The World Newspaper Congress is the international gathering of newspaper industry leaders that, for 52 years, has provided a window to developments in the press world-wide. The World Editors Forum was created by WAN in 1994 as the principal meeting place for senior news executives to discuss the business of editing newspapers. It runs concurrently with WAN's World Newspaper Congress.

"Too many reporters have forgotten why they once became reporters: a lust for adventure, a love of words, a need to explain, a drive for fighting for truth and justice. Now too many reporters have turned journalism into a routine job - filling white space between the ads. Or providing people with just another way of killing time."

"Too many editors have forgotten that we are in fact journalists and that we were once promoted into leadership because we were good journalists -- not because we were good at meetings with the marketing people, the worried guys from budget control or the suits from sales. All the business school people who run more and more newspapers tell us it is not called a newspaper, but a product. And it is not a reader, but a customer. And that the customer is always right. In their MBA logic it is therefore easy to make a success: ask the customer what he wants, and make the product according to his wishes. But that is nonsense." Ulrike Haggerup, Chief Editor, Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten, Denmark

"Naturally, there is every reason for a sympathetic observer to doubt the possibility of an independent press existing in Russia. However, despite obvious difficulties faced by Russian publishers, I will allow myself to be optimistic in my debate with those who are truly concerned about the fate of the independent media in Russia: with proper business management, it is just possible for the independent press to exist in Russia - such press already exists and is gaining strength." Boris Guiller, President, PROVINCE-2000 Newspaper Pool, Russia

"Information is the unique franchise of newspapers - a special kind of information that places a premium on its timeliness, and ability to inform, guide and help."

"You need a top-flight technology officer - someone who goes beyond the nuts and bolts of existing newspaper technology and also has the ability to see how new capabilities of software distribution and networks can change the way you distribute information. And you need to prepare everyone in the company for technology." John W. Madigan, President, Chairman and CEO, The Tribune Company, Chicago, USA

"In the last few decades there has been a veritable 'technological rupture'. Revolutions follow one another increasingly fast; electronics gave way to computing, which in turn gave way to digital transformation. Satellites and fibre optics allow information to be transmitted instantaneously, even to the remotest corners. In less than five years, Internet evolved from an experiment to a new medium with an extremely high growth rate. In other words, we are already living in the 21st century." Hector Magnetto, Chief Executive Officer, Clarin, Argentina

"Has everything been pleasant and successful in our battle against Conrad Black? Of course not. It has created considerable stress within our organisation, and we have had to reassign, shuffle and make room for people. Many of our staff are working much longer hours under more stringent conditions. And we face consistent pressure to contain costs, especially staff numbers, even as we invest in new features and initiatives. There are feelings of insecurity among staff who are obviously on the line to defend the franchise. Accountability for efficient, effective performance is more keenly felt that at any time in our history."

"On the other hand, we are having a great, good time in waging the daily battle, on learning as we go. A long-time subscriber rather summed it up in an e-mail to me recently: 'Thank you, thank you Conrad Black, for making an already fine Globe & Mail an even better newspaper.' The competition has certainly made up better journalists." William Thorsell, Editor-in-Chief, Globe and Mail, Canada, on the national newspaper war with Conrad Black's National Post.

"In this world of opportunity, but with little in the way of signposting, it is my contention that we pay insufficient attention to informing and involving our people. It is they, after all, who act as the vital link between our customers and our businesses. It is they who make the key difference. Why else do you think that Manchester United and Chelsea are two of the best teams in Europe? It's not the ball, or the referee or the pitch or the stadium; it is the players, the way they are managed and trained, the way they are briefed and given clear targets." Alec Davidson, Managing Director, Northcliffe Newspapers, UK

 

15 JUNE 1999
"This was a very valid story, because by any standard, by the way news and stories change perception, these two years in Switzerland would certainly qualify. The events, as they unfolded, fit into a larger picture. Someone called it the last chapter of the Holocaust and it certainly is the last chapter of the Holocaust as far as living memory is concerned."

Alan Cowell, Foreign Correspondent, The New York Times, defending the Times' coverage of revelations of World War II accounts in Swiss Banks in a special debate on "Nazi Gold" and the US Media.

"Admittedly, we Swiss have made our own mistakes on the issue -- we have to blame ourselves for the way we were treated. We handled the issue of Holocaust assets, particularly in the early decades, too lightly and that is unforgivable. On the other hand, I must say that US media played in the whole debate a very important and critical role. They served as an instrument to put pressure on Switzerland."

Thomas Borer, Swiss Ambassador-designate to Berlin and former Head of the Task Force that investigated the affair, in the same debate.

"I think it is important to say, as an intelligent American newspaper reader and observer, that the telling of the whole truth of what the Swiss banks did say from 1933 to 1999 and what they didn't say about the buying of Nazi gold, and how questions were answered grudgingly and under intense pressure, and how much money remained in their banks unclaimed by Holocaust victims or their heirs -- this was the issue that Alan Cowell and other American reporters were trying to concentrate on. The impression it gave to Swiss people is that we were critical of the whole nation, and it simply isn't true."

James Ottaway Jr., Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, also in the "Nazi Gold" debate."

"Price is an expensive tool to increase circulation, and what we found is that to use price effectively, it must be combined with other elements of the marketing mix, for example, product content, promotions, and sales strategy."

Luis Urbinas, McKinsey & Co., during a presentation on world-wide research on newspaper pricing policies.

"Post-modernism has had a field day in advertising. Cultural relativism has reigned supreme. Each model of how advertising worked, based on some or other psychological insight, was as good as the next. There was no objective, predictive and measurable way of telling the competing models apart. Now that science is unravelling the mysteries of how the brain functions, things are going to be very different."

Noel Coburn, Managing Director, Caxton, Ltd., South Africa

"Not only do we believe that newspapers are the most marvellous medium on earth, wed are also convinced that there is no other medium that is such a strong financial franchise, no other medium has such a wide range of revenue sources. As a result it is a diversified, economical product on its own that can, if profitable, generate strong recurring cashflows which help to finance new ventures and the expansion of media companies."

Christian Van Thillo, Chief Executive Officer, De Persgroep, Belgium

 

13 JUNE 1999
"In no international development aid programme up till now has the building of a free press figured prominently. As countless billions of dollars of aid and loans have been thrown at developing and transitional countries by the international community, often over several decades and often without any noticeable impact on the establishment of durable democracy, a few crumbs at best have been thrown as establishing independent media, despite the fact that these media must by definition be at the very root of any real change.

That is why WAN has been investing considerable time and effort these past years to try and persuade inter-governmental organizations to devote much more attention to building a private, free press as a fundamental feature of the development of durable democracy, peace and economic, social and political stability.

Bengt Braun, President of the World Association of Newspapers, opening remarks

"Over the next few days, you will be hearing a lot of positive news on the newspaper industry from your colleagues and I am delighted to get the ball rolling. After several years of decline, daily circulation is again increasing or stabilising in many countries. Newspaper advertising income has show strong, or even very strong, growth over the past five years. Newspapers are increasingly taking full advantage of the potential opened up by electronic media and web sites, to raise revenues and build competitive advantage."

"And when all is said and done, and regardless of the trends of the moment, it is also important to underline that newspapers remain a tremendously powerful medium which continues to enjoy unparalleled reach and impact. The figures bear that out beyond a doubt."

Timothy Balding, Director General of the World Association of Newspapers, "World Trends in the Newspaper Industry: An Update."

"A well-known English proverb says, 'you shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends.' This adage comes to mind in the case of Faraj Sarkohi, a journalist imprisoned and tortured by two regimes that were themselves sworn enemies: that of the Shah and that of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Ruth De Aquino, President-Elect of the World Editors Forum, presenting the Golden Pen of Freedom to exiled Iranian editor Faraj Sarkohi.

"For 32 years, I have lived by the pen, and for 32 years, I have yearned for freedom of the pen."

"International support and world pressure saved my life and obtained my release after one year imprisonment. The media, and in particular the press, played an important part in this effort. This award is, to be a reminder of the solidarity of all those who believe in freedom of the pen and the press and in Human Rights as universal values. It is an act of support for the Iranian people's struggle to establish a free society delivered from the yoke of absolutism."

Faraj Sarkohi, exiled Iranian editor, accepting the Golden Pen of Freedom

"The greatest challenge to our print media is not primarily a loss of readers. More is being read in Switzerland today than ever before. The challenge lies in the altered economic framework in which newspapers are published. The greatest challenge is to continue publishing the same product every day, at the same level of journalistic quality, but with considerably less turnover."

"Stop worrying about protecting your print business, worry about winning new business. Here, as elsewhere, newspaper publishers have been hearing this message for at least three years. And, like you, we take that message very seriously. But in the process we do not let ourselves forget that our main objective is securing the business from which most of us still earn our living -- the business of the printed newspaper. Our motto is: 'Worry about making your print business more attractive.' We have by no means fully exhausted the press' potential for greater efficiency. New technologies offer us ways to make the press more efficient, more flexible and more extractive."

Marco Stoppani, Chief Publishing Officer, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland, "Networking: a Key Factor in a Saturated Market."

"Up against the power and orthodoxy of the Murdochs and the other media controllers, young journalists, often ask what they can do. For inspiration, they might look to the work of their colleagues in countries where being a journalist is life-threatening. I have worked with many of them -- in Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia, the Philippines, Colombia. They are men and women whose belief in keeping the record straight shames our culture of acquiescence in the West."

John Pilger, journalist and film-maker, UK

"Editorial excellence and independence are essential to our profitability, and profit sustains them."

Michael Golden, Vice Chairman and Senior Vice President, The New York Times Company, USA

 

14 JUNE
"Unless we come together on the issue of fighting poverty... unless we find a new way of coming together with trust, flexibility and openness, we're going to lose the battle and we're going to leave our children with a world that is worse than the world today."

World Bank President James Wolfensohn, appealing for co-operation with the press to find a new approach to development strategy.

"Some people say the 20th century is the American century. Some say it is the century of technology. I believe it will be remembered as the century of triumph of freedom of the press.

"Rather than a profession, journalism is a way of life and a commitment to other people. This commitment includes letting governments know that whenever a journalist is silenced, whenever a journalist is jailed, whenever a journalist is murdered, there is some moral damage done at the global scale and all of us need to be concerned."

Pedro Ramirez, Editor-in-Chief, El Mundo, Spain

"A free press is a great thing, but it is not the only great thing, and it will not lead to all other great things. A free press, by itself, is not going to lead to greater economic development. Government policy, history, geography matter. Having said that, I think that a free press, and a large press, will in the future be somewhat more important to economic development than it has been in the past."

Robert J. Samuelson, Syndicated Columnist, Newsweek and The Washington Post, USA

"The purpose of this conference is to find a new and better approach to development on a planet that is about to have an explosion in poverty if a better method isn't found and seeing how the world's press can become an active partner in that endeavour."

Jean-Francois Rischard, Vice President for Europe, The World Bank, on the special WAN-World Bank conference, "A New Approach to Development : The Role of the Press."

"In Iran, we have two sorts of censorship. The official censorship imposed by the government, and, even more horrible, self censorship imposed by an atmosphere of fear. But in spite of all the pressure, they will never be successful to control all the journalists and all the writers and all the papers. You see a huge resistance to despotism.'

Faraj Sarkohi, exiled Iranian journalist and the laureate of WAN's 1999 Golden Pen of Freedom

"Since the Tiananmen uprising, illegal or unofficial publishing houses have come to represent 32 percent of publishing in China. The reason they have become successful is, they've benefited from the support of the wallet of the entire Chinese population. People want to buy these publications. Because of this, the official press has been forced into slightly liberalising. The controls of the official publications are slowing eroding in the face of these illegal publications."

The vast majority of unofficial publications are not of a political nature, but as far as publications that are political, the communications system in China has developed so it is completely outside the government. ... People believe in what they read in unofficial press more than the official press, so they have a great impact on the thinking of the people."

Chinese democracy advocate Wei Jingshing, on the rise of the highly popular, but illegal, unofficial press in China

"We have been called the opposition press, or the yellow press, but we are neither the opposition, nor are we yellow. We simply publish the views of people whose views would not be found in official newspapers.

The question of training is in the forefront of our concerns. We need training of financial managers, of marketing managers. A newspaper may be well edited, but if it is poorly managed, or poorly marketed, then their efforts come to naught."