Innovations in Digital Publishing
US Study Tour
Seattle and Silicon Valley
7 September - 12 September 2008
The winds of change and opportunity are blowing. Newspaper companies can respond by either building windmills or windshields.
The World Association of Newspapers "Innovations in Digital Publishing" study tour will visit some of the most impressive pioneers and experts in the digital world: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Hewlett Packard, the San Jose Mercury News and Stanford University.
Study tour participants will learn about a variety of digital innovations, focusing on revenues, channels and content.
Programme
Day 1
Sunday, 7 September
Participants arrive in Seattle. Transport to hotel.
Evening: Welcome dinner at one of Seattle's top restaurants.
Day 2
Monday, 8 September
Morning
Amazon.com Headquarters
1200 12th Ave., Ste. 1200, Seattle
Phone: (206) 266-1000
Gary Clarke, Business Development Director for Amazon Kindle, will discuss:
o The Kindle is a newspaper and book reader with an electronic-paper display that provides a sharp, high-resolution screen
o Among the newspapers displayed on Kindle are The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post; Les Echos, International Herald Tribune, The Independent, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, and The Irish Times--all delivered wirelessly to the device. The business model is a revenue-share subscription model.
o A representative from The Seattle Times will explain the reasons they have partnered with Amazon in publishing the Times on the Kindle.
Afternoon
Location: Hotel
Invited speakers include:
o Larry Shaw, director of research, Borrell Associates, will speak about digital usage and revenue making research
o Leonard Brody, CEO, NowPublic, will talk about the opportunities for citizen journalism on a local and global basis
Day 3
Tuesday, 9 September
Morning
Microsoft
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington
Presentation and discussion with executives from Microsoft's Advanced Reading Technologies Group, which is making possible newspapers on PCs in an engaging and interactive format. The Group's pilot project with the New York Times will be detailed.
MSN.com is one of the most profitable interactive advertising companies in the world. Advertising Director Kyoo Kim will describe MSN's successful advertising strategy.
Microsoft's Enterprise division explores new technologies and business models for the future. Enterprise executives will discuss a variety of strategies that have an impact on the newspaper industry, including its advanced search engine technologies for content and revenue making.
Travel to San Jose, California, Afternoon
Day 4
Wednesday, 10 September
All day
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View
A visit, including lunch, to Google's fascinating and foreboding 8,000-employee fortress in Silicon Valley. Participants will hear about the innovative product development process and of Google's many unique online advancements, including its $1.6 billion acquisition of youtube.com and its vastly successful revenue-maker, AdSense.
11 am--Delegation arrives
11:15--Tour
12 pm--Lunch
1:15 pm--Intro, welcome
1:30 pm--Geo
2-2:15--Break
2:15 pm--Adsense
2:45 pm--Content Partnerships
3:15-3:30--Break
3:30--Print Ads
4 pm--News
4:30--Break
4:45--WAN presentations and Q&A
5:30pm--Closing remarks/departure
Day 5
Thursday, 11 September
Morning
San Jose Mercury News
750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose
San Jose Mercury News is the main newspaper of Silicon Valley, and is owned by MediaNews Group, which projects a 50 percent revenue share of digital by the year 2012, according to its chairman, William Dean Singleton. Mercury News editors and executives will discuss its local website. Mercurynews.com, as a successful revenue maker which features interactive, multimedia content about its local coverage area.
Mid-day
Hewlett Packard
Palo Alto
Hewlett Packard has launched an inkjet printed newspaper business, and will describe how digital printing can allow newspapers to efficiently print more zoned products and explore new personalized printed products. HP also will focus their presentations on strategic planning issues in this ever-changing digital world.
Afternoon and evening, including dinner
Stanford University
Cantor Centre for the Arts, 300 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto
Special event - "Media Companies in an Era of Change" - at Stanford University's Cantor Centre for the Arts. A joint seminar and dinner with the prestigious Knight Stanford Fellows Programme, featuring a prominent speaker, to be announced.
Day 6
Friday, 12 September
Morning
Yahoo!
701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale
Classroom 5
Visit to Yahoo!, the number one web site in the world in terms of traffic. Participants will go behind the scenes to see their impressive search functionality infrastructure with Yahoo!'s top news and business executives, and will meet with Lem Lloyd, VP of Yahoo's Newspaper Consortium, which includes 779 newspapers from 32 American newspaper companies to speak about opportunities for consortium expansion beyond U.S. borders.
Closing Lunch
Participation fee
8500 EUR* Standard Price
7500 EUR*: Company/WAN/WEF Members
Price includes all domestic flights (business class) and transfers, hotel accommodation in carefully selected 4 and 5 star hotels and all meals. Flights to and from the United States are not included.
