in India," he said. Spencer said news agencies would be able to offer additional materials to their customers by training their reporters to take their own still photos and videos. "Just like years ago when I was a reporter, you needed a notebook and a pencil, now you need a video camera and able to take stills as well, it's just part of the reporters equipment these days I think. "It also means that you have additional materials to offer to your customers, it continues to make you relevant, and if you got some videos to offer, it will be used in the website and newspaper," he said. He also commended Bernama as "a really busy accurate news agency". "I understand your world, it's a 24/7 fast moving business, always challenging especially in the world of digital media," he said. --BERNAMA