The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum will turn their spotlight on this living laboratory of the free press concept at their 9th World Editor and Marketeer Conference & Expo, to be held on 23 and 24 November in Madrid, Spain (click here for programme details and registration).
It all began with the announcement earlier this year by the Icelandic group Dagsbrun that it would launch a quality free daily newspaper in the autumn and deliver it directly to 500,000 households. The move led Denmark’s biggest press groups to launch their own door-to-door free dailies and beat the newcomer to the market. The Icelandic entry is scheduled to be launched this Friday, 6 October.
Det Berlingske Officin, which publishes the paid-for daily paper Berlingske Tidende and the free commuter paper Urban, launched the free paper Dato in August, delivering copies at traffic intersections in Copenhagen and direct to households in larger cities.
One day after the launch, JP/Politiken, which publishes Ekstra Bladet, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken, launched its own free daily, 24Timer, which is distributed daily to homes in Copenhagen, Arhus and elsewhere.
At the same time, Metro International launched an afternoon edition of its Metro Xpress, which had been the first free paper in the Danish market.
And, as if all this were not enough, local media companies around the country also joined the game with their own home-delivered free newspapers.
Poul Madsen, Editor-in-Chief of 24Timer, and Torsten Bjerre Rasmussen, the Director of the paper, will share their experiences in this newspaper war in a session on new newspaper trends at the Editor & Marketeer Conference.
They will be joined by Mark Rix, Deputy Managing Editor of the Manchester Evening News, who will examine a similar explosion of free newspapers in the UK market, including the decision of his own title to go free in the city centre and to sell the paper elsewhere, a unique combination.
Other sessions include:
 Reader connections, which will provide practical information on how newspapers can engage customers and develop reader relationships that drive sales and loyalty. Speakers include Anders Goliger, Assistant News Editor of Göteborgs-Posten in Sweden, Grzegorz Piechota, Special Projects Editor of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, and Hans-Dieter Gärtner, Director of GESO in Germany.
Circulation systems, which will focus on the use of circulation and consumer data in sales and marketing operations. Speakers include John Hay, CRM Consultant for the Globe and Mail in Canada, and other speakers to be announced.
The digital/print content opportunity, which will examine the development of new digital mobile technologies and how they impact traditional readerships. Speakers include Erik Nord, Senior Vice President of Telenor in Norway, Trine Hage, CEO of Norway’s Romerikes Blad, and other speakers to be announced.
Newspaper marketing: avoiding the pitfalls, in which a panel of experts will respond to the 10 most frequent mistakes in newspaper marketing and explain how to avoid them.
Promotion - short term gain or long term investment?, which will present an overview of circulation-winning promotions and the long-term strategies behind them. Speakers include Paula Murphy, Deputy Marketing Director of The Independent in Ireland, and other speakers to be announced.
New print products, which will include a new WAN Shaping the Future report on new print products and case studies on the latest print innovations. Speakers include Hans Nijenhuis, Editor-in-Chief of Nrc.next in The Netherlands, and other speakers to be announced.
And much more! Full details here.
Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr |
