Digital transformation is reshaping newsroom workflows, but journalists must put audiences first, verify information rigorously and deliver distinctive reporting across platforms, CNN Worldwide managing editor Mike McCarthy said in Doha.
Speaking to *Gulf Times on the sidelines of the “CNN Global Perspectives” event in Qatar, McCarthy said the shift from traditional broadcasting to multiple digital platforms required journalists to rethink how they produce and distribute news.
“Digital transformation brings enormous change and it means a change in not just working practices but a change in mindset,” he said.
McCarthy said even experienced journalists needed to adapt their skills and workflows as audiences increasingly consumed news through different formats, including television, video, social media and text.
“The story stays the same but you have to think very differently about how you curate the content for those different audiences,” he said, adding that journalists must consider how people want to see a story before deciding how to present it.
He said that technology, including mobile phone filming and artificial intelligence (AI), along with open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques used to verify and geolocate footage, has become part of the modern journalist’s toolkit.
However, McCarthy stressed that technological advances also increased the resp
onsibility to establish the authenticity of information in an environment shaped by misinformation and disinformation.
“Never been a more important time to get the information right,” he said, describing these tools as an additional set of resources to help journalists improve their work.
Discussing CNN’s own transformation, McCarthy said the organisation is examining how audiences consume its content and what distinguishes its journalism from that of other news providers.
“Breaking news will always be our core defining brand,” he said, adding that distinctive reporting and in-depth investigations are increasingly important beyond immediate news coverage.
He said the move towards subscriptions also required news organisations to consider what would persuade audiences to pay for journalism.
“Why are people going to bring out money from their pocket to pay to get CNN content?” McCarthy said, noting that this question is driving more rigorous decisions about story selection, production and distribution.
Although television remained important to CNN’s international reach, he said that the organisation could not overlook audiences consuming its content through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
McCarthy said audience research and platform-specific expertise are becoming essential to understanding how different groups wanted to consume news.
Adapting, he acknowledged, is not always easy, as journalists need to acquire new skills without abandoning traditional reporting principles.
“It’s not that those skills are now irrelevant, but we are all having to learn new skills and new ways of working,” he said.
