Both the report and the conference will provide editors with practical information for managing their newsrooms in a rapidly changing media environment.

"Trends in Newsrooms 2005", the first report published by the World Editors Forum, is based on articles posted on Editors Weblog (www.editorsweblog.org) and focuses on best practices in newsrooms around the world.

And like the publication, the World Editors Forum conference, which runs concurrently with the World Newspaper Congress from 29 May to 1 June, will provide a wide range of debates about editorial quality, newsroom management and online strategies. The full conference programme can be found at www.wan-press.org/seoul2005.

"The report and the conference are complementary as the major themes in the book are also the major themes of the conference, which will feature some of the most interesting personalities in the business," said Bertrand Pecquerie, Director of the World Editors Forum.

They include: Krishna Barat, Principal Scientist for Google, Inc., and the creator of Google News; Dan Gillmor, author of "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People; Simon Waldman, Director of Digital Publishing for The Guardian in the United Kingdom; Jeff Goertzen, Infographics Editor of the St. Petersburg Times, USA; Jan-Eric Peters, Editor of Die Welt, Welt Kompakt and Berliner Morgenpost, Germany; and many others.

"As an editor, you can agree or disagree with what the World Editors Forum considers to be the main editorial trends that appeared in 2004," said Mr Pecquerie. "But we think they provide guidelines for editorial improvements, a better relationship with the readers and a real understanding of the new business models that are reshaping the newspaper industry."

The top 10 trends, according to Trends in Newsrooms 2005:

1. The compact revolution.

2. Blogs and participatory journalism.

3. The watchdog challenge: who fact-checks whom?

4. How amateur photos are transforming journalism.

5. Search is king: RSS feeds and online aggregators.

6. Convergence is back on the agenda.

7. Free or paid: targeting young readers.

8. Evolving business models in print.

9. Evolving business models on-line.

10. Looking to 2010: the interactive "daily me".

"Trends in Newsroom 2005" is available free of charge to WEF members (information here) and to participants at the 12th World Editors Forum conference. It can be purchased for 129 euros by non-members click here).

The World Editors Forum, World Newspaper Congress and Info Services Expo 2005 are the global meetings of the world’s press. More than 1,000 publishers, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives are expected at this year’s events in Seoul.

For full information, including a list of participants and full schedules, consult www.wan-press.org/seoul2005.

The Paris-based WEF is the organisation 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 102 countries, 11 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.