How did El Confidencial, Voxeurop and Datasketch manage to develop an innovative project such as the Data Management System for Newsrooms? What were the strengths of this tricultural collaboration for the media sector?
How did El Confidencial, Voxeurop and Datasketch manage to develop an innovative project such as the Data Management System for Newsrooms? What were the strengths of this tricultural collaboration for the media sector?
El Confidencial (Spain), digital independent publisher, Voxeurop (France), independent online media outlet and Datasketch (Estonia), tech company democratising data, started working together under the Stars4Media NEWS programme to develop a Data Management System (DMS) for Newsrooms. This system allows all journalists in the newsroom to perform their data management and to create simple infographics like eg. a bar, line or pie chart or a map in a very intuitive way without consulting a dedicated data unit or specialised journalists.
The idea started two years ago, when El Confidencial suggested possible paths to develop within the Stars4Media programme. El Confidencial and Voxeurop collaboration was already facilitated as both teams were already working together on other projects. Working with Datasketch was the data visualisation expertise addition to El Confidencial and Voxeurop journalistic knowledge. One of the challenges the three teams faced was to deliver content to optimise the processes creating these infographics and managing its data sources of small and medium-sized media outlets.
This multicultural collaboration thrived under the guidance of Paul Van Kampen, their Stars4Media NEWS Transformation Coach. His clear vision and great support kept the team focused and moving forward.
Pierre Baisle, innovation coach and strategist, supported the team on their European route-to-market shaping. He observed: “With the rise of data backed journalism on the one hand, and the diversification of media channels for journalists to reach and inform their audience (including social media) on the other hand, such simple yet effective data visualisation tool is in perfect line with huge market and societal trends.”
Marta Ley, Data Editor at El Confidencial told us one of the key elements of surprise she encountered within the collaboration: “I didn’t imagine working with new people in my company.” More focused on the tech part, she was able to discover new ways of working with her team at El Confidencial that she may not have known without the Stars4Media programme.
Natalia Figueroa, Marketing and Communications Director at Datasketch highlighted the project’s impact on fostering a multicultural environment within the European media landscape. For Datasketch, the true strength lay in bridging the gap between technology and journalism, a role they proudly embraced.
For Gian-Paolo Accardo, Co-founder and editor-in-chief at Voxeurop, the main lessons learned from this collaboration were the set up of a project from the first moment, and the development of rather useful use and needs. As the team was mainly working on a CRM that allowed limited changes, he shared with us his enthusiasm to be able to contribute to the design of one of the plugs-in.
This project was a true success and really showed that cross border collaboration was possible and strengthened the way of working. The tri-cultural team not only achieved technological innovation, but also showcased the project’s multilingual strength – enhanced by the Stars4Media NEWS programme.
You can register to try the Data Management System tool at https://www.datasketch.co/landings/dms-european-newsrooms/. This tool enables data loading, management, and visualisation for creating evidence-based stories, with free trial visualisations including line charts, pie charts, treemaps, and maps.
From the Stars4Media NEWS consortium and community, we are proud to see the achievements of our Boosters and to be part of their business and news transformation. We are looking forward to know the next steps of their collaboration and the upcoming results.
Join our Stars4Media community to be updated on our latest news and events, and to share insights with other media professionals. Read the recap of our latest Stars4Media Day event “Ready for AI and enlargement” on 15th March in Résidence Palace, Brussels.
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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.