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57th World Newspaper Congress

Winning Strategies for the New Business Environment - Part 2

The advertising recession continues in many regions of the world, with only timid signs here and there of recovery. As the experts debate whether a cyclical upturn for newspapers is just around the corner, or whether the really good times are gone for the foreseeable future (and perhaps even for ever), publishers must simply get on with the job of living with less advertising income and exploiting all possible avenues for new revenue streams.

At the 2003 WAN Congress, the debate raged about whether the current challenges - financial, managerial and technical - required the creation of new newspaper business models to ensure success and prosperity in the coming years. At the same time, more focus than ever before was put on circulation issues, as the decline in newspaper sales appears to be accelerating in many mature markets, with potentially damaging effects on the bottom line.

Istanbul 2004 will take over where Dublin 2003 left off, with an outstanding line up of leading CEOs presenting the successful strategies they are employing to win and prosper in the new environment.

Special attention will be given to the new advertising concepts that newspapers need to embrace to win the maximum amount of business and to ‘best practice’ employed at the most efficient, effective, economic and enterprising newspapers companies. Circulation issues will again be in sharp focus, with a special session examining newspapers that are reversing the general trend towards readership decline.

As each year, the conference will also provide a unique panorama of trends and innovations in the press worldwide and an unmatched opportunity to meet and network with colleagues in the newspaper business from every culture, region and major market.

Two new features will complete the Istanbul programme: a special workshop on the unique challenges for newspapers in emerging markets; and a ‘masterclass’ on the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project and the solutions it can provide for publishers.

Who is the Congress for?

The Congress is a “total” newspaper event, bringing together publishers, chief executives, managing directors, editors - and the most ambitious managers from all levels of the industry. Suppliers of services to newspapers are welcome.

11th World Editors Forum

The Newsroom Revolution: New Technologies and New Competitors.

The digital revolution continues to change the way newspapers collect, produce and distribute information, creating a wide range of new challenges and opportunities for today’s editors and their journalists.

At the same time, a combination of financial constraints, falling circulations, permanent technological change and the need to redefine relations with readers, makes it difficult to see with real clarity what aspects of this revolution need to be exploited to the full and which can be set aside.

Ten years after the beginning of the digital breakthrough and the changes it has brought to the news business (real time journalism, online news and information, multi-platform distribution and one-to-one relations with readers), it’s time for editors to appraise what developments are valuable and worthy of investment - and what is risky and potentially dangerous for the profession.

Some of the professional issues which have emerged and must be discussed include: newspaper formats - does the current tabloid boom spell the advancing death of the broadsheet? do front pages need again to undergo change to capture the immediate attention of the reader? what can photojournalism and new visual strategies contribute to the new strategies to maintain and increase circulation?

Cultural, ethical and political questions are also a major part of the professional lives of editors. And it’s impossible in 2004 not to address at least two phenomena: the credibility of the press, which continues to lose ground in many countries; the emerging importance, on the international scene, of the Arab media. The 11th Conference will introduce a number of new features, including a special social event uniquely for editors and the opportunity to have discussions with the Islamist press in Turkey.

Who is the Forum for?

The World Editors Forum is the only annual global event focusing on editorial issues. It is aimed at chief and deputy editors and other senior news executives as well as experts, academics and association executives.

For information, please contact Bertand Pecquerie at bpecquerie@wan.asso.fr