Diversified Service Key to Future of News Agencies

A U.S. scholar asked Asia-Pacific news agencies Thursday to overhaul their business model to provide diversified news services and multimedia contents for non-traditional clients, as news audiences become increasingly familiar with acquiring news from the Web and mobile devices.

"Among the most fundamental implications of this transition for the traditional business models of news agency operations is the development and targeting of services for news consumers as individuals," Oliver Boyd-Barrett, a journalism professor at Bowling Green State University in the U.S., said.

The professor is participating in a global media summit co-hosted by Korea's Yonhap News Agency and the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) that began its four-day run Wednesday.

The OANA Congress is bringing together about 90 CEOs and the representatives of 44 newswire companies from 35 countries worldwide, seeking to widen multilateral cooperation in coping with the challenges posed by the unfolding digital media revolution.

In his keynote address, Boyd-Barrett said one of the emerging business models in the new media era is producing video news footage on domestic issues.

Even more remarkable, he said, is the quickly developing response of news agencies to the 3G and 4G mobile revolutions enabling a variety of tiered services, including news alerts, multimedia stories and services that could potentially create revenue such as shared advertising and subscription charges.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the OANA meeting earlier in the day, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan urged Asia-Pacific media industry leaders to help narrow the information gap separating developed and developing nations, and to contribute to building a new international information order.

Chung added that increased cooperation among regional newswire services will be essential to the success of the G-20 Summit set to take place in Seoul in November.

Park Jung-chan, president and CEO of Yonhap News Agency, said in his congratulatory address that Asia-Pacific news agencies are determined to further broaden multilateral cooperation and multimedia content exchanges in anticipation of the advent of the "Asian century."

"Asia is home to a majority of the world's population. It is the world's largest market and has the world's highest growth potential. Unilateral moves by one or two countries in the region will not bring about this new Asia," Park said.

"It will only emerge when the region as a whole embraces the values of coexistence and win-win cooperation."

Park also stressed that a new direction is necessary to ensure the continued survival and success of Asia's newswire agencies. "Wire services' traditional markets are shrinking, while outdated revenue models are no longer viable amid the explosion of new media," he said.