23 January 2014
Regional broadcaster, Channel NewsAsia, celebrates the official opening today of its news bureau in Yangon, Myanmar, making it the channel’s 13th dedicated bureau in Southeast and East Asia. The office in Yangon follows on the heels of the launch of the Mumbai bureau in January 2013 in India.
The channel’s correspondent, May Wong, based in Yangon, will report from the ground with credibility and authenticity, to capture the developments in Myanmar as it opens up after half a century of isolation. This is also a significant year as the country assumes the ASEAN Chair for the first time. A broadcast journalist with 17 years of experience, May Wong has been filing stories from Myanmar since a year ago. In the more recent events, the channel was able to give regional viewers a close up on the astounding Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar and the just-concluded ASEAN Ministerial Meeting. On the business front, she provided insights on plans to set up the country’s first stock exchange, and its strategies to grow the aviation sector and to build a new airport to meet rising air passenger traffic.
Supporting these reports, the channel has, over the past few years, had several exclusive interviews about Myanmar. This included President Thein Sein’s first international television interview in July 2012, and when Speaker of Parliament, Thura U Shwe Mann, was in Singapore in September that year. It produced a 6 part series called “The New Myanmar” last year, and several other documentaries on the developments in the country.
Ms Debra Soon, Managing Director of Channel NewsAsia comments, “We have stepped up not only our news coverage, but our documentaries and programmes on Myanmar in the past few years. Today, we are adding another thrust to our engagement with Myanmar with a regional business seminar. This provides a platform for political and business leaders to understand more about the changing face of Myanmar. It’s a formula which we are replicating across Asia, improving our coverage within the region through news and current affairs, and making connections to the movers and shakers across Asia.”
Just a year ago in January 2013, the channel increased its broadcast time, reporting “live” for 24 hours. It opened a satellite studio in Singapore’s new upmarket Marina Bay Financial Centre that signalled its increased business programming, whilst it improved its Asian overnight coverage of financial markets in the United States and Europe. Its focus to deliver high end documentaries and content on Asia will tell the story of the region’s progress, dynamism and challenges.
As a continuing commitment to bring better understanding of Asia, Channel NewsAsia has brought its series of regional seminars for today’s official opening. The seminar, Business Insights – Understanding the Changing Myanmar, gathers think tanks, captains of industries and government leaders to discuss how business communities can achieve success and contribute to sustainable development and to deliver value to the people. The event is held at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon with official venue partner, Keppel Land.
The panel discussion will be facilitated by Channel NewsAsia’s award-winning Presenter, Teymoor Nabili. It includes Dr Muang Muang Lay, Vice President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), Mr Kanthan Shankar, Country Manager, East Asia & Pacific of The World Bank Group, Mr Melvyn Pun, CEO, Serge Pun & Associates (Myanmar) or SPA (Myanmar), Associate Professor Simon Tay, Chairman of Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and Mr William Greenlee, Jr., Partner/Deputy Managing Director, DFDL, Myanmar.
22 January 2014
The Broadcasting Board of Governors today established an interim management structure for its International Broadcasting Bureau that appoints three senior executives to manage the day-to-day operations of the agency and helps pave the way for a future Chief Executive Officer.
Under this interim management structure, André Mendes will serve as Director of Global Operations, Robert Bole will serve as Director of Global Strategy, and Suzie Carroll will serve as Director of Global Communications. Mendes, Bole and Carroll will provide oversight and direction to the Directors of the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, as well as the other offices of the federal agency until a CEO is hired.
“The Board proposed this structure to leverage the strengths of three exceptional leaders and set the stage for important agency reforms,” said Jeffrey Shell, chair of the BBG’s governing board.
BBG Governor Matt Armstrong will serve as the Board’s Management Liaison and will provide support to the interim IBB management team. In addition, the Board has created a Special Committee on Creation of a Chief Executive Officer.
“We believe the BBG needs a CEO to be fully effective and to support all operational aspects of U.S. international broadcasting,” he said. “We are consulting with both Congress and the Administration on meeting that goal.”
Mendes has directed the IBB’s Office of Technology, Services and Innovation (TSI) for the past four years. He provides executive leadership in the planning, development, and operation of all agency engineering and technical systems, including a world-wide satellite and transmitting station network, as well as planning for the use of new technological improvements and efficiencies. Before joining the agency, Mendes served as senior vice president, strategic planning and global CIO for Special Olympics International. Previously, he served as Chief Technology Integration Officer for the Public Broadcasting Service, where he was responsible for both Information Technology and Broadcast Engineering during a $1.8 billion transition to digital television.
Deputy TSI Director Terry Balazs, will serve as Acting TSI Director, given Mendes new leadership role.
Robert Bole joined the BBG in 2011 as Director of Innovation to lead the agency’s use of technology to improve storytelling, news delivery and crisis response. As head of the Office of Digital and Design Innovation, he directed the agency’s digital strategy and worked with journalists to innovate digital media products, focusing on engaging and connecting audiences. Previously, Bole served as the Vice President of Digital Media Strategies at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where he helped lead the creation of a unified digital distribution platform. He also created a strategy to improve public media’s use of social media to engage citizens in journalism, civic dialogue and education. Prior to that, Bole worked for the One Economy Corporation, a global non-profit organization that leverages the power of technology in underserved communities around the world.
As Bole assumes his new role in the IBB, ODDI’s Director of Technology, Adam Martin, will serve as Acting Director of Innovation.
Suzie Carroll has been with the BBG since 2012. As BBG Executive Director, she serves as the principal liaison for the Chairman and members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and manages implementation of Board priorities. Before being tapped by the Board to be its Executive Director, she served as the agency’s Congressional Coordinator for a year, cultivating support from Capitol Hill for high-priority agency initiatives, conducting day-to-day interactions with Congress, and coordinating these activities with counterparts at the BBG’s networks. Carroll joined the agency from the Peace Corps, where she served as Acting Director and Deputy Director of Congressional Relations. As a member of the Peace Corps’ senior staff, she was responsible for developing and implementing legislative strategy. Prior to that, Carroll held positions, focusing on government affairs and legal services in Washington, DC and Los Angeles.
Carroll will continue to serve as BBG Executive Director in addition to her new duties.
IBB Deputy Director Jeff Trimble will now take on a new role with the Global Strategy team working to advance collaboration and coordination across the BBG. Trimble will play a leadership role on the content side of the operation to strengthen the BBG’s position in a period of increased global competition.
The IBB is responsible for the agency’s strategic planning and oversight, including U.S. international media’s innovation strategy, and transmission, marketing, and program placement services. The IBB is also responsible for integrating activities across the federal and BBG-funded grantee networks for greater organizational efficiency. The IBB manages the agency’s communications, financial operations, and legal support along with a global network of transmitting sites, an extensive system of leased satellite and fiber optic circuits, and rapidly growing Internet and mobile audience platforms and services. It provides research and evaluations of broadcasts, VOA editorials, and human resources, Equal Employment Opportunity, procurement, security, information technology, and other essential administrative support for the agency.
21 January 2014
BBC World Service has further expanded its FM presence in Burma also known as Myanmar with the launch of its radio programming on Shwe FM network. From today, audiences of Shwe FM can tune in to the BBC Burmese English-learning programme, English at Work.
English at Work is a five-minute English-learning programme designed to teach phrases aimed to help succeed in business and avoid embarrassing mistakes with colleagues and clients. Produced by BBC Burmese in collaboration with BBC Learning English, this fun office-based drama will be broadcast by Shwe FM at 7.30pm local time on Tuesdays and repeated at 8am on Thursdays.
BBC Burmese Editor Tin Htar Swe says: “With the country opening up, many young people are keen to improve their language skills, and the demand to learn English is even greater than before. The BBC has a strong audience base in the country, and we are delighted to be able to deliver BBC Learning English lessons to our audience on Shwe FM and also thrilled to be expanding our reach through Shwe’s nationwide network.”
With stations across Myanmar, Shwe FM reaches 98% of the country. Nan Mauk Laun Saing, Chairlady of Shwe FM, adds: “Shwe FM always strives to serve the best for our listeners with variety of programmes. The partnership with the BBC will help us offer even better service to our listeners. Our mission is to inform and educate, and we are very happy that the country’s youth can now improve their English by tuning into BBC Learning English lessons on our network.”
BBC World Service is a mass broadcaster in Burma/Myanmar. BBC Burmese keeps its audiences informed about regional and international events via radio, online on bbcburmese.com and increasingly via Facebook and other social media.
21 January 2014
Deutsche Welle is continuing its restructuring process. The strategy focuses on changes to DW’s language offerings and TV magazines as well as the introduction of dialogue- and comment-based formats.
“In order to reach our goals for the coming four years, we have to create the right conditions in our departments now,” DW’s director general, Peter Limbourg, told staff in Berlin and Bonn on January 20. On January 17, the broadcaster’s leadership agreed on a series of reforms. “They will create the framework in which we can realize our concept of creative and modern journalism and position ourselves as a global information provider based in Germany,” Limbourg commented.
The proposals concentrate on content in English as well as in languages that have proven successful for DW. English is intended to become the journalistic “flagship” language, meaning the English department’s offerings will be expanded to make it internationally competitive. A core goal for DW is more successfully reaching its target audience of decision makers and political opinion leaders worldwide. Meanwhile, the German-language TV channel will be changed to feature more news content and clearer programming structures. “German remains an important language for DW,” said the director general. A German-language community will be built up on dw.de, and Deutsche Welle’s German courses will be expanded.
Limbourg announced that DW will redirect its finances internally so as to reach the areas that are being prioritized, a process that is set to begin step by step this year.
“We aren’t making a clear cut. Instead, we’ve developed a responsible and smart concept that will allow us to achieve our goals and maintain DW’s excellent regional and language competencies,” he said.
Regional priorities, priority languages
The plans are designed to strengthen DW’s English content within the international media landscape. The broadcaster’s regional focus will be on Afghanistan, China and Iran in Asia, as well as Africa, the Arab World, Russia, Latin America, Turkey and the crisis zones within Europe.
Based on these decisions, the linear TV and online content will be heavily expanded in English. DW’s TV news coverage is set to increase significantly, and the news will be broadcast more frequently. DW will reduce the number of shows it produces, while elevating the quality of the remaining formats. In all of its target areas, DW plans to continue offering regionalized content and to increase the number of relevant programming segments. Within the offerings for Asia and Africa, programming will emphasize certain topic areas – for example, there will be a business show for Asia. The necessary regional competence will be secured by retaining journalists from language departments that are being cut or reduced. DW’s social media activity in English will be intensified, and its English-language radio production limited to shows intended for African FM partner broadcasters.
DW will continue to offer original content on television and online in German. However, the expenditures in this area will be reduced, while cooperation with German national public broadcasters ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio will be increased. With its German-language offerings, DW offers a key service for all those who live abroad and speak German, including for German nationals and those with German roots.
Focus on dialogue in regional target languages
Within its online offerings for regional target languages, DW will switch to a personalized blog format featuring dialogue and comment functions that will also be optimized for mobile devices. “We’re after successful journalism that takes a stance, and we’re seeking a direct interaction with our target audiences,” said Director General Peter Limbourg. The current thematic breadth of DW’s online content in these editorial departments, which currently produce comprehensive news and background material, will be left behind in favor of strong commentary pieces from a German perspective.
“In many countries, wide-ranging information is available about Germany, but what’s lacking is context and commentary. That’s what people there expect from Germany’s international broadcaster. We will provide our target users with pointed commentaries on relevant global, regional or bilateral events and developments, communicating German positions on issues and entering into dialogue with them,” the director general said. He added that DW will remain anchored in the respective target areas as a journalistic brand and that its offerings can be flexibly expanded – for instance, when a regional crisis demands it. The regional expertise in the existing foreign language editorial departments is set to remain intact and will be channeled into offerings in English.
Concentrating European expertise
The journalists covering European affairs in individual departments will be grouped into a single European editorial department. It will create regionalized content for European crisis regions, and, at DW’s headquarters in Bonn, it will also produce an emotional and visually expressive TV magazine dealing with European politics. This magazine will serve as a template for adaptation into all of DW’s European languages.
In its global target regions, DW will adapt its activities region by region and change its offerings accordingly.
Departments not set for restructuring
Numerous language departments at DW will remain essentially untouched by the structural changes. However, further work will be undertaken to increase the quality of their offerings and the number of users within the target audience. For example, social media activities will be further developed, and more videos and mobile content will be offered. This goes for editorial departments in the following languages: Dari, Pashto, Farsi, Chinese, Kiswahili, Hausa, Amharic, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Greek and Polish – the budgets of which will remain largely unchanged.
Structural reductions
Several language departments face structural changes: Online offerings in Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Romanian and Serbian will be switched to a personalized, dialogue-based blog format with comments. The European TV magazines in these languages will be maintained, but radio broadcasts in Albanian and Croatian will end.
In the future, DW will address its target groups in India and Pakistan primarily in English. Manthan, a science magazine format for TV in Hindi, will continue, but the Hindi website will be shut down. Radio offerings in Urdu will focus on the educational Learning by Ear program, and Urdu-language evening radio broadcasts will be preserved for the time being. Both the radio broadcasts via shortwave and the website in Urdu will shut down.
The Indonesian science magazine for TV, Inovator, will initially continue, and checks will be undertaken to see whether parts of the new English TV channel can be subtitled in Indonesian. The Indonesian website will also be reduced to a personalized, dialogue-based blog format with comments. The same goes for the French for Africa website. Production of radio broadcasts in French will be switched back to FM formats for selected partner broadcasters in Africa.
Discontinued offerings
Deutsche Welle will end its offerings in Bengali and Portuguese for Africa. However, the regional expertise available in these departments will not go to waste. Some staff members from the Bengali department will be employed to strengthen English-language TV and online offerings for Asia. Similarly, members of the Portuguese for Africa department will join the team producing English-language content for Africa. Their language skills will also be of use in the new Europe department and potentially in the Portuguese for Brazil team.
Changes to TV magazines
The management at DW also put all of the TV shows that DW produces and broadcasts up for scrutiny. The major criteria were the extent to which the TV magazines enhance DW’s profile and what their potential scope is. As a result, the decision was made to end the shows PopXport, Agenda, World Stories, Germany Today, Insight Germany, People and Politics, Kino and Talking Germany in the future. This applies to the editions of these shows in all four languages in which DW broadcasts linear TV, namely German, English, Spanish and Arabic. The topics covered in those programs will be explored in other content. The business magazine Made in Germany and the talk show Quadriga will be fundamentally reworked and restructured.
The programs Euromaxx, Tomorrow Today, Global 3000, In Focus, In Good Shape, Drive it!, Shababtalk, On the Pulse, Discover Germany, Shift, Kick Off! and Kick Off! Countdown, Europe in Concert, European Journal, Arts.21, Business Brief, The New Arab Debates, Claves, Treasures of the World, Close up and Faith Matters will continue to be produced in all their current language versions.
Deutsche Welle will strive to bolster its TV offerings by introducing interactive formats and a talk show that will further enhance the broadcaster’s reputation. Consideration will be given to which ideas developed by DW staff members could be put into practice for the TV station.
Further steps
The cornerstones of the new strategy and the measures necessary to put it into place will be included in Deutsche Welle’s planning from 2014 to 2017. At the latest, their implementation will begin once the Broadcasting Board has formally approved the plans.
In the coming weeks, DW will clarify in more detail what the proposed measures will mean financially and in terms of personnel. In some areas, such as the English department, staff numbers will increase. It cannot yet be determined to what extent jobs will be lost, because it remains unclear how much of a grant the German federal government will provide to DW. The broadcaster’s management will do all it can to retain as many of its employees as possible.
30 December 2013
Regional broadcaster, Channel NewsAsia, has launched a Chinese SMS News Alert service. It provides breaking news and news headlines for the Chinese-speaking users in Singapore.
The service leverages the established network of news gathering journalists which produces the highly watched daily news programmes on MediaCorp Channel 8. Offered in collaboration with SingTel, first-time subscribers pay only 10 cents for a 30-day trial. After that, the monthly subscription is S$2.50. Subscribers would get up-to-the minute Singapore and world news in a compact, 70-character message. Some Asian entertainment news will be added into the mix on weekends and public holidays.
Channel NewsAsia’s Vice President for Channel Distribution, Woon Chuk Chan, says, “We see this service as an extension of the successful decade-old Channel NewsAsia News Alerts in English. News, in whatever language, is used as a resource by many working adults who are also interested to find out the daily news on a timely basis. We are well placed to provide the service, with readily available expertise in a strong Chinese newsroom supported by the Channel NewsAsia teams.”
Head of FunL!fe, Group Digital L!fe, SingTel, Cheong Hai Thoo, adds, “Anyone who wants breaking news and regular news updates in Chinese throughout the day can now get bite-sized snippets on their mobiles. Most of us get the news via various sources at different times. SMS breaking news fills the gap that exists when other sources are not readily or conveniently available. It’s also ideal for busy professionals who just want a quick update on the go.”
Users can call SingTel’s hotline at 1688 to find out more about the service, or log on to these websites for further details:
https://www.facebook.com/ch8news
http://xinmsn.com/chnews
