TAKEAWAY: The WAN IFRA 2012 Congress ends today in Kiev, Ukraine, culminating three days of discussions about “shaping the future of the newspaper”.
During my presentation yesterday at the World Editors’ Forum conference: Two-speed storytelling
The top of the top of the world’s media gathered for its annual ritual meeting, another WAN IFRA Congress. It attracted more than 800 publishers, editors, journalists, designers, IT people, and vendors from assorted companies offering services and solutions to our media industry.
I was honored to be invited as a speaker in two sessions, and enjoyed both and the interaction with good, active audiences.
The hot button issues
I have been attending these type of gatherings for many years, but the mood in the last few, including this one, has changed dramatically. At this conference, the questions and issues that are ever present in newsrooms everywhere have been the centerpieces of a majority of the discussions:
Generating revenue—Experts from Brazil to Singapore offered tips for sustainable growth and new revenue strategies (best advice from the experts: expand your brand, capitalize on your best asset, explore new ways of taking the name and essence of your newspaper beyond just the reporting of news and features),
Expanding your digital horizons (this was a constant theme at almost every session this year, with emphasis on mobile and tablet platforms as important areas for future growth. Still, questions from the audience always included statements such as : “We are not generating much revenue from these platforms yet, so how are we to invest in these areas?”
The crisis and geography—-it became obvious in this conference that not every region of the world is undergoing a crisis in terms of newspaper circulation and advertising revenue decline. I was happy to see that publishers and editors from such regions as Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America report much progress and even the creation of new newspapers.
No easy answers for many of these issues facing the industry, although the consensus from a majority of the speakers was: you must continue to develop your digital strategy, since this is where future growth lies.
Overall, I felt optimism in the air, and interesting surprises from some of my American colleagues attending the conference, including Michael Golden, vice chairman, The New York Times and Raju Narisetti, Managing Editor, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which gave the impression that in the US, finally publishers are beginning to emerge from what has seemed the longest period of doubt and doom and into an era of hope and forward thinking.
Press freedom in the Ukraine
Perhaps one of the most important messages to emerge from this year’s WAN IFRA Congress was that of the importance of freedom of the press and the role of journalists in a free society, especially for a conference held in the Ukraine, where the issue is still thorny and controversial. When Viktor Yanukovich, president of Ukraine, spoke at the opening ceremony, about a dozen journalists rose from their seats in the auditorium holding up posters that read “Stop Censorship”. Security guards ripped some of those posters from the hands of protesters, while other protesters kept their posters up during the entire Yanukovich speech.
I understand from WAN IFRA members who then had a private lunch with President Yanukovich, that the issue of press freedom was the centerpiece of those discussions as well. As one of them (who prefers to remain anonymous) put it to me:
“We had a chance to tell President Yanukovich how we feel about what is going on here, and, while he gave a long and vague answer to our questions on the importance of press freedom in the Ukraine, we know that he listened, and I think we have benefitted the people of the Ukraine enormously by our mere presence, by having our conference here, and the issue of press freedom has resonated loudly, a good thing.”
The WAN IFRA 2013 conference is scheduled for June 2-5 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Newsasset logos make their entrance
I was happy to see that the new logo we have created for Newsasset, the media solutions firm from Greece, had made their premiere at the WAN IFRA 2012 Kiev conference.
Took a couple of pictures showing the logo used at the Newsasset kiosk in the Expo area of the conference.
For more on the creation of the new Newsasset logo:
http://garciamedia.com/blog/articles/creating_a_new_logo_for_newsasset/
SPD: Speaker Series Begins with “News You Can Use”
(Joe Zeff Design Illustration, courtesy of SPD)
Tickets are now available for the Society of Publication Designers’ first Speaker Series event of the fall, “News You Can Use,“ scheduled Sept. 10.
For more information:
http://www.spd.org/2012/08/speaker-series-begins-with-new.php
SND Scandinavia Space 2012 conference
Still time to get a spot to attend the SNDS conference in Copenhagen, Sept. 27-29;
For more information:
SNDS workshop ever. Read all about SPACE 2012 here:
http://snds.org/get-your-own-space-guide/#more-1852
Mario Garcia’s upcoming speaking engagements:
Cumbre Mundial de Diseño en Prensa 2012: Mexico City; September 24-26
http://www.cmdprensa.com/mx2012/
SND (Society of News Design) Cleveland; Oct. 11-13
http://cle.snd.org/
1st Middle East News Design Conference
It promises to be a great program, and a historic one, too: the first SND Middle East gathering. Put it on your calendars: November 8 & 9, in Beirut, Lebanon. Sponsored by An-Nahar and SND.
For more information:
http://www.snd20events.com/conference/
