 To protect press freedom and the economic independence of newspapers
To support the growth and development of newspaper publishing world-wide
To protect the professional and business interests of newspapers
To actively promote the newspaper and its role in _ society
To continually improve the association, its programmes, services and activities
This Activity Report will give a broad picture of the actions and programmes undertaken over the first year of this plan in pursuit of these objectives.
Press Freedom
WAN has accomplished its day to day mission of monitoring and protesting the persecution, jailing and murder of journalists and the censorship, suspension and banning of newspapers, magazines and electronic media world-wide.
We have organised dozens of protest campaigns, directed at almost 50 countries, through petitions, letters, complaints to inter-governmental organisations, editorial exposure, and diplomatic pressure. In several cases the outcome of the campaign was successful and we noted an increasingly high level of response from the governments and other authorities whom we challenged.
Most campaigns dealt with cases of imprisonment of journalists and of suspension imposed on independent publications. A protest was sent to the UN Human Rights Council President to express serious concern at the approval of a resolution by this UN body that attempts to justify censorship of free speech under the guise of protecting religious sensibilities. The same protest was sent to the Presidents of the countries that voted in favour of the resolution or abstained from voting.
Events
World Press Freedom Day
WAN again organised a major campaign for 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, to bring attention to global press freedom problems. The 2007 campaign - which was titled “Press Under Surveillance!” - highlighted how the widespread tightening of security and surveillance measures in recent years have come to threaten free speech and press freedom world-wide.
Anti-terrorism and official secrets laws, criminalisation of speech judged to justify terrorism, criminal prosecution of journalists for disclosing classified information, surveillance of communications without judicial authorisation, restrictions on access to government data and stricter security classifications were highlighted as measures that can severely erode the capacity of journalists to investigate and report accurately and critically, and thus the ability of the press to inform.
The WAN World Press Freedom Day package, made available to more than 20,000 publications and web sites in 187 countries, consisted of a wide array of editorial and advertising materials in five languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Russian.
As a centrepiece to the campaign, WAN issued a seven-point manifesto that called on the world’s governments to take specific measures to protect freedom of the press in the face of widespread tightening of anti-terrorism measures. Translated in all languages of the campaign, the manifesto was broadly republished by the press.
Print advertisements were created specifically for the WAN campaign by two advertising agencies and published around the world. Two additional adverts were created by WAN.
Seven cartoons by leading French cartoonist Michel Cambon were featured on the site and were largely republished. A dozen photographs from Agence France Presse (AFP) were also part of this year’s campaign.
As in 2006, WAN worked with the Swedish Beckmans College of Design on the campaign TV ad. Available in the five languages of the campaign, it was distributed to television networks around the world.
Infographics and background material on journalists jailed and journalists killed throughout the world were also included.
The 2007 campaign also sought to engage young readers in an international campaign to free Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist jailed since November 2004 and laureate of WAN Golden Pen of Freedom in 2007. A kit featuring a postcard to send to Chinese authorities and background information were provided.
Another feature was the possibility to send online protest letters to governments on specific cases of press freedom violations.
The campaign website (www.worldpressfreedomday.org) received more than 8,000 unique visits in the four weeks leading up to World Press Freedom Day.
Press Under Siege: Media in Danger conference, Beirut
On 10 and 11 December 2006, in partnership with the An-Nahar newspaper, WAN organized a major conference in Beirut, focussed on press freedom problems in the Middle East. The "Press Under Siege" event explored the efforts of Arab media to win their independence and freedom in an environment of continuing repression and harassment. The conference was the latest in a series of WAN conferences entitled ‘Media in Danger’ held in regions where violence against the press has become endemic. Three others have taken place: in Bogota, Colombia; in the Basque region of Spain; and in Kyrgyzstan, covering the Central Asian Republics. More than 4,500 people attended the opening of the conference, which was dedicated to the memory of Mr Gebran Tueni, the WAN Board member and publisher of the An-Nahar newspaper who was killed by a car bomb on 12 December 2005.
“New Media: The Press Freedom Dimension” conference
On 15 and 16 February, WAN-WEF organised an international conference on new media and press freedom together with a coalition of press freedom organisations and UNESCO. The conference, which took place in Paris, gathered over 250 participants to examine a wide range of issues around new media and press freedom. A statement as well as four background papers were published in connection to the conference. A full report from the event was published in April.
Press Freedom Awards
Golden Pen of Freedom
The 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom was awarded to Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence after being charged with “leaking state secrets” for writing an email about media restrictions in the lead up to the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The email was picked up by several overseas Internet portals. It was also picked up by the Chinese authorities, with the assistance of the Yahoo Internet Service Provider, which reportedly gave state security authorities information that ultimately allowed them to trace the message to a computer Tao used at the newspaper.
In May 2007, WAN launched an international ad campaign calling for the release of Shi Tao. The Swedish ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors produced an advertisement distributed for free to newspapers worldwide through the WAN network. The ad was created both in a paper version as well as an online ad. WAN also launched a webpage providing background on the case of Shi Tao, an online protest letter in English and Chinese and links to other sites with further information about Shi Tao.
Gebran Tueni Award
In 2006, WAN established an award to honour the memory of Lebanese publisher Gebran Tueni who was killed by a car bomb attack in December 2005.
Gebran Tueni was a unique figure in WAN affairs for almost twenty years, as a leading member of our Press Freedom Committee, a Board member for more than a decade, a regular participant in missions to press freedom ’hot spots’ and a constant adviser and support to the leadership of our organization on Arab and press freedom issues.
The first Gebran Tueni Award, presented in Beirut at the Media in Danger conference, was made to Nadia Al-Saqqaf, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times. Ms Al-Saqqaf received the award for her efforts to defend the independent editorial policy set by her father and founder of the Yemen Times, Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, and to make a priority of high professional standards and skills. The award carried a scholarship to enable Ms Al-Saqqaf to undertake advanced newspaper leadership training, notably through the media training institute of An-Nahar, the Tueni family’s newspaper in Lebanon.
Electronic networks
Arab Press Network
 WAN’s web-based Arab Press Network (APN) went into its second year of activity with the re-launch of its website in May 2007. An important change was the move from weekly to daily postings on the website, with news from the Arab media scene, exclusive articles and special features. Among the new features on the website is a unique list of newspapers throughout the Arab world, including an introduction to the media scene in every Arab country, a description of the most important papers in each country as well as basic facts about them. The development of the website will continue throughout the summer of 2007, with the aim of making APN one of the most exhaustive resources for newspaper executives in the Arab world.
African Press Network - RAP 21
After a nine-month break, the African Press Network for the 21st Century (RAP 21) resumed its weekly publication in April 2007, with a developed web-site. RAP 21 is a pan-african media network grouping more than 900 media enterprises throughout the continent.
This email-based network gives the possibility to dialogue and exchange of ideas and information among media professionals all over Africa. The members consist of newspapers, media associations, newspaper executives, journalists and freelancers. All materials are available in English and French.
Missions and Cooperation
Tunisia Monitoring Group (TMG)
At the end of February, WAN participated in a four-day TMG mission to Tunisia. The group met with Tunisian authorities, civil society groups in and around Tunis and also travelled to the city of Kef, 170 km out of Tunis, in order to mark the second anniversary of the jailing of journalist Mohammad Abbou outside the jail where he is being held. The group also went to Zarzis, about 500 km south of Tunis, in order to visit journalist Abdallah Zouari who is being held under house arrest. A full report from the mission was issued in April in English, French and Arabic. WAN contributed to its circulation.
UNESCO Medellin Declaration, 3 May
WAN actively took part in the drafting of the UNESCO Medellin Declaration adopted on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The Declaration focused on the safety of journalists and on combating impunity world-wide.
Other Cooperation
WAN endeavours to support, cooperate with and advise as many organizations as possible on press freedom and media development issues. The WAN CEO, for example, met with the President of the World Bank during the year and also addressed more than 500 Bank staff in Washington about the importance of free media to economic development.
In March 2007, WAN participated in the launch of the publication “Killing the Messenger” drafted by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), as well as the board meeting of INSI at the same occasion. In April, WAN collaborated with the Danish media support organisation International Media Support (IMS) during the second training of Iraqi executive editors in Amman, Jordan. WAN also participated in the activities of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) and the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organisations. WAN provided materials for a press freedom event organised by the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA). Finally, WAN met with a delegation from the International Publishers Association (IPA) in March to discuss common freedom of expression issues. With its special status of Associate Relations with UNESCO, WAN has continued to work closely with the freedom of expression staff of that organisation on a wide range of initiatives in different areas of the world.
WAN also continues to be an active player in the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, an electronic network linking dozens of press freedom and human rights groups world-wide
Monitoring and Updating of Journalists Killed
In the past year, WAN monitored and published cases of all journalists killed worldwide. A total of 110 cases were documented in 2006. The highest number of journalist casualties occurred in Iraq, with 45 killings.
Media Development Programmes
WAN seeks not only to defend press freedom, but to promote it. In essence, this means to help newspapers in developing and transitional countries to acquire the legal guarantees and economic means to fully exploit their freedom and to resist pressures. The WAN Fund for the Development of Press Freedom has continued to implement an extensive programme of training, advice and assistance to newspaper publishers and editors struggling to become profitable - and thus truly free - with programmes, events and other initiatives to assist the press, notably in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Major projects have included the continuation of a three-year executive development programme for the Vietnamese press, focussing on the editorial and commercial development of newspapers
Arab Newspaper Development Programme (ANDP)
The pan-Arab ANDP programme consists of a series of commercial and editorial development projects at newspapers in twelve countries using a pyramid structure which allows for project publications to share their knowledge with other titles in the region. ANDP is financed by the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo, Egypt.
After an assessment period in the summer and autumn 2006, Phase I of the project was launched in January 2007, with onsite visits by the project consultants to the El Watan newspaper in Algeria and the Al Watan newspaper in Saudi Arabia. WAN experts also worked on entirely new publication in Egypt due to be launched in September 2007 as a part of the ANDP project.
In the coming months, the Phase I of the project will conclude, and Phase II will be launched in the autumn 2007, with skills transfer from the main partners to nine other newspapers in the region.
Iraq Newspaper Development Programme
The WAN Iraq Newspaper Development Programme, financed by the United Nations Development Programme, was launched at WAN’s Beirut conference in December with a five-day training programme for Iraqi publishers and editors focussing on advertising sales and reader research. The second training programme took place in Amman, Jordan, in mid-April and examined general management and commercial strategy.
The programme seeks to support independent Iraqi newspapers by providing training in specific areas of the commercial operations of each publication. The programme, designed for senior editors and executives, consists of a variety of multi-activity training activities, including workshops, study tours and one-on-one consultancies. The initiative also aims to promote cooperation between Iraqi newspaper executives and with their colleagues throughout the Arab world, by linking up training initiatives with regional media events.
Conferences/Training and Events
The 59th World Newspaper Congress, 13th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2006 took place with huge success in Moscow, Russia, last June, hosted by the GIPP, the Russian Guild of Press Publishers. The attendance - 1700 newspaper publishers, senior executives and editors from 112 countries - was the highest in the history of the organisation and the programme, social events and planning were unanimously found to be outstanding.
The Training & Events division, which organises all other WAN conferences, held another full programme of events over the past twelve months, with quality programmes and record attendances.
The past year saw an important increase in both the number and diversity of events organised, based on the WAN mission statement - “To help newspapers increase readership and sustain and increase advertising and other revenues through events, conferences and publications.” The quality of the events, which we constantly look to improve, produces an increasingly satisfied audience as the numerous testimonials we receive demonstrate. The revenues also help finance growth of WAN activities in general.
In the course of the year, the division organised:
Info Services Expo 2006, June, Moscow, Russia
The 2006 Expo was the most successful to date, with over 40 stands and the highest revenues since the Rio Expo in 2000. Feedback from exhibitors was excellent, demonstrating an ever-increasing level of customer satisfaction and showing also how important this event has become to newspaper suppliers over the last few years. The SFN stand was, as always, the centrepiece of the event, increasing participant’s awareness of the SFN project.
The World Digital Publishing Conference & Expo, October 2006, London
This new event in the WAN conference calendar attracted over 300 participants from 53 countries, an excellent result for a ‘first.’ Participant feedback has been exceptionally good and we will build on this enthusiastic reaction to raise future attendance levels to that of our other conferences.
The 9th World Editor & Marketeer Conference & Expo, November 2006, Madrid
Hosted by the Association of Spanish Newspaper Publisher (A.E.D.E), this conference drew 352 executives from 60 countries, with a record number of 14 exhibitors. Although attendance was lower than the 2005 and 2004 conferences, the event was still extremely well attended and, again, participants’ feedback has been enthusiastic.
US Study Tour, ‘Innovations in Digital Publishing’, Chicago, Seattle and San Jose, November 2006
This new programme was a sell-out. Faced with high demand, the initial number of delegates was increased from 15 to 28, and a further dozen had to be refused. It was a very busy week, filled with comprehensive visits greatly appreciated by participants. Feedback was overwhelmingly good.
2007 World Newspaper Advertising Conference & Expo, February 2007, Zurich
Just under 400 participants, from 67 countries, were present in Zurich for a most successful event. 8 exhibitors took part in the Expo, a growing number and a continuing trend at all Training & Events conferences.
US Study Tour, ‘Cross-Media Advertising Innovations’ Georgia, Texas and Florida, February
16 participants from around the world took part in this 2nd Study Tour. As with last November’s tour, feedback was overwhelmingly good
Digital Winners Conference, March, Oslo
More than 200 newspaper executives participated in this event, hosted by Telenor, on digital media and mobile strategies.
Scandinavian Study Tour, ‘Digital Innovations’, April, Sweden, Norway and Denmark
This year’s second Study Tour, to Scandinavia, took 26 participants from 14 countries to visit to six newspapers and three digital companies. Feedback was again excellent.
The central focus of many WAN activities to help newspapers become better and more profitable continues to be the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project.
Shaping the Future of the Newspaper
 The scope, size and impact of the SFN project have continued to grow over the past twelve months, reflecting major new efforts in research and analysis and in marketing and promotion. It is clear that many companies within the industry are utilising SFN to assist in business planning and growth.
The 2006/07 SFN project year saw continued expansion in new initiatives. The SFN website has been redesigned and developed, and will shortly be re-launched. SFN forged a partnership with Northwestern University’s Media Management Center to develop a new website about world digital media trends. Two bloggers have been hired to contribute daily items to an SFN blog about trends in newspapering.
A Media Measurement Integration Task Force has been launched by WAN and includes the top executives from international media measurement firms and associations like BPA, ABC, NAA, Canadian Newspaper Association, Scarborough and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. We have accepted multiple invitations to speak about SFN projects and SFN partners around the world. The project has continued to grow in terms of interest and influence.
SFN Partners
2006 was Samsung’s last year as SFN partner. Four Partners - MAN Roland, PubliGroupe, Telenor and UPM-Kymmene - continue to give strong support to the project. WAN continues to seek additional, compatible and complementary partners to join the project.
Human Resources
The SFN project team was reinforced by the hiring of a new business analayst. In addition, a variety of guest writers have written about their specific areas of expertise in various SFN Reports.
The Strategy Reports - 2005/2006
 The fifth series of reports was completed to coincide with the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Moscow, distributed to all members, SFN subscribers and conference participants and presented in several business sessions.
These reports:
New Digital Revenues
Outsourcing
Benchmarking Classified Revenues
New Editorial Concepts
Advertising Science
Pricing Strategies
Many reports have now been translated into Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese and Portuguese.
The Strategy Reports - 2006/ 2007
The sixth series of reports was completed in May. This year, many new voices have been integrated into reports, as WAN invited top experts in their fields to write chapters or articles. Freelance editors from the New York Times and Newsweek have been hired for technical editing.
Series 6 reports focus on:
New Print Products
Benchmarking New Digital Revenues
Advertising Best Practices
The Power of Local Focus
Reorganising the Newspaper Company
Innovative Management Systems
The year also saw the publication of the first World Digital Media Trends report, an SFN ’Extra’.
SFN Website
The SFN website www.futureofthenewspaper.com has been redesigned in an effort to provide news and to grow usage, and will be launched shortly, together with a new electronic SFN newsletter.
Marketing and Publicity
Marketing and publicity for the SFN project is expanding.
The demand for major presentations at industry events continues to grow
Requests for interviews about SFN reports and projects are in steady demand, and reports have been published in numerous print and online magazines and newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune, FollowtheMedia, New York Times, Guardian Unlimited, Newswatch, Media Life Magazine and more.
Presentations were delivered at the following newspaper industry events:
The Norwegian Media Conference, Oslo.
Hebdos, Francophone Canadian Newspaper Association
MAN University
Hungarian Newspaper Association
UNESCO-Univ of Texas Online Newspaper Symposium
The Russian Publishing Expo and Conference
The Brazilian Newspaper Association Conference, Sao Paulo
Media Management Center
Telenor Digital Winners Conference
NZZ, Zurich
MediaCorp Annual Conference, Singapore
European Journalism Centre, the Netherlands
All WAN Events: Annual Congress, Editor & Marketeer, Digital, Advertising
Regional Strategy
The first Latin American Newspaper Leaders Summit took place in August 2006, bringing more than 70 CEOs from leading press companies in 15 countries of the continent to Sao Paolo for a full briefing and discussion of SFN strategy reports.
Research
The new, searchable World Press Trends database, funded by SFN resources, includes all the information in the print WPT, which has been extended during the year to 234 countries and territories.
The WAN/SFN Flash, our bulletin on media industry news, forecasts and intelligence, has continued to be produced monthly over the year.
Innovations
The Innovation International Media Consulting Group again cooperated with WAN to track exciting new developments in the industry over the past year and produced its 2007 Global Report on Innovations in Newspapers for the Cape Town Congress.
World Editors Forum
With a significant increase in participants at its annual conference, 110 new members, a circulation of 1,200 copies for Trends in Newsrooms in 2006 and more than 1,500 senior news executives reading the Editors Weblog daily, the World Editors Forum has grown its reach and activities in 2006 - 2007.
Launched in January 2004, the Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org) has become a major activity of the World Editors Forum and likes to be seen as the voice of editors-in-chief, with its own interviews and reports. In twelve months, the traffic has increased by 25% to more than 40,000 unique visitors monthly, mostly senior news executives from regional newspapers and from emerging country editors. A number of new WEF services have been launched through the Editors Weblog (Trends in Newsroom report, WEPP, Master Classes...).
Attendance at the annual Editors Forum conference has now tripled in four years and in 2007, will be in excess of 400. As in 2005 and 2006, seven social events (editors’ cocktail, breakfasts, lunches...) are part of the Forum and reinforce the loyalty of participants, as well as the distribution to all Forum delegates of the Trends in Newsroom report.
The three main innovations of the Cape Town Forum are:
the virtual Forum on Second Life (in partnership with Reuters)
the broadcasting of excerpts of the Forum on YouTube
the recording of video-interviews for the first WEF Online Master Class.
The Trends in Newsroom publication is currently the highest selling WAN report, focussing on newsroom management, editorial quality and new storytelling processes, citizen journalism and user-generated content, convergence and integrated newsroom, online strategies and e-paper.
The World Editors Partnership Programme: a real start in 2007
WEPP is a coaching programme for emerging country editors. It allows them to participate to the annual Editors Forum and to become WEF member. The programme was launched in 2005, financed by foundations and development agencies around the world.
The Programme has been particular successful in 2007 with 50 emerging country editors participating, from 35 different nations and with a strong focus on Africa this year. The editors become WEF Members for one year and are coached by the WEF staff before and after the annual conference.
The World Editors Master Classes: A five-day Master Class took place in Vietnam in July 2006 and a second Master Class was held in Cairo in January 2007
In both cases, the objective was to gather the country’s top ten editors-in-chief, to present to them the latest trends of newsroom management and to discuss how they could participate in the worldwide debate about the future of journalism. As a follow-up, Vietnamese and Egyptian editors were invited to the Cape Town conference through the WEPP programme.
A new project this year was the launch of The Newsroom Barometer, whose aim is to gain better knowledge of the changes in newsrooms through the eyes of editors-in-chief and senior news executives. Every year, the poll will ask the same questions in order to track important shifts in news organizations around the world.
The 2006 poll results were presented at a special press conference with Reuters (March 2007), published in the Trends in Newsrooms report (April 2007), and discussed during the first session of the 14th World Editors Forum held in Cape Town. According to the WAN department of communication, the Newsroom Barometer project was the second most important press coverage for WAN after the soccer World Cup rights issue in 2006.
WEF was the first organization to initiate such an international poll among senior news executives .
Activities to promote young reader and literacy programmes
WAN continues to invest a great deal of time and resources in developing the use of newspapers by young people. We have a very active Newspapers in Education programme, with newsletters, a web-site and an internet network linking newspapers which have young reader strategies, and meetings between NIE specialists world-wide.
The past year has seen the launch of the third in a major five-year programme to introduce and reinforce Newspapers in Education programmes in emerging and transitional democracies.
Actions in the 2006-2007 programme, which is supported by the Norway-based newsprint producer Norske Skog, have included:
The 7th World Young Reader Conference
The 7th World Young Reader Conference attracted 400 participants from 67 countries to Washington, D.C., in March 2007. Following the theme, “Making New Connections,” sessions explored the full range of activities to attract the young in different age groups, ranging from basic newspaper in education strategies to “Total Youth Think,” an endeavour to change attitudes within newsroom itself to strategic ideas from other communications sectors. The main partners in the event were the Newspaper Association of America Foundation and Norske Skog.
World Young Reader Prize
WAN expanded its World Young Reader Prize competition to award top honors in four categories of activity and name a “World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year.” Category awards went to El Correo of Spain (public service) for its enLace project that opened the newspaper to citizen journalism among young people, to The Virginian-Pilot of the United States (editorial) for its “757” section for adolescents that leads the way for convergence in the paper, to La Prensa of Panama (brand) for using clowns to give children and their parents an unforgettable, fun introduction to the paper and to The Times of India (NIE) for a wide array of activity, which also made it the Young Reader Newspaper of the Year. Other awards went to Fairfax Newspapers in New Zealand for a highly creative Newspapers in Education diversity project that put a special emphasis on the Maori culture, to Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung in Germany for innovative content that attracted the young on the occasion of the Bundestag elections, to The Hindustan Times in India for its 5-month long Theatre Festival for adolescent students ages 14 to 18 that provided entertaining, non-threatening ways to teach about some very serious issues, such as missing children, and to The Straits Times of Singapore for twin projects “In” and the “Little Red Dot” that captured attention through content, contests and events that appeared in print, live and on-line that have effectively attracted young people to the paper’s multi-platform brand.
Young Reader Research
WAN took the next steps in an ambitious multiphase, global research project to explore the media habits and newspaper potential of the generation now under age 25. D-Code consulting group of Canada did a preliminary analysis in 10 countries to test hypotheses that had emerged from a detailed assessment of research since 2000 that related to young readership.
WAN used the 60 studies in this assessment to create a background paper for UNESCO and will include the studies in a new database on young readership research. The next step in the research calls for development of the final study design and cooperation with up to 10 countries to conduct national research that will build a new picture of the news and information needs of the young both nationally and internationally.
The WAN Newspapers in Education Development Project
This major activity continues to bring the value of reading newspapers to classrooms around the world, and its programme of seminars has been accelerating. The NIE Development Project, supported by Norske Skog, provides a wide range of programmes for using newspapers and magazines in education. Uniformly, teachers have been enthusiastic in launching this approach in schools wherever it has been introduced. The next main challenge will be helping stakeholders determine how to keep it all going.
Training activity in the last 12 months included WAN’s first NIE workshops in Jordan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, follow-up sessions for Iraqi teachers at the request of UNESCO and for teachers and newspaper executives in Indonesia, Liberia and South Africa, plus a regional round table in Thailand for Asia.
In a new agreement with Norske Skog, WAN will expand this work to include the full range of young reader strategies all around the world.
Other young reader support work
WAN endeavours to respond whenever a partner, member association or newspaper asks for help in young reader work. This happens as much in developed as poorer countres. Over the past year, WAN has helped programmes in France, Lebanon, Norway, Russia and the United States in various ways, as well as assist internationally for UNESCO.
New and Expanding Resources
WAN created several new NIE resources in the past year and expanded others. New publications included:
• WAN created "Reading & Learning," a ground-breaking series of three Newspapers in Education (NIE) guides that target diversity as a core element of NIE. The set, in English and Spanish, includes guides for newspaper executives (50 pages), NIE coordinators (46 pages) and teachers (90 pages).
• A second new guide for educators, “ NIE: A Basic Handbook,” offers an overview of NIE, the history of the newspaper, and 60 basic NIE exercises, all specifically designed specifically for the Arab World and partly underwritten by UNESCO. WAN member Al Ghad newspaper in Jordan, edited and published editions in Arabic for Jordan and Iraq, with WAN member An Nahar publishing the edition for Lebanon.
• World Newspaper Reading Passport: More than 300,000 children in South Africa used the World Newspaper Reading Passport in a cut-out version produced by weekly Limpopo Mirror, a winner of the World Young Reader Prize. The effort attracted several partners to help with teacher training and printing. For Ugandan schoolchildren, The Monitor produced 50 000 copies, and an Arabic edition was expected to emerge by June 2007. The passport offers advanced beginner readers more than a dozen assignments that give them a taste of why it is interesting to read the newspaper. So far, the passport exists in English, Indonesian, French, Russian, Spanish and Norwegian.
• WAN added a special project for young people to its online resources for World Press Freedom Day (3 May) that provided downloadable materials for creating a postcard to send to the local Chinese embassy protesting the continued imprisonment of Shi Tao, the winner of the 2007 Golden Pen of Freedom. Earlier in the year, WAN and Mon Quotidien, the daily newspaper for children, organized a press freedom slogan contest for school classes of 11-year-old French children who created the slogans from words cut from a newspaper.
Communications
Though not included as a specific objective of the Action Plan, the extension and improvement of WAN’s communications lies at the heart of all the plan’s ambitions.
The success of an organisation like WAN depends very much on its ability to achieve impact, influence and prestige both within and outside the global newspaper industry.
The launch of a global WAN initiative to promote the power of the newspaper and to rectify some of the absurd and damaging claims being made about its imminent demise has offered new opportunities to demonstrate that newspapers are the medium of the future and not the past.
In addition, through its SFN programme and other activities, WAN has been generating data and analysis about the global press industry and has been distributing this information to a wide audience. The increase in this information not only promotes the activities of the association. It also has news value in its own right, resulting in greater coverage in both the trade and general press.
As a direct result, WAN is recognised as an expert source of information about the world press industry and is receiving an increasing number of unsolicited press queries on a wide variety of issues of concern to the world’s press. WAN’s experts have been the source for stories about media in publications and web sites across the world.
Developments in the past year include:
A new intensive focus on communicating facts about newspapers to counter the false claims about the medium’s imminent demise and to provide the true picture about the vitality of newspapers. This initiative includes: a major newspaper advertising campaign, created by the Dukes of Urbino agency, which is appearing in major newspapers worldwide; a series of Media Market Day presentations for media correspondents and financial analysts, the first of which was held in London in May; development of the WAN web site, including the posting of home page banner ads that provide evidence of newspaper vitality; regular updates of world press trends, to keep the growth of the industry in the public eye; and regular interviews with media journalists to present the facts about newspapers.
A re-design of the WAN website to provide a more attractive interface and increased functionality. The re-design is being introduced section by section and should be completed by the end of the year.
Traffic on WAN web sites continues to grow, now reaching 110,000 unique visitors a month, and increasing steadily month-on-month for three straight years.
Dozens of press releases have been sent to a media list of more than four thousand correspondents over the year and regularly also to nearly 28,000 executives on the WAN database. Press coverage is increasing steadily, with hundreds of articles on WAN activities and views appearing in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines.
The quarterly WAN Newsletter has be re-designed and has increased its print run to nearly 28,000.
WAN continues to provide daily reports from all its conferences, sending full summaries of presentations to its members, with a shorter version available to non-members via e-mail and
WAN Membership
The vast majority of newspaper associations in the democratic world are now WAN members and there is limited scope for bringing in new countries. Nevertheless, WAN gained four new Full Members over the year:
the Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers of Russia
the Newspaper Editors and Publishers Association of Mauritius
the Association of Independent Regional Publishers of Ukraine
the Taipei Newspaper Association
In addition, the Middle East Publishers Association joined as an Affiliate Member and the Associated Press news agency as an Associate Member.
WAN continues to help create and reinforce newspaper associations in developing and transitional countries to bring them up to the level which will permit their entrance into the organisation.
WAN now groups 77 national newspaper associations, 10 regional and world-wide organizations, twelve news agencies, individual executives in 102 nations and 60 press groups who have joined under the new Company Member category.
Public Policy
The past year has been dominated by two issues which have fully engaged WAN in the defence of the business interests of newspapers.
ACAP
 Work moved rapidly forward over the year on the initiative launched by WAN and a global coalition of newspaper, magazine and book publishing organisations to create a technical solution to enable publishers to make their digital content available while protecting their copyright. The Automated Content Access Protocol project, which is now in its pilot phase, will be a tool through which content providers can communicate permissions information relating to access and use of their material in a form that can be readily recognised and interpreted by search engine crawlers, so the operators can comply with policies or licences.
Sports Rights
After last years successful struggle with FIFA against restrictions and limitations on coverage of the soccer World Cup, WAN and a coalition of news agency has now launched a similar campaign against the International Rugby Board which is seeking even more restrictive commitments from media wishing to report on the Rugby World Cup in France in September. For the moment, the situation is in stalemate, with the rugby authorities justifying their restrictions in the name of the commercial exploitation of the event and WAN claiming that freedom of expression and access to information is being violated.
Conclusion
In my view, WAN continues to serve well the global newspaper industry with a wide range of highly focussed and high quality programmes and products. The past year has again been one of significant progress and development in both the quantity and quality of WAN activities and services for the newspaper world-wide.
Special thanks are due in this progress to our President, Gavin O’Reilly, for his leadership of the organisation, to our Treasurer Fred Arp, and to the Executive Committee for their constant support and unfailing loyalty, to other members of the Board who have supported so well the mission and objectives of WAN, and to my colleague Directors of WAN Member Associations, for their support in so many ways.
My staff at our Secretariat in Paris also merits, as each year, my admiration and warm thanks for their hard work and good results.
Timothy Balding
Chief Executive Officer
World Association of Newspapers
May 2007 |
