In the words of Evangeline de Bourgoing (the program manager), the goal of EditorsLab is to build innovative prototypes, to encourage innovation in the newsroom, and to encourage collaboration between the journalist, the designer and the developers, that are not as used to work together.

The Global Editors Network is a cross-platform community of 1000 editors-in-chief and media innovators committed to sustainable, high-quality journalism. The Network aims to empower newsrooms through activities designed to inspire, connect, and share.

The Portuguese Publishers Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1961 with 200 members. The members publish more than 900 publications, catering for national, regional, and specialized audiences. The Association promotes the press as a business activity, and also defends the freedom of the press.

Project criteria

Projects are to be developed during the two days of the event, although some time is taken by presentations. The winning project moves to the next level of the same friendly competition in Barcelona. Projects are judged for the following:

Editorial quality

How innovative is the project, and how useful to its user will it be.

Design and user experience

How user-friendly is the interface, and how creative is the design.

Development

What level of technical expertise does it demonstrate, and how functional is the prototype.

Scalability

What is the potential scale of the idea, and viability. Is it logistically and technically feasible. Is it possible, basically? Can it really be implemented?

Things to avoid

Concepts and mock-ups may be enough to win. Based on past experience, Evangeline recommended teams to avoid the following:

Glittery gadget

It is a prototype that works well, the design is ready, but at the end you are like… is this really going to be useful to its user? Is this solving a real problem? People are going to play with it for three minutes and then forget about it. We want prototypes than can be useful in the long term for your audience.

Impossible fancy

It’s something that is a great idea, a great project, but you are a very small organization, you have like three developers in your news organization (or one), and you know that to develop this prototype you will need like 10 developers for one year, and you know it’s not going to be feasible. Because we want your prototype to become real, to really be implemented in your newsroom. So, just be realistic, and think about the future.

Theme at Lisbon

The theme of the friendly competition at Lisbon was how to build a community with a Portuguese-speaking audience. Portuguese-speakers make up one of the largest online language groups, yet this community is fragmented. While the Portuguese are producing great content, the conversations are limited to local news sources and audiences. So, how can Portuguese media engage a larger community? How can we interest and create innovative things that can interest Brazil, for example?