A recent poll of newspaper publishers showed that top executives see product and audience development to be the most important growth strategies for the next five years. The World Association of Newspapers will host a week-long study tour to inspire new revenue-making and audience building with targeted print and digital product strategies in Denver, Colorado, and Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Bakersfield, California.  Participants will learn from the most successful product and audience development companies from the Rocky Mountains and westward including Yahoo!, Adify, the Denver Post, Printcasting.com, ASTECH InterMedia, Media Management Center, Hewlett Packard, and the Bakersfield Californian. All told, the presentations will cover all links on the value chain of developing products and audience, including editorial, advertising, marketing, research, business development, management, production and distribution.

Sunday, 26 April:

Arrive at hotel in Denver

20:00 Welcome Dinner

Monday, 27 April, 9:00 - 17:00

Walk from hotel, starting at 8:30

MediaNews Group, Denver Post

09:00 - 9:30
Dean Singleton, CEO, MediaNews Group, on the future of newspapers

09:30 - 11:00
Mark Winkler, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President, on product development/audience development strategy for MediaNews Group - 27 initiatives

11:00 - 11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:00
Peter Vandevanter, Vice President for Targeted Products, on Individuated News(TM) initiatives

12:00 - 13:00 Lunch

13:00 - 14:30
Liz Gaier, Executive Vice President, on Bain & Company recommendations for MNG, Hearst Newspapers and Freedom Communications to reorganize and realign cost structures, saving more than one-third of their costs in 2009 compared with 2008.

14:30 - 15:00 Break

15:00 - 16:30
Dave Butler, Vice President for Editorial and Editor of the San Jose Mercury News, on editorial plans for MNG newspapers

• Printcasting is an experiment in democratized print publishing that is fueled by blogs and sustained by self-serve advertising. Dan Pacheco  will discuss the concept and its target users, the enduring power of the printed medium when it's tied to online user-generated content,  how it can generate incremental revenue for participating newspapers, and how that revenue is shared with the community (and why).
• Printcasting's target users
• How to make a printcast
• How to get content into a printcast
• How to get advertising in a printcast?
• Printcasting live demo
• Lessons learned so far from Bakersfield printcast 
• Partnerships
• The Knight News challenge, and open source requirement
  

• How and why to focus on the customer first
• What MMC research can tell you about customer needs and product development
• Management techniques for product development 
• Why and how to help your organization become change-ready
  

Adify

Adify is the world's premier online platform for creating, managing and commercializing vertical ad networks. Adify's unique solution combines proprietary technologies, expertise and services to deliver targeted niche audiences for advertisers, higher revenue for high-quality publishers and vertical ad network infrastructure, insight and support for entrepreneurs and enterprises. Adify is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox TMI Inc., part of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.

10:00 - 10:30
Russ Fradin, President, Adify
Introduction & The Opportunity for Network Builders

10:30 - 11:15
Chris Alden, CEO, Six Apart & Rick Vorhaus, SVP Business Development, Six Apart
State of the Blogosphere & Six Apart's Network Strategy

11:15 - 11:30
Heidi Carson, VP Product Management, Adify & Bryan Sise, Director Product Marketing, Adify
How Adify Serves Network Builders

12:30 - 16:O0 Lunch and meeting: Lunch catered onsite

Hewlett Packard, HP Labs

• Inkjet Web Press Update
  Bob Taylor, Senior Architect, HP Imaging and Printing Group
• Magcloud Update
  Andrew Bolwell, Business Development Director, Office of Corp. Strategy and Technology, magcloud.com
• Relevant newspaper projects from HP executives
  
• Overview of Digital Inkjet printing technologies and new product applications
• Open discussion: Vision for news delivery and print
  

• New product development methodology, including using market research to identify the most promising opportunities and the business planning process for new initiatives Mary Lou Fulton, Vice President of Audience Development and Lisa Beason, Market Research Manager
• How we engage the community in participatory media on our 10 local web sites
  Logan Molen, Vice President of Interactive Media
• New initiatives for revenue growth, including "group sales" to small businesses and a new organizational structure that greatly prioritizes the pursuit of new customers
  John Wells, Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Study Tour language: English

Registration fee:
Standard price: 8500 Euros
Company/individual members: 7500 Euros

Fee includes:
3 nights' hotel accommodation in Denver, 1 night's accommodation in San Jose and 2 night's accommodation in Los Angeles;
2 internal flights;
Meals and bus transport during the tour.