How Sourcefabric and STT were able to develop together an innovative newsroom transformation under the Stars4Media NEWS programme? What were the strengths of this collaboration and which best practices can be learned to help future media collaboration projects?
Sourcefabric (CZ), the Open News Software for Journalism Suomen Tietotoimisto (FI) and the Finnish News agency have been partners long before the Stars4Media NEWS programme. This mutual knowledge definitely helped them work together under this new collaboration project: the real-time news coverage planning. Indeed, STT had the expertise on news planning but was missing tools to provide real-time visibility to its customers. This is where Sourcefabric was the perfect match to complement them, as the company had the adequate tech skills to provide the necessary software.
If both teams were geographically distant, one of the key successes of their achievements was the on-site meetings they managed to organise. These immersive sessions fostered mutual understanding and facilitated communication by bridging the companies’ specific vocabularies. This opportunity was made possible by the Stars4Media NEWS programme which was a true added-value to this collaboration project. It gave both teams time to focus and to meet their partners onsite, which could not have been possible in another business collaboration.
With the support of their Stars4Media coaches, Charlotte Eimer, WAN-IFRA Media Consultant, Change Manager and Coach, and Pierre Baisle, innovation coach and strategist, the collaboration went smoothly and allowed both teams to get to know each other even better and to develop this innovative tool.
When we talked to Pierre, one of the main challenges he acknowledged was the necessity to align perception time and delivery according to the different sizes of the companies. He then supported us to go from concept to features design. The collaboration between both coaches also helped to anticipate the opportunities and accelerate the process. As Charlotte was most focused on the STT side, she was able to gain considerable knowledge on the way STT was managing its own development in order to support the team as best as possible.
Gideon Lehmann project manager at Sourcefabric described the incredible impact this collaboration had on their achievements: “The software developed for STT planning tool had an impact not only for STT but also for all the other customers of Sourcefabric who will be able to use this tool in the future.”
Not only this project gave them the possibility to strengthen their relationship, it also happened to be the best opportunity to gain new skills by learning to know their own teams better. In the next months, both teams will keep working together, as this project definitely goes beyond the scope of the Stars4Media programme.
From the Stars4Media consortium, we are thrilled to showcase and follow our boosters’ accomplishments that led to their news transformations. We are looking forward to learn from their future projects and witnessing the continued impact of their collaborations.
Have a look at Sourcefabric’s blog article on the boost phase: https://www.superdesk.org/news/star4media-update
Interested in knowing STT’s experience about their collaboration? Read our article featuring Salla Salmela, producer at STT.
Join our Stars4Media community to learn more about our initiatives and future projects, and connect with media innovators all around Europe!
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This article is part of a series of articles aiming to promote the Stars4Media Third Edition Boosters. Discover the full list of beneficiaries and their area of media innovations. Read the recap of our latest event Stars4Media Day ‘Ready for AI and enlargement’ and discover our latest Stars4Media projects.