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Exploiting Innovation and Seizing Opportunities: The Keys to Success.

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The 58th World Newspaper Congress

Success in publishing today demands – more than ever before – a strategy of constant innovation and a willingness to seize and implement a wide range of new opportunities.

New newspapers are emerging, with new formats, new pricing models, new readers and new markets. At the same time, the Internet and wireless communication are at last delivering profitability for the new media ventures of press companies.

Where better to examine and discuss these issues than in Seoul, Korea, which has emerged in recent years as a world leader in media innovation and the exploitation of new digital opportunities?

As one of the most wired nations on earth, Korea provides the perfect setting to explore and debate the ongoing integration of traditional publishing and digital information distribution which is driving and changing the news business today.

A new spirit of optimism is emerging in the global newspaper industry, together with a determination to exploit new and better ways of meeting the demands and expectations of both our readers and advertisers.

The Seoul Congress will update you on the key developments in the industry:

Discover the impact that the new wireless technologies could have at your newspaper, as information becomes permanently available and ubiquitous.

Learn whether the global move to ‘compact’ newspapers – the talk of 2004 – has been a success.

Find out how the migration of advertising from print to online has progressed in the past twelve months, what will happen in the years ahead and what lessons you can apply to your own business.

Learn how new approaches to distribution and pricing are attracting new audiences and how they could change the commercial model of your company and our industry.

We invite you to come to Seoul in 2005 to obtain a unique panorama of developments in the press world-wide and to benefit from the innovations, best practice and new opportunities which will be presented at the Congress, which is firmly established as the most exciting and prestigious annual meeting of industry leaders internationally.

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.

Check back frequently for updates!

58th World Newspaper Congress

Exploiting Innovation and Seizing Opportunities: The Keys to Success.

SUNDAY 29 MAY

09h30-12h30 :

Risky Business – Newspapers in the Fight Against Corruption. Click here for programme

The annual press freedom round table.

Any time, Any Place: News in the Ultimate Information Society. Click here for programme

The annual digital media round table.

(Both events are open to all participants and take place at the Grand InterContinental Hotel Seoul)

19h30-21h30 :

Welcome Reception at The National Theatre of Korea.
The National Dance Company of Korea will perform excerpts from "Korean Fantasy".
A celebration of the 400th anniversary of the newspaper in print.

What will you learn at the Congress? Here are some of the stories which will be told in the presentations.

Two business sessions will examine how established publishers are questioning the premise that our industry is mature, by creating new products and re-energising existing titles. The discussions will also embrace the new generation of publishers and how they are taking a different approach to the market.

More newspapers have been launched in Germany in the past six months than in the last sixty years. What better place then to start an examination of ‘The Newspaper Renaissance’? Several of the new titles are being published by the Georg von Holtzbrinck group, which has been experimenting with cheaper, ‘compact’ newspapers such as ‘News’ and ’20 Cent’ to attract young readers with shorter, more focussed stories based on the editorial content of its other publications. Michael Grabner, Holzbrinck’s Deputy Chairman, will present the market research which led to the launches, the product and price concepts – and the first year sales results. He will explain why new newspapers and innovations are needed in the German market; what press groups can learn from other industries; and then ask do we need newspapers for various audiences?

Bonnier, Scandinavia’s biggest multi-media company, is headquartered in one of the region’s toughest, most competitive markets for newspapers – Stockholm. The circulation and advertising ‘war’ is engaged on all fronts: morning quality titles, popular evening editions and, of course, free dailies – the city is the home of the first ‘Metro’ publication. Bengt Braun, Bonnier’s President & CEO, will examine what his company has been doing to successfully reverse the fortunes of its evening newspaper, Expressen, while fighting back in the free daily stakes, with a different concept of a city free daily – Stockholm City, and turning its quality daily, Dagens Nyheter, into tabloid format.

Le Matin, which covers the whole of French-speaking Switzerland, was ahead
of the curve in reducing to compact format, having made the change three
years ago. This downsizing -- it is smaller than a tabloid -- has led not
only to editorial and circulation successes, but has also resulted in higher
advertising revenues, something that is a challenge for most compact
newspapers. Théo Bouchat, the Director of Le Matin, which is owned by the
Edipresse Group, will discuss the marketing, business and editorial
strategies that have led to this success.

‘Metro’ has remained synonymous with the free daily newspaper concept worldwide, even though a host of local and international competitors have jumped on the innovation of Metro International in recent years. Though many publishers remain sceptical, rightly or wrongly, that the free daily is a viable, profitable business model, no one can contest that Metro has performed remarkably well in drawing many more people in young age groups into reading newspapers. Metro now claims more than 15 million daily readers all over the globe, with a reach in younger age groups that many publishers envy. Carlos Oliva-Vélez, Metro International Executive Vice President, will give his views on the readership success of the Metro titles".

The Reforma group in Mexico has gone through an astonishing renaissance of its own, under Alejandro Junco de la Vega, its President & CEO. From number two position in a provincial city, Reforma has become number one in the whole nation, and is now described as “one of the most powerful newspaper conglomerates in Latin America”. Mr Junco will tell the Congress the secrets of his success, which include a rigorous respect of ethical standards in his titles, a higher level of journalistic quality and the “publishing paradigm of promoting community participation in the making of our newspapers”.

This year's eagerly awaited Global Report on Innovations in Newspapers, by a team from the Innovation International Media Consulting Group, will cover a wide range of exciting developments, including: the 'micro' tabloids; the new generation of quality free newspapers; benchmarking staffing at online newspapers; the challenge of running 24 hour, 7 day a week newsrooms; multimedia convergence; driving forward circulation - and much more!

The ‘renaissance’ of newspaper companies and their ability to prosper in the future will also depend on their willingness and ability to innovate and exploit new opportunities provided by digital media. What is being done ‘beyond print’ to gain success in digital markets that have until now proved elusive for publishers?

'Building Off the Print Franchise' will be the theme of a presentation by Fred Hilmer, CEO of the Australian group John Fairfax Holdings, which publishes the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review and a host of other daily and weekly publications throughout Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Mr Hilmer's appointment seven years ago, the group's challenges had been tackled by eight chief executives in less than 10 years! Mr Hilmer, who has written extensively on strategy and organization and whose books include 'When the Luck Runs Out' and 'New Games / New Rules', will talk about the strategy he has pursued to position the corporation and, in particular, its business mix, to deal with both competitive and technological challenges.

The Asahi Shimbun, the giant Japanese press group, has attracted an astonishing one million paying subscribers to its mobile telephone services, through the creation of a membership 'clubs' and 'societies' providing news and information drawn primarily from the main asahi.com web site. While the business model of the cell phone services is proving profitable, Asahi - like most newspapers world-wide - is struggling to make its 'classical' Internet services profitable and also worries that it may actually be discouraging the reading public from purchasing newspapers. Shin-ichi Hakoshima, President and CEO of The Asahi Shimbun, will tell the Congress how his company is trying to make "the best use of Internet and cell phone technology and the two-way communication advantage .... to create a multiplex media industry, placing our newspaper at its center, but with the ability to provide fast and efficient dissemination of news and information".

One area which appears to have clear prospects to ‘connect’ with a new audience is that of mobile telephone services. The most advanced newspaper mobile strategies are not necessarily where you might expect them. The Philippines, for example. This nation claims to be the “world’s SMS capital”, with 200 million messages sent daily! The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the country’s most read newspaper, has developed a vast range of mobile services to capitalize on the fact that there are 26.6 million wireless subscribers in the nation. Sandy Romualdez, the Inquirer’s President, will describe the newspaper’s initiatives in breaking news, feedback services, readers clubs, games, and much more, on mobile.

In a session called ‘Future Perspectives’, a panel of the world’s leading publishers will give their personal perspectives on our changing world and discuss their own opportunities and predicaments. Panellists will include Arthur O. Sulzberger, Publisher of The New York Times, Ryoki Sugita, President & CEO, Nikkei, Japan, Trevor Ncube, CEO, Mail and Guardian, South Africa, and Ricardo Gandour, Director, Infoglobo Communications, Brazil.

What is happening to communications? This year’s ‘Changing Trends in Commercial Communications Spending’ session will include a panel of communications experts giving their visions on the changes taking place in our industry and answering the questions: ‘What are the key structural and qualitative changes that will take place over the ten years?’ ‘How are advertisers adapting their marketing strategies?’ ‘How are consumer behaviour patterns changing?’ ‘What should newspaper companies do to exploit these changes?’

As the WAN Congress celebrates the 400th birthday of the printed newspaper, we look briefly at its history and in examine in depth its future. Gerd Finkbeiner, Chairman of the Board of MAN Roland, a world leader in newspaper production systems, will be our guest speaker to share his vision of how newspapers can capitalize on the latest evolutions in technology to ensure and improve the viability and quality of our future print business.

Consult www.wan-press.org/seoul2005/ for regular updates on new speakers and new presentation details.

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