Mobile and Emerging Platforms Are Focus of World Newspaper Congress

March 5, 2014

Paid content and all access strategies have proven that readers will pay for digital access, but what do they get for their money? Publishers are going to need more sophisticated strategies to maintain digital growth.

That’s the idea behind a featured session on mobile and emerging platforms at the World Newspaper Congress, which will feature strategies and ideas from three continents to help publishers accelerate the development of their digital offerings.

Speakers in the session, entitled “Speed up your mobile and emerging platform strategy”, include John Paton, CEO of Digital First Media in the United States, Jean-Baptise Morin, CEO of Lagardère’s LS Distribution in France, Yoichi Nishimura, Board Director of Digital Business and International Affairs of The Asahi Shimbun in Japan, and Tore Stangebye, CEO of Berner Media Holding in Norway.

More than 1,200 publishers, chief editors, CEOs, managing directors and other senior newspaper and news publishing executives are expected to attend the Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum, the global summit meetings of the world’s press to be held 9 to 11 June in Torino, Italy.

Full details of the events, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/torino2014

Other Congress sessions include:

- Innovation: From idea to impact, which will examine the many ways publishers can work with start-ups.
- Alternative business models and disruptive revenues, which will examine new digital revenues, business models, and organisational and operational best practices for publishers.
- The Game Changers, which will look at newspaper companies that are embracing change and thriving in both print and digital.
- One size does not fit all, which will present strategies and tools for independent, mid-size news organisations and those under severe market pressure.
- Consolidation and “coopetition” (win together or lose it), which makes the case that the new media environment requires traditional news media to work together in the common interest to maintain their essential place at the heart of societal development.
- Why Video Matters: Get in the Game, which will examine the elements of multi-media strategy that incorporates video to build new audiences and revenues.
- Audience is first - where strategy meets data, which will examine the growth of advanced data analytics for media companies and will include case studies on how real-time customer data provide insights into behaviour and lead to new products and services that increase engagement and sales.
- Innovations in Newspapers 2014, the annual session on the most interesting developments in the newspaper industry.
- World Press Trends, the annual “State of the Industry” presentation, with a look at global and regional figures on trends in circulation, readership, revenue and advertising, in both digital and print.

- Plus much more! Full details and registration information can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/torino2014

Alongside the World Newspaper Congress, the World Editors Forum and the World Advertising Forum, Info Services Expo 2014 will present innovative solutions from the international suppliers’ community, while the new Energy Lounge will provide a first look at developing technology that could benefit the industry in future.

As always, the events are accompanied by an array of social events, gala dinners and lunches and are considered to be the premier opportunity to meet colleagues from around the world.

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore and India, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

For more information contact:
Larry Kilman
Deputy CEO and Director of Communications and Publ
WAN-IFRA
Phone: +33 1 47 42 85 07
Email: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org
Website: www.wan-ifra.org