Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic This month, Yousra Elbagir, Sky News\u2019s Africa correspondent, garnered millions of views on TikTok and hundreds of thousands on YouTube for her hard-hitting reporting from the Democratic Republic of Congo.\u00a0For her boss, David Rhodes, Elbagir represents the future for a traditional TV channel facing an existential threat as audiences move online: original journalism, a big name reporter and the skills to engage digitally with an especially young audience.\u00a0Also \u2014 crucially \u2014 journalism that can be packaged for digital platforms that might one day enable the media group to actually make money.Sky News has never turned a profit in its 36-year history. \u201cNot a single day,\u201d says Rhodes, a well travelled US cable news veteran who worked at CBS, Bloomberg and Fox before being appointed to head Sky News Group in 2023 by its US parent Comcast.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been going from town to town,\u201d the executive says. He previously worked at profitable news organisations, which had \u201csome big, lucrative activity that\u2019s going away, and they\u2019re trying to figure out how to replace it.\u201d Sky News presents a different challenge. \u201cThis one never had that. This one was never that. So the expectations of the company are a bit different.\u201dRhodes this month set out a new strategy aimed at saving Sky News from a potentially terminal decline as a broadcaster, as more of its audience \u2014 and particularly younger viewers \u2014 watch video platforms such as YouTube and TikTok rather than traditional TV channels, and listen to podcasts rather than radio.He wants to fundamentally shift from a free-to-air UK broadcaster \u2014 Sky News was Britain\u2019s first 24-hour news channel \u2014 into a global digital provider of premium \u2014 and paid-for \u2014 content.\u00a0This means moving the focus away from its core TV channel to digital platforms, such as YouTube or its own Sky app, which offer new ways to make revenue from advertising, sponsorship and paywalled content. \u201cLinear TV as a category and linear TV monetisation is falling dramatically,\u201d Rhodes warns.One of his big challenges in the transformation will be convincing the 750 staff across bureaus from London to Beijing that their future lies not in the analogue TV past but in his vision of the future of Sky News. It will bring sweeping changes for staff, from cameramen who provide the rolling footage for the news channel, to presenters and reporters used to filing their work for TV.\u201cIf I\u2019m a camera operator working principally on foreign, how does this impact me?\u201d says Rhodes. \u201cThey\u2019re very different from somebody in the newsroom managing the social media accounts.\u201dGiven the urgency of his plans \u2014 Comcast guaranteed funding for Sky News as part of its takeover in 2018, with an annual budget of about \u00a3100mn, but these commitments will end in 2028 \u2014 his work to inform and discuss with staff began this month. He hosted a large \u201ctown hall\u201d meeting with staff in London and then a roadshow around various teams. The smaller groups were especially important to address specific concerns about roles, he says.Sky News insiders say concerns have been raised about the future of some of these teams, with staff who provide the linear channel with TV content worried about their jobs. Rhodes is careful to say the plan is not about cost cutting or job losses, but inside Sky there is recognition many roles will at least need to change.Rhodes, who has named the strategy Sky News 2030 to look beyond a date some analysts see as cliff edge for the broadcaster, says all in the newsroom have had the same message: how can their roles fit the new strategy.\u201cI talked about adapting, and how we all need to adapt, and looking at the messaging around premium: like, \u2018what I\u2019m doing, does it have a premium aspect to it? Is it a video first\u2019? If I work on a podcast, what does the podcast look like? What do I think about the video? Is it built for a digital future?\u201dIn practice, he sees this as keeping an open mind on jobs. \u201cThe biggest mistake we can make is if colleagues conflate video with linear television. \u2018I\u2019m a television producer\u2019 \u2014 no, you\u2019re a producer. [Or] \u2018I\u2019m a digital reporter\u2019. Well, no, you\u2019re a reporter. You might be asked to do that in a variety of ways.\u201d\u00a0He says some of these conversations have been \u201creally encouraging\u201d, such as camera crews asking about new technology and techniques.\u00a0One bureau chief told him after the presentation that it was good the company was \u201cgripping\u201d the rapid changes in the industry. \u201cNobody\u2019s surprised to know that the industry has gone through a lot of changes, they just want to know [how we are going to] grip it.\u201dOne editorial source said that others were more fearful, however. \u201cThis could be tough\u201d. Analysts also see a hard battle for profitability as Sky News battles for digital audiences against the world\u2019s largest tech companies, as well as more traditional rivals such as CNN, GB News and the BBC also making similar moves online.Rhodes can see different digital platforms converging \u2014 \u201cpodcasts are going to look more like TV and video production, and TV and video production is going to look and sound more like podcasts\u201d \u2014 which require different skills and ideas.But he also says some in the industry can get too carried away in predicting the pace of change. Rhodes points out that many podcasts have similar content and are filmed in a similar way as a traditional TV show: \u201cThere\u2019s usually a narrative about how no one\u2019s going to do the old thing, because they\u2019re all doing the new thing. But the new thing is usually a lot like the old, but maybe it\u2019s delivered in a different way, it\u2019s paid for in a different way.\u201dRhodes wants to rebuild Sky News around a series of \u201cverticals\u201d of subject matter helmed by its big-draw journalists \u2014 for example, politics, where Beth Rigby has built up a loyal and large following and where people are willing to pay to watch and listen to podcasts and subscribe to newsletters.Rhodes admits there will need to be some big name hires to fill a schedule that will be based on individual talent and their followings.\u201cWe have some building blocks. We\u2019re going to need more, and we know that, but that\u2019s an exciting challenge to have. We have some of what we need. Are we going to need some others? Definitely.\u201dThe need for household names is also becoming more acute with the departure of some of Sky News\u2019s longest serving presenters, including business editor Ian King and Kay Burley, who was part of the team that launched the channel in 1989 but announced her decision to leave this month.\u201cYou need personalities to build these things around but part of that conversation is like: this is going to be Sky News 2030 [so] this is going to take a minute. It\u2019s gonna be some work. It\u2019s been 36 years, she [Burley] just found herself ready to retire.\u201dPrevious owners have seen Sky News as useful leverage with politicians in talks about regulation or as a marketing tool, but Rhodes says of Comcast: \u201cThey want us to make money. But we want us to make money. We talk a lot about being independent. What makes you independent is that you can pay your own way.\u201dHe says Sky News will remain a \u201cmass brand\u201d, with a \u201cpublic service aspect\u201d that will mean there will always be a free to air channel but with resources shifted to premium content. Breaking and live TV news will be less of a priority in a reorganisation of the newsroom. About 30 per cent of Sky News is currently \u201cpremium\u201d journalism, rather than live and breaking TV, which he wants to increase to 70 per cent by 2030.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think that people will pay for the broad proposition all at once,\u201d he says. But within that, he adds, \u201cthere\u2019s just communities of interest that you can build to get back to mass\u201d.The audience will also have to be led to where Sky News sees its future. \u201cEverybody\u2019s expecting this to be free,\u201d says Rhodes, \u201cbut the first thing you have to do is you have to actually believe in your offering. You have to actually believe that what you\u2019re doing has value. What is it that we\u2019re doing that no one else can do?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic This month, Yousra Elbagir, Sky News\u2019s Africa correspondent, garnered millions of views on TikTok and hundreds of thousands on YouTube for her hard-hitting reporting from the Democratic Republic of Congo.\u00a0For her boss, David Rhodes, Elbagir represents the future for a traditional TV channel facing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}