WEF designed Study Tours to promote the culture of innovation in newsrooms. Each Study Tour gathers a small group of editors-in-chief to visit a selected country where innovation is the strongest in a particular domain. The Study Tours are designed so that editors can immediately apply their learnings upon returning to their newsroom. Our next editions will be held in Czech Republic (Wednesday 3 November - Friday 5 November 2010) and United States (Monday 29 November - Friday 3 December 2010).

In Prague, Czech Republic, you will share with Nase Adresa's top management and the journalists all information about the most important hyperlocal news project worldwide. Participants will understand the major obstacles Nase Adresa faced, the tips to achieve success, the editorial process and the business model of this ambitious project.

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In New York and Chicago, the study tour is focused on innovation and how American newspapers - which have faced serious financial challenges since 2008 - are finding solutions to keep readers on new platforms and take advantage of the latest social networks. As technology is involved in this process, news providers have to partner with the most innovative and visionnary start-ups : both from a business point of view, and in terms of new ways to tell stories and satisfy readers who want always more.
Study tour participants will have the chance to directly discuss with start-up managers... and potentially partner with them in the near future.

Why and how Nase Adresa is becoming the most important hyperlocal news project worldwide
(Wednesday 3 November - Friday 5 November 2010)

The programme :

Welcome dinner with the founder of the Nase Adresa concept

16h - 18h = Arrival of the participants in Prague - Check into the hotel (1 night)

19h00 - 22h00 = meeting at the Futuroom (8 minute walk from Panorama Hotel, in Prague's Pankrac district)
Welcoming cocktail and dinner hosted by PPF Media.
Strategic presentation by Roman Gallo, PPF Media's director and founder of the project. Answers to the questions: why traditional media organizations were reluctant and why a new player decided to launch a print & online project.

From the central newsroom to the newscafes

8h45 - 11h00 = Nase Adresa editorial presentation
How do the hyperlocal editions work? Which content goes in the print weeklies? Crowdsourcing journalism at Nase Adresa and ethical issues: how PPF Media's ambitious project is managed from its central newsroom
With Roman Gallo, PPF Media's director and Petr Sabata, Nase Adresa's editor-in-chief for all the local newsrooms

11h00 - 13h00 = Nase Adresa business presentation
What is the business model? How does hyperlocal advertising work? How are recruited advertising managers for hyperlocal projects? Which business in the internet newscafes.
With Jiri Nehasil, manager of all the newscafés and Bozena Rezabova, marketing manager

12h30 - 13h30 = Lunch at the Futuroom, the central newsroom

14h00 = travel by bus to the newscafes in Bohemia
The group of participants will be divided in two teams to visit the existing newscafés in Bohemia (an interpreter will be present in each):
- one team to Teplice's newscafé and weekly
- one team to Usti's newscafé and weekly

15h30 - 17h30 = newscafés seminars: practical work with hyperlocal news professional, bloggers and "citizen journalists"
These sessions will allow participants to understand the functionality of the newscafés and how editorial activity takes place. The topics covered will include:
- What is the hyperlocal content of the websites and the print weeklies.
- How the reporters work, and how they relate to their readers.
- The role of the coffee shop as a meeting place for readers.
With the local edition's chief editors.

18h00 = check-in to a nice Bohemian hotel in Teplice (1 night)

19h30 = dinner hosted by Roman Gallo, with the presence of the local editors.
The potential for Nase Adresa's concept in other countries.

Hotel night in Bohemia

Hyperlocal news workshop and brainstorming session

8h30 - 10h00 = transportation back to the Futuroom in Prague

10h00 - 12h30 = Workshop style session
Going hyperlocal: is it sustainable and is it the future of regional media organizations?

Guest speakers:
- Jaroslaw Tokarczyk, CEO of Edytor, publisher of Gazeta Olsztynska in Poland
Why a traditional regional daily already dominant in its region is going hyperlocal
Exchange between participants and speakers.
- Christian Bach, Deputy Editor, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace in France. How a very strong regional newspaper began a hyperlocal news project

13h00 - 14h00 = lunch & debriefing  at the Futuroom

14h00 -15h30 = more on the Futuroom productions
Detailed presentation of the media laboratory, where new forms of information are being experimented with dynamic multimedia infographics, mobile content... Tips and recommendations for a creative newsroom.

New York & Chicago

Start-ups for news and new storytelling methods: getting ideas and making partnerships
(Monday 29 November - Friday 3 December 2010)

Introductory Working Dinner

16h - 18h = Arrival of participants in New York - check into hotel (2 nights)

19h00 - 22h00 = working dinner with John Landmann, deputy managing editor, The New York Times, and Gloria Brown Anderson, vice president, International and Editorial Development, The New York Times Syndicate (to be confirmed)
Strategic presentations and first brain-storming about journalism, technology and partnerships.

How big media groups partner with start-ups

09h00-11h30 = Google News, Google Maps... and other tools
During our visit, we will learn how Google is working with traditional publishers, and how your newsroom can maximize its exposure through Google tools. Some of the topics covered will include:
- best practices for making content (including subscription content)
- new formats for presenting articles, such as Fast Flip and Living Stories
- ways to tap into citizen-captured news video through YouTube Direct
- methods for using Google Maps to improve storytelling.
Speakers: Josh Cohen, Senior Business Product Manager at Google and Steve Grove, Head of News at YouTube (to be confirmed)

Tour of the Google facilities.

12h30 - 13h30 = working lunch with Jim Roberts, editor of digital news, New York Times and also a "System Editor", a new position in the newspaper about the use of databases for quality journalism (to be confirmed).

14h00-16h00 = visit of The New York Times
We will visit the Times' brand new Times Square building, tour its spacious newsroom and discover its latest innovative projects.
Special session with Michael Zimbalist, VP, Research & Development Operations: What will the news look like in 2020 for newsrooms and their readers? (to be confirmed).

16h30-18h00 = visit of AOL, Patch and Seed services
Patch:
Patch is a hyperlocal news platform that operates local news sites for 41 small towns and communities in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts & Connecticut.
Seed:
Seed is AOL's open content submission platform where professional writers, photographers and others can submit their content for publication on AOL's platforms.

20h00 = working dinner with Jeff Mignon and Nancy Wang, 5W Mignon Media:. 5W is working with papers on both sides of the Atlantic, helping them adapt to local media transformations. Jeff and Nancy will give you an idea of how to improve your paper's digital offerings.

The tour of the latest New York start-ups

8h30 - 11h30 = visit some of the most relevant start-ups for news production
Twitter:
Twitter does not need an introduction. In a few years, it has become a tool used by journalists for covering live events communicating with their 'followers.' We will ask Twitter managers how they foresee 21st century journalism with immediate blogging tools.
Foursquare:
Foursquare is the leading location aware mobile social networking site. It has struck deals with several major publications.
Flowing Media:
Flowing Media is a data visualization company that creates interactive graphics to engage a mass audience and provides real-time displays of social media streams.

12h00-13h30 = lunch with Jeff Jarvis, director of the Interactive Journalism Program at the City University of New York (CUNY). Jeff is one of America's premier media strategists, working with news organizations around the world. He has helped build CUNY's Interactive Journalism Program and developed the "New Business Models for News" project. You can find his blog at www.buzzmachine.com

13h30 - 15h30 = Multimedia storytelling session at CUNY. Presentations of:
MediaStorm:
MediaStorm's online publication is focused on multimedia storytelling. Learn what skills and people are required to take multimedia journalism to the next level.
Magnum in Motion:
Founded in 2004, Magnum In Motion is the multimedia digital studio of Magnum Photos. In Motion assembles visual narratives for online and offline platforms.
Mochila:
Online marketplace for syndicated content from hundreds of the world's newspapers and news organisations.

17h00-19h30 = flight to Chicago. Check into hotel (2 nights)

Dinner at the hotel with Martha Stone, Director of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project (SFN) within WAN-IFRA.

The tour of the latest Chicago start-ups

9h00 - 12h00 = Chicago Tribune : newsroom organisation, latest partnerships & latest developments in hyperlocal news
Meetings with Gerould Kern, editor-in-chief, Bill Adee, director of digital, Brad Moore, vice president, Targeted Media, Tribune Media Group (to be confirmed)
Visit of the Chicago Tribune newsroom. Discussion about Triblocal.com & RedEye.

12h30 - 13h30 = lunch with Robb Montgomery, multimedia journalist and consultant

14h00 - 18h30 = visit some of the most relevant start-ups for news production
Everyblock:
EveryBlock filters an assortment of hyperlocal news by location so people can keep track of what's happening on their block, neighborhood and all over their city.
Meeting with Adrian Holovaty, pioneer of "journalism via computer programming".
ChicagoNow
ChicagoNow is a hyperlocal blogs network that offers readers 350 blogs written by community journalists based in Chicago, with each covering niche topics from across the city. The bloggers are paid $5 for every 1000 local page views.
Chicago News Cooperative
The Chicago News Cooperative - a non-profit news project - was launched by James O'Shea, former editor of the Los Angeles Times. The site produces public-interest journalism and partners with the New York Times as well as a local public TV station.
Legacy.com
Founded in 1998, Legacy.com is an online media company that collaborates with around 900 newspapers in North America, Europe and Australia to provide ways for readers to express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones.

20h00 = dinner with Mike Smith, Director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University. He will introduce the next day's visits and his vision of 'journalism of the future.'

Visit the laboratories of the 21st century journalism

9h - 12h00 = The Readership Institute and journalism laboratories.
Morning hosted by Mike Smith, Director of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University. He will talk about the Center's ongoing research and how should editors be thinking about audiences. Update on entrepreneurial journalism in the Chicago area.

12h30 - 14h00 = working lunch with Professor Rich Gordon, Northwestern associate director of digital media at the journalism school.

14h00 - 15h30 = Study tour wrap-up discussion with young journalists and developers about future of journalism projects.

Transportation to the airport... or a weekend in Chicago.

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Who should attend:
Prague : Editors-in-chief & group editors, senior news executives and top managers who are interested in developing hyperlocal news and community-based projects

New York and Chicago : Editors-in-chief & group editors, senior news executives and top managers who believe that partnerships with innovative start-ups can help the newspaper business.

Working language:
Prague : The presentations will be held in English, Spanish and French

New York and Chicago : The presentations will be held in English

What does it cost?
Prague :
WAN-IFRA members         EUR 2,800 (Early bird EUR 2,100)
Non-members                 EUR 3,500 (Early bird EUR 2,700)

Early bird rate till 10 September 2010.

Price includes transfers within Czch Republic, hotel accommodation and all meals.
Flights between your country and Prague, Czech Republic, are not included.

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Contact
Bertrand Pecquerie
World Editors Forum Study Tours Manager
Phone: +33 1 47 42 85 11 (or 85 00)
Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48
bertrand.pecquerie@wan-ifra.org
http://www.wan-press.org/wef/studytours.php

 Previous WEF Study Tours

  WEF Study Tour in Prague, Czech Republic

17-19 march 2010

PPF Media's hyperlocal project, launched in the spring of 2009, has been hailed from the beginning as one of the industry's most innovative initiatives in years (see below a selection of articles). It primarily consists of print weekly Nase Adresa (translation: our address), an innovation in itself as within the next two years, it will be published in 150 different hyperlocal news editions, in a country - Czech Republic - of little more than 10 million people. Along with Internet portals, they will be produced in 90 "newscafés" by local staff and external contributors (user generated content). They are under the supervision of the Futuroom, the Prague-based central newsroom, which is also a media laboratory for multimedia journalistic projects and new revenue streams.

This session presented the evolution of the project already portrayed in our september Study Tours (see below). It was of course totally comprehensible by itself.

WEF Study Tour in Prague, Czech Republic

UK Nationals and Regionals Study Tour (click here)

Southeastern US Study Tour in Atlanta and Miami (click here)

US STUDY TOUR in New York and Washington DC (click here)
America's Transition to the Digital Newsroom
Exclusive visits to the New York Times, Washington Post and Google - 21-25 April 2008

Over the past century, American newspapers and news agencies have played an enormous role in transforming journalism around the globe. Today, it is those same organizations that are being transformed. American news establishments have embraced the country's entrepreneurial spirit, experimenting with all things digital in order to increase efficiency in their newsrooms and produce better journalism for their readers.

During the "America's Transition to the Digital Newsroom" study tour, you will see first-hand the steps US newspapers have taken to evolve from print to multimedia as well as how purely-online publications are affecting the media landscape.

 

WEF Young Reader study tour in Paris and London (click here)
Interact with the young today for fun, profit and an audience for tomorrow
5 - 8 February 2008

This activity has the support of Norske Skog, the Norway-based global newsprint producer, through its partnership with Young Readership Development projects of the World Association of Newspapers.

One of the core challenges for today's newspaper industry is to win  the attention and loyalty of the young. We know that if we don't attract them at a very stage in their lives, we likely never will. In this Study Tour, jointly organised with  the Young Readership Development department of the World Association of Newspapers, WEF will give you up-close exposure some of the brightest ideas to appeal to a young audience, both within and outside our industry.


WEF Study Tour in the UK (click here)
Integrate your newsroom today, train your journalists for tomorrow
3-7 December, 2007

Exclusive visits to the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and The Financial Times

Without a doubt, the integration of print and online newsrooms is the most carefully followed trend in the global newspaper industry. But many papers considering convergence are unsure of the steps they need to take in re-organizing their newsrooms and re-educating their journalists. Join the World Editors Forum as it travels to the UK to visit several of the industry's most famous examples of integration to see how their once separate newsrooms work together and how they trained their journalists to adapt to the multimedia world.

WEF Study Tour in Finland (click here)

Study Tour language: English (other language available only if more than four participants from the same language register)

Finland is one of the foremost newspaper countries in the world with very high readership. Working closely with the world's leading mobile telephone producer, Nokia, Finnish papers are also at the forefront of mobile news distribution, adopting Nokia's worldwide technologies for integration into their local news production. Come discover how Finland's leading newspapers are working with wireless companies to provide innovative services for their readers. 

WEF Study Tour in Spain (click here)

10 - 13 July 2007
"Spanish regional newsrooms: the secrets of their success"


(Study Tour languages: English and Spanish - consecutive translation)

With local economies booming, provincial autonomy increasing, and Internet penetration multiplying, the Spanish regional press is taking advantage of its expanding influence by embracing digital news production. Newsroom convergence, streamlined editorial processes, and interaction with readers are just a few examples of how these newspapers are radically transforming their daily operations.

The World Editors Forum would like to invite you on a three-day tour of the most innovative newsrooms of the Spanish regional press. This is your chance to see successfully integrated newsrooms in action, to gain insight into the convergence process and to learn from the trials and tribulations of some of Spain's most popular newspapers.

Experiencing these innovations first-hand will revolutionize your thinking as to how newsrooms should be organized and quality, regional content should be produced in the digital age.