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Newspapers need to diversify and "reinvent their DNA", media researchers behind the third annual Newsroom Barometer told the World Editors Forum yesterday.

The 33 question survey, produced by the World Editors Forum and management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, assessed how newsroom editors across the world view their job and industry in the future.

Presenting the results, Eric Hazan, partner at McKinsey & Company, claimed that more than 80 per cent of the survey's respondents were optimistic about the future of newsrooms.

"Before, the digital revolution was not understood by editors-in-chief (...) it was really difficult to know what was going on," he told Journalism.co.uk.

"Now they have more leverage to master this evolution, they know a bit more what to do. With the masterey of what needs to be done comes this optimism."

But he said editors also indicated that organisations still need to improve handling of new media tools and adapt to more multiplatform methods for future development.

The study used answers from more than 500 newspaper editors, covering topics including journalists' working methods, threats to the newspaper sector, digital performance and newspaper technologies.

More than three quarters of the respondents, which were made up of chief editors and other senior newsroom employees, said they were very optimistic or somewhat optimistic about the future of their newspapers. In a release WEF said this figure is "virtually unchanged" from previous years despite a change in the market.

Hazan added that one of the main themes emerging from the study was the importance of multimedia to respondents. Editors surveyed predicted that print will provide less than half of total circulations in five year's time, with 55 per cent of readers on average accessing publications through digital media.

On average, 44 per cent claimed to work in a fully integrated multimedia newsroom today, although the study showed significant imbalances geographically. A total of 81 percent of editors claimed to work in such newsrooms in North America compared to around 38 percent of editors in Europe and emerging countries.

Other key findings:

A little more than a third (37 per cent) of editors said the biggest threat facing the future of their newspapers was declining readership among young people, while 24 per cent cited the internet and digital media as the biggest threats.

Digital revenues provide around 14 percent of total revenues overall. Editors predict digital revenues will provide just over half of total revenues by 2020.

Respondents answers on pricing models for the future showed no consensus on a way forward.

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Rachel Bartlett

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