Shift 2015: The future of newsbrands

Opening Shift 2015 today, Rufus Olins, CEO of Newsworks, did his best to reference a difficult week for newspapers in a realistic, and even positive, light.

“There has always been a tension between advertising and editorial,” he said, whilst talking of the level of gravity and professionalism that exists in brands you can trust. It was pretty much an impossible remit and Olins wisely moved quite swiftly on to the industry’s plans for 2015.

The audience (Shift’s biggest yet in its third year) was told it could expect to see research on how news is consumed on different devices, and the relationship between print and different screens – both new Newsworks research projects.

The new trading system, PATS, will start rolling out in the next two months with selected publishers and agencies.

There will be new readership research in 2016 – a result of the current project led by Jed Glanvill to determine customer requirements for data across multiple newsbrand platforms, and the pitches taking place from research companies now.

None of these were discussed further in the conference, so we will have to wait for more detailed information over the coming weeks and months.