Fakt, the Polish tabloid launched last October by Axel Springer, outsold Gazeta Wyborcza in December to become the country’s top-selling newspaper. Fakt’s daily circulation reached over 536,000, only two months after its October 22 launch, compared to 433,000 for Gazeta Wyborcza.
How did it do this? A multi-million dollar publicity and promotion campaign and the lowest cover price in the market helped. So did an editorial policy of journalism presented for the "ordinary citizen", with serious journalism mixed with human interest topics, consumer affairs and sports stories.
Fakt physically resembles its German sister publication, Bild, which is Europe’s largest selling newspaper, but the content is different.
Mr Jankowski, the former deputy chief editor at Newsweek’s Polish edition, will participate in a session called, "Tabloid boom: no limits?" at the World Editors Forum, which will run concurrently with the World Newspaper Congress from 29 May to 2 June in Istanbul, Turkey.
The events, along with Info Services Expo 2004, are the global meetings of the world’s press organised by the World Association of Newspapers. More than 1,000 publishers, chief editors, managing directors and other senior newspaper executives are expected at the events.
The Forum covers newsroom issues, while the Congress deals mostly with business issues.
For the evolving conference programme, a list of participants and other information, click here or contact Bertrand Pecquerie, WEF Director, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. Telephone +33 1 47 42 85 00, Fax +33 1 47 42 49 48, e-mail: bpecquerie@wan.asso.fr.
In the Forum session on tabloids, Mr Jankowski will be joined by two editors whose newspapers recently introduced tabloid versions of their broadsheet editions: Simon Kelner, Editor-in-chief, of The Independent, and George Brock, Managing Editor of The Times in the United Kingdom. Also in the session are Niels Lunde, Chief Editor of Berlingske Tidende in Denmark, and Raymundo Riva-Palacio, former Chief Editor of El Independiente in Mexico.
The session is one of five at the WEF, which takes the theme, "The Newsroom Revolution: New Technologies and New Competitors.”
And the WEF will also feature a keynote session on the question, "do newspapers need to reinvent journalism?" Speakers include Juan Luis Cebrian, CEO of El Pais and PRISA Group, Spain, Dean Wright, Editor-in-Chief of MSNBC.com, USA, and Anssi Vanjoki, Vice President of the Nokia Group, Finland.
The four other business sessions are:
Press credibility in the digital age: new attacks, new answers, featuring a debate between the keynote speakers, top editors and media CEOs, including Yeon-Ho , Founder and CEO of Ohmynews, Korea, and Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center at the American Press Institute.
The Front Page Revolution, in which newspapers will share successful strategies for quickly attracting readers. Confirmed speakers include: Roger Black, Chairman of Danilo Black, Inc., United States; David Wadmore, Associate Head of Design, The Times, United Kingdom; and Terry Quinn, Editorial Development Manager, Fairfax Group, Australia and New Zealand.
Photojournalism and new visual strategies, in which the importance of photos in the storytelling process is highlighted. Speakers include Brian Storm, Vice President of Corbis, USA, Fred Ritchin, Professor at New York University and former Picture Editor of The New York Times, Jean-François Le Mounier, Head of the Photo Department for Agence France-Presse, Angelo Rinaldi, Managing Editor and Art Director, La Repubblica, Italy, and Stanley Greene, a photojournalist with the VU Agency in France and the United States.
Arab Media: an emerging power, a session on the rising influence of Arab media and their influence on public opinion. The session will feature Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamology at Friburg University in Switzerland, Ian Ritchie, Vice President for Global Business for The Associated Press and former CEO at Middle East Broadcasting, and Gebran Tueni, Editor of tthe Lebanese daily An Nahar.
As in past years, the WEF will share several sessions with the World Newspaper Congress - the gala opening ceremony, featuring Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the presentation ceremony of the WAN Golden Pen of Freedom, a presentation on the latest world press trends, a global report on innovations in newspapers, and much more.
Sponsors of the Congress and the Forum now include the Union of Chambers of Commerce of Turkey, the Anadolu Efes Beverage Group, Reuters, and the Milliyet, Dünya, Zaman and Türkiye daily newspapers.
The Paris-based WEF is the division of the World Association of Newspapers that represents senior news executives. WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.
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.
