World Newspaper Summit meetings
Evincing the surge

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Organised for the first time in South Asia by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the prestigious annual global summit meetings of the world’s press - including the 62nd World Newspaper Congress, 16th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 09 – concluded (from Nov 30- Dec 03, 2009) in the historic city of Hyderabad, a representative of a resurgent India, bringing together more than 900 publishers, chief editors, managing directors and other senior newspaper executives from 87 countries to discuss the emerging scenario with focused transformation of the news publishing industry into the digital age.

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ddressing the opening ceremony at the joint session of the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and the 16th World Editors’ Forum in Hyderabad, the President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil stated, “Media is, indeed, operating in a dynamic environment that characterizes the contemporary world. Globalization has created a situation where events can no longer be viewed as isolated occurrences. Issues like terrorism, climate change, rapid communication systems and financial integration are some of the indicators towards global village concept. For the media, though it implies that it is covering certain local events, it must necessarily look at other linkages. Needless to say, journalists have a definite stake in building a better and safer world.”

“The advent of the internet and electronic media has been a significant development. However, these new technologies still do not have broad and universal coverage. Some regions still are serviced by the print media alone. For this reason, and the fact that people continue to rely on newspapers to understand what is happening and why it is happening, print media maintains its popularity. I also feel the existence of small and medium newspapers is at stake in some regions due to many reasons, including the interplay of market forces have a role to play in building inclusive societies. They have greater reach at the grassroots and thus have the potential to disseminate messages of socio-economic development, social change and participatory development,” she said further, adding, “India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world today. This economic growth has also had an impact on the growth of the media in India. With growing incomes and growing literacy levels, readership both of national and regional newspapers and periodicals in various languages has been increasing. The role of media in India will continue to be important as we strive for growth that is inclusive and strengthening the values of democracy, harmony and tolerance in our political and social life.”

The president of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil at the joint session of the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and the 16th World Editors’ Forum in Hyderabad on December 1, 2009. Also seen are K Rosaiah, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and Gavin O’Reilly, the president of WAN- IFRA.

Expressing happiness on honouring Andhra Pradesh to host this international meet of doyens of newspaper industry at Hyderabad which can be called the ‘Fleet Street of South India’ being the home for dozens of newspapers and more than a dozen news channels, Dr K Rosaiah, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, said, “With more countries achieving independence in the 20th century, media houses also became truly independent. In turn, competition among media houses has been growing. A number of commercial techniques are being followed by newspapers worldwide to attract more readers. While a debate over ethical standards of these techniques is still going, the world has seen new generation of journalists. The easy availability of technology and the seemingly unending interest in information among the masses, have led to the advent of ‘citizen journalism’. This has coincided with the rise of Social Media such as Twitter and YouTube, facilitated by the internet. In the absence of context, the raw, streaming information being provided through ‘citizen journalism’ may be falling short of doing justice to the label of journalism. Therefore professional media sources continue to be indispensable…Even if media desires to act as it pleases, in passing judgments, the society will continue to look to the media such as newspapers with a confidence that they guide them better. Newspapers, in nations with increasing internet density, may be going out of business. Yet, the media should strive to keep its moral compass. Because, whether it is India or Indonesia, readers are readers.”


“After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, a debate raged in India. In providing their viewers up to date coverage of the attacks, did the media inadvertently help the terrorists achieve one of their objectives of gaining world’s attention? For days into the attack, and even after, some media outlets would not use the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the attackers, instead referring to them with epithets such as ‘gunmen’ and ‘commandoes’. In the name of neutrality, did a section of the media decide thus reserve its moral judgment on these criminals whose brutality was seen by the entire world? …This is the right forum to introspect,” Dr Rosaiah pointed out and mentioned the ideals of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was known for his upright and forthright expressions and practicable approaches being a journalist and editor of ‘Harijan’ and ‘Young India’ journals. He called newspapers community to inform their readers about the government schemes in a big way.

In welcome address, T Venkattram Reddy, president, Indian Newspaper Society (INS) introduced INS and wished every participant to gain knowledge. Gavin O Reilly, president, WAN-IFRA appreciated press freedom and human rights conditions in India, mentioning twenty percent of the world newspapers are sold in India. Dr J Geeta Reddy, minister of Tourism, Culture & I&PR, Govt of Andhra Pradesh said that media friendly Hyderabad is fortunate to host the event and called media for a campaign. Mohan Jatua, minister of state for Information and Broadcasting, India talked about the role of Press Council of India and called for integrity to show by media.

Free costs too much

Gavin O’Reilly heads new executive board of WAN-IFRA Gavin O’Reilly, the chief executive officer of Ireland-based Independent News & Media PLC, has been elected the first president of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the organisation created by the July merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry. O’Reilly (42) who had been president of WAN until the merger, was elected president of the new organisation at its first Annual General Meeting, held during the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India. As president of WAN, O’Reilly spearheaded a number of global initiatives for the industry, notably creation of the Automated Content Access Protocol to protect intellectual property rights of on-line publishers, and the formation of the News Media Coalition to defend open news coverage of sports and other events. WAN had also undertaken numerous press freedom and industry support initiatives during his tenure. Also, Horst Pirker, chairman of Austria-based Styria Media, was elected first vice president and is in line for the presidency when O’Reilly’s term ends in December 2010. Pirker had been president of IFRA. While Fred Arp, chief financial officer of the Telegraaf Media Group in the Netherlands, and Tore Stangebye, CEO of Norway-based Berner Gruppen, were elected Treasurers. Meanwhile, the World Editors Forum also elected four new Board members, including Wolfgang Krach, deputy editor, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany; Reetta Merilainen, editor-in-chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland; Roman Gallo, director, Nase Adresa, Czech Republic; and Paul Ramadge, editor-in-chief, The Age, Australia.

“Google is at the heart of the crisis confronting journalism today, but the news industry itself is ‘the principal architect’ of that crisis. We are allowing our journalism - billions of dollars worth of it every year - to leak onto the internet. We are surrendering our hard-earned rights to the search engines, and aggregators, and the out-and-out thieves of the digital age. It is time to pause and recognise this - free always costs too much,” said Les Hinton, chief executive officer, Dow Jones & Co, USA.

“Though the digital visionaries continue to sing the praises of ‘the game-changing gospel of the internet age’ and dismiss traditional media as just not getting it, the fact is that few, if any, are making profits from content on the internet. That has severe implications because news costs, because quality costs, because free sets the price too low, because free isn’t sustainable, and because free is too expensive,” Hinton said. It’s a myth that internet traffic is as valuable to advertisers as some say it is, he added, citing research showing that eighty percent of display ad clicks come from only sixteen percent of internet users, and these were younger and lower paid than most web users.

“What advertisers and consumers are looking for is ‘intelligent, quality journalism’. We do agree that high-quality content can break out from the pack and earn the highest online advertising rates. This is encouraging, but we know that advertising will never be enough. We need the primary customer to pay as well. Leaving the fate of our business in large degree to the cyclical economics of advertising is too dangerous. The consumer will determine the business, seeking the valuable over the vapid because they always do. They subscribe to HBO and SKY when broadcast television and, indeed, YouTube, is free. They will continue subscribing to newspapers if the newspapers provide the value they seek. It is possible to sell differentiated content to familiar audiences and extended ones,” pointed out Hinton.

Transform or die

Dr Andreas Wiele, Axel Springer, president of BILD Group and Magazines (Germany) contended that the traditional print publishing business model is dead: “Circulation and their revenues were always high. We had a monopoly in the way we gathered editorial content, and the ads could be sold accordingly. It was a beautiful world, a beautiful time. Those days are over. We must transform or die.”

Monetising all forms of content takes priority, he said. The newsroom’s content is more and more complemented with user-generated content, as well as news aggregators. Publishers’ lifeblood of advertising, especially that of classifieds, is moving from purely regional offers to segmented market portfolios, and he said, “Classifieds will not return to print.”

The change challenge

“We are all afraid of change, but change is inevitable and this industry is facing changes like never before. We have to focus not only on today’s problems and challenges, but those in the coming years to secure that our business remains a vital part of society.” It was the message from Martha Stone, director of the Shaping the Newspaper Future project for WAN-IFRA, during one of the panel discussions on the topic.

Stone, Francois Nel, director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancanshire (UK), Dietmar Schantin, executive director of Publishing, Editorial and General Management Business Unit for WAN-IFRA, and moderator Sridala Swami, a freelance journalist, presented the numerous projects and their findings, but the focus of the session centred on a new SFN project, the ‘Future and change study’.

Pakistani editor awarded WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom Najam Sethi, the former editor-in-chief of the Daily Times in Pakistan, has been awarded the 2009 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Known as an advocate of liberal and secular ideas in a country too-often torn by religious extremism, he was honoured for his outstanding defence and promotion of press freedom under difficult circumstances and constant personal danger. The award was presented during the opening ceremony of the World Newspaper Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2009, the global summit meetings of the world’s press held in Hyderabad, India. “Najam Sethi has managed to anger both the extremists and the government authorities, merely by doing his job, and this is at the heart of why WAN-IFRA is honouring him with its Golden Pen of Freedom award for carrying out his role as an independent journalist, for reporting and investigating all sides equally, and for being a voice of moderation, despite the continuous threats and constant danger he faced,” said Xavier Vidal-Folch, president of the World Editors Forum, who presented the award. Najam Sethi’s home and office are under constant guard. The Taliban threatened to kill him if he did not change his editorial policy. He has also received death threats from radical Muslim groups after he published a cartoon that depicted Umme Hassaan, principal of a radical women’s school, ‘educating’ female students to wage jihad and embrace martyrdom. Sethi was imprisoned on May 8, 1999 for ‘anti-national activities’ after he participated in a BBC documentary in which he spoke negatively of then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif and corruption in the Pakistani government. He was released after six weeks and charges were dropped after an international outcry pressured Sharif’s government to release him. He has long reported on corruption at the highest levels of Pakistan’s government. “The rise of the private sector has brought its own set of constraints on traditional notions of editorship and professionalism. Increasingly, editors are managers rather than journalists. And an overly aggressive corporate sector has replaced the government both as the most significant source of media revenue and the concomitant political pressure that goes with it, often at the expense of the public interest,” commented Najam Sethi on the occasion.

Making of the world’s highest read newspaper

The presentation by Bharat Gupta, vice president marketing, Jagran Prakashan Ltd, India was focused on the making of the Dainik Jagran, and where it is going from here. He described a print strategy that focused on building relationships with readers, with respecting the competition, with starting afresh with each new edition and not assuming what works in one place will work in another. Every market calls for a different approach. “Dainik Jagran’s content is changed to reflect the colloquial tastes of every local market,” said Bharat. It is an approach that is based primarily on research to better understand readers - there are reader panels in every market - and to increase reader engagement. Part of that loyalty is generated by newspaper company’s social responsibility arm that undertakes education and health projects to improve societies.

For the future, the focus turns toward multimedia. “We will continue to live in a world with both old and new media coexisting - the important point is to keep the relevance and constantly evolve,” he said. Describing a strategy that develops new products to cater to three important groups -- younger readers, woman at both work and home, and new communities that form online, offline and on mobile, Bharat stated, “Our objective has been to expand our presence across a range a media platforms, evolve our traditional media business, develop newer media businesses, and leverage synergies for overall growth.”

Not a newspaper, but a brand

The venerable The Times of India, the world’s largest English language daily, thinks of itself as a brand more than a newspaper. The presentation by Ravi Dhariwal, CEO-publishing, Bennett, Coleman & Co (Times Group) focused on the attributes of that brand: it is “reader centric,” affordable, delivered to the home, promoted aggressively and focuses sharply on the changing needs of readers. “At the center of our editorial philosophy is the needs of the reader,” he said. “We treat the reader as you would treat the CEO.”

Dhariwal’s presentation showed how the brand was built on three attributes. Firstly, an innovative and relevant product that is “an aid to individual empowerment. The newspaper celebrates diversity, adopts a positive attitude and celebrates success, and focuses on real-life concerns over politics, and popular culture over classical culture.” It treats the reader with respect, offering a multiple perspective - “We have arguments in the paper and always offer an equal, opposite view. We treat the reader with intelligence, we have no political agenda, we don’t pass judgment.” Secondly, a contrarian approach to pricing and an “almost free” model - the paper costs just five cents and sales provide only fifteen percent of revenue - as a way to expand audience. Circulation has tripled since 1993, when the cover price was cut to half. And new offers are used to engage readers. Finally, a promotional approach aimed at “creating news” – like involving guest editors ranging from Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy to spiritual guru Ravi Shankar, an award-winning Newspapers in Education programme (winner of the WAN-IFRA World Young Reader Prize), and “Lead India” and “Teach India” initiatives that garnered strong community response. Six percent of revenues are solely dedicated to promotion.

But Dhariwal kept coming back to the company’s focus on the reader. “The spirit of the brand - it’s really about the reader,” he said. “It’s really about being hopeful, being optimistic, and it is really about the reader and how they can better themselves.”

The multimedia dimension and the sports press

“Multimedia is not something for the future, it is something here now and must be developed and managed quickly,” said Gianni Valenti, deputy director, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy. His sports newspaper, with the highest readership in Italy, combines daily and weekly print publications with a popular website, and so much more. It has a mobile text service for which 100,000 subscribers pay three euros a week, a social network with 300,000 participants, a web TV channel, and even a store on the web to sell sports clothing. In a workshop organised by the International Association of Sports Newspapers on multimedia strategies in sports newsrooms, including the role of sports in paid-content models, Valenti described these key steps for the transition to multimedia sports delivery: changing the mindset of journalists, training and convincing them to accept and exploit new media, increasingly integrate the newsrooms, and change working structures of the organisation.

Eduardo Tironi, multimedia editor, Lance!, Brazil, mentioned three steps to multimedia growth. When the Brazilian sports daily Lance! first offered its journalists the opportunity to take at video workshop, not a single journalist volunteered. So the company picked someone they thought might be good at it, and forced him to attend. The second workshop was completely sold out. Journalists are often resistant to change, but if you make them understand why change is necessary, and show them what is needed, they will make the changes. The case for developing multimedia is compelling. “The first thing was to explain why the company wanted to change, and the reason was, competition. But it is competition not only from the sports sections of newspapers, but mainly from TV and the web. It was a matter of survival. Along with awareness, training and new work structures are key to successful multimedia integration,” said Tironi.

Chaos and the paid content debate

Lebanon to host World’s Press in 2010 For the first time, the Arab world is poised to host World’s Press in 2010. The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) invited the world’s press to attend the 63rd World Newspaper Congress, 17th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2010, to be held in Beirut (Lebanon) from June 07-10, 2010, in cooperation with Lebanon’s An-Nahar newspaper. “The time is right for the world’s press to meet in the Arab world, which has so much influence on world affairs, where the media is developing at a rapid rate, but which continues to struggle with repression of the basic human right to freedom of expression,” said Timothy Balding, co-CEO of WAN-IFRA, adding further, “And it is particularly appropriate to hold these meetings in Beirut, where the independent press has played a leading role for freedom and the right to speak out, not only in Lebanon, but in the entire Arab world.” Lebanon is home to some of the world’s oldest cultural sites, and is said to be the birthplace of the first written alphabet. It is renowned for its cuisine and its dynamic people. Though it has suffered from war and sectarian strife, it is undergone massive redevelopment and recovery. The capital of Lebanon, Beirut, located on the Mediterranean coast, is one of the world’s most beautiful and cosmopolitan cities.

George Brock, professor and head of journalism at City University, London, and former international editor of The Times, United Kingdom, believes the current debate raging over paid-for online content will lead to “absolutely chaotic experience”, and that sports news will be in the center of it. “Sport will be important to charge because it is extremely compelling material,” he said. “I think what is likely to happen is that the bundle of content we have become used to ... the bundle will start to unbundle.”

The debate over charging for content isn’t just about whether to charge or not. “The issue you have to decide, if you are going to try a charging experiment, is to work out what you will charge for,” he said. “You’re not obligated to charge for everything.” There are many models. As one of several examples, Brock said that News Corp, his former employer, or any large media company, could consider “stacking” - creating a subscription package for sports news gathered from all of the company’s media - from Fox Sports to The Sun. But this would completely change the entire concept of a newspaper. “What do I think will happen? There will be a very big debate in the area of charging for sports coverage. And there will be a period of absolutely chaotic experience,” he added.

Coming paid-for content

In his presentation, Antoine Vernholes, international director, L’Equipe, France, pointed out that the iPhone has brought old habits back. People are paying for content! L’Equipe is about to jump into the paid-for content pool. In 2010, it plans to launch a “premium zone”, where loyal customers can pay three to five Euros per month for additional content. This will include web TV offerings, access to archives of fifty years of text, and nearly 100 years of photos, exclusive services like tools for blogging, and interaction with L’Equipe’s journalists. The company is also launching other new revenue initiatives - making the paper available on e-readers, an e-commerce site - “We want to take advantage of new platform models,” said Vernholes.

Surviving an economic crisis - and emerging even stronger

Russia was hit later and harder by the economic crisis than the US or Europe, and its publishers adopted several approaches to the downturn. With the help of their national association, GIPP, they undertook cooperation agreements, extended successful lobbying efforts to protect the industry, funded readership surveys, and more. From a commercial standpoint, most traditional newspaper companies took a conservative approach - they shut down loss-making titles, imposed salary and staff cuts, and, if they developed at all, it was only very small projects. Some companies - mainly tabloids and free newspapers - went digital-only to survive. But that is a risky investment strategy. And some newspaper publishers adopted a third approach - concentrating on main products, changing the workflow, and, despite the crisis, investing in marketing and brand extensions. The third way was the approach of Media3. “You have to keep the brands full of life,” said Alexander P Strakhov, chief executive officer, Media3, Russia.

“Proactive changes are very important during the crisis,” stated Strakhov. In the midst of the crisis, Media3 created a new media park, to bring together four titles with separate offices into one location. He mentioned that the move increased productivity and efficiency, particularly in back office and IT departments. Newsrooms remained separate and independent. Strakhov had this advice for newspaper companies in crisis: Do not damage the main product; treat ad sales as creative; make the technical changes organic to staff - forcing new devices and practices on them doesn’t work; and concentrate on the main product.

Digital revenues: new business models needed At no time in the foreseeable future will digital advertising revenues replace those lost to print, making the search for new business models - including paid-for online access for news - a pressing concern for the news publishing industry, WAN-IFRA said in its annual world press trends update, presented at the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India, where the paid content issue was being seriously debated. As search engines take the largest slice of internet advertising revenues, little is left for the content generators themselves. In a 182-billion dollar press advertising industry, digital revenues of newspapers accounted for less than 6 billion dollars last year and are forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers to grow to no more than 8.4 billion dollars by 2013. At the same time, print advertising is expected to decline. PwC predicts that by 2013, combined print and digital ad revenues will be less than print only ad revenues of the year 2008. “These PwC forecasts, similar to those made by Zenith Optimedia and others, demonstrate quite simply that at no time soon will digital advertising revenues come close to achieving the sort of revenues required, by many, to compensate for falling print revenue,” said Timothy Balding, co-CEO of WAN-IFRA. “So that answer will have to be found elsewhere...Should these forecasts come close to being true, new business models will have to be invented. If newspaper companies wish to maintain their strong content leadership, someone is going to pay. It looks like we have to solve the digital payment issue - and soon,” he said. “Yet despite the problems of falling advertising revenues, and pressure from new competitors, the global newspaper industry is far from facing an ‘apocalypse’, said Balding, adding, “Despite the endless predictions about the death of newspapers, they actually continue to grow, at least on a global scale. The WAN-IFRA survey showed that newspaper circulation grew, on a global scale, by 1.3 percent in 2008, the last full year for which data exists, and almost nine percent over five years. “You might say that this growth is taking place in the developing markets and masks a continued downward trend in the developed world. And to a degree this is true, but it is not the whole story, as newspaper companies in the ‘old’ markets have embraced digital platforms and new forms of print publishing and, in doing so, have actually grown their audience reach and revenues, even while their print circulations have come under pressure,” said Balding. The data shows consistent newspaper growth in Africa, Asia and South America, and a long-term slowdown in the US and European markets. “But even here, a sense of proportion demands that we deny the idea that the apocalypse is upon us,” said Balding. “A circulation drop in Europe, for example, is less than 3 percent over five years. Over five years, according to our survey, newspaper circulation increased in 100 of the 182 nations for which we have reliable data.” Globally, 1.9 billion people choose to read a newspaper every day, or 34 percent of the world population, while 24 percent use the internet. The biggest newspaper market in the world is India, with 107 million daily sales. India, China and Japan account for more than 60 percent of the world’s newspaper sales, with the USA taking 14 percent. “While it is true that in some regions circulations are not a boom sector, newspapers continue to be a global mass media to be reckoned with, achieving reach of over 34 percent,” said Balding. In terms of sales per 1,000 adult population, Japan leads the world with 612, followed by Norway with 576, and Finland with 482. In terms of reach, 91 percent of Japanese continue to read a newspaper daily - a remarkable figure in such a technologically advanced and wired society. Advertising revenues fell an estimated 20 percent in North America, 19 percent in eastern Europe, 16 percent in western Europe, and 11 percent in the Asia Pacific in 2009, according to PwC. The US market has been hardest hit, but revenue declines mirror declines in other industries. “While we have systemic challenges, while we transition from a print only model to new forms of publishing over time and that we can exercise control over, there still remains outside forces - namely the economy - that we have little control over,” said Balding. Moving into multiple business… Newspaper publishers are often accused of being dinosaurs, but in reality they are moving very quickly to investigate a wide variety of new business models for the industry, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Some of the new models being looked into by newspaper companies worldwide include: subscription models for websites and mobile devices, licensing content for e-paper and websites, video development, database development for advertising sales, e-commerce through mobile devices, casual and skill-based gaming, and more. The PwC study of 4,900 consumers, advertisers and publishers in 11 countries - US, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, France, UK, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, India and Australia - indicates they certainly are. Consumers in the survey asked how much they were willing to pay for content if there were no free alternatives, and the average overall was two-thirds of what they pay for the print newspaper. Sports, entertainment and financial news were also identified as being prime areas for publishers to charge for content. For financial news, there was the highest willingness to pay - nearly the same amount they are willing to pay for the newspaper.

Newspapers: printosaur or printronics?

In the session about innovation in print and not the death of print, Peter Kuisle, executive vice president sales, manroland (Germany) stated, “We as an industry have a way of eating our own skin. There are so many great innovations going on in print. We should champion our core product, not destroy it.”

Clearly, though, he says there are huge challenges as advertising and circulation are indeed down, especially in the US. “We’ve seen unprecedented bankruptcies and closings. However, the business model in North America is a very different beast than the rest of the world. I don’t buy the party line that it is just a matter of time before the same problems migrate to other parts of the world. Let’s face it, that market has not invested in many areas like other markets and where they did borrow, this is what got them in trouble: debt.”

He pointed to new targeted publications coming out that are being read by even young audiences. “I absolutely disagree that young people do not read newspapers. If the product is right, they will read it. And this is a future trend that newspaper publishers should explore further.” There is room for improving and innovating value-added print products: by offering more attractive products, higher quality printing, targeted printing and distribution, add-ons with ads, such as using different inks and paper, and offering different formats of ad sizes.

manroland’s approach to value-added printing is its new ‘autoprint’ solution, a ‘one-touch’ vision. The goal is to have one operator per press, utilising automation and standarised printing practices that are available today. “This is not a dream, this is a reality. We have five sites where we have these solutions installed. We are installing it right now at The Times of India as well.” Of course, this requires investment in technology and confidence in a publisher’s future. For Kuisle, it’s all a question, “Do you want to be a printosaur or printronics?”

The great debate

Attacks on press freedom multiply At least 88 journalists have been killed so far this year and hundreds of media employees have been arrested and jailed, most often following sham trials or without formal charges being brought against them. The horrific attack in the Philippines on Nov 23, in which more than thirty journalists were among the 57 murdered, was the deadliest single attack on media in memory. That brought the total of journalists killed in the Philippines to 35 this year, making it the most dangerous country in the world for journalists. More than 750 journalists have been murdered world-wide in the past decade, said the WAN-IFRA bi-annual press freedom report, presented in Hyderabad. The WAN-IFRA condemned the massacre of journalists in the Philippines and issued six other resolutions at the meeting. The resolution from WAN-IFRA urges the Philippine government to act with decisiveness, bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice, and end the climate of impunity in which this massacre is rooted. It also calls on the Philippine government to guarantee independent media access to Maguindanao province, as accurate, independent and timely reporting in this region is more critical than ever, and to take full responsibility for the security and safety of journalists. The murder of the journalists was “an act of savagery that has written one of the blackest pages in the history of the world’s press,” said Gavin O’Reilly, president of WAN-IFRA. “As an organization which defends, promotes and celebrates freedom of information and expression, we feel especially at home in this country,” he said, adding, “India is a living refutation of the dictatorial and autocratic regimes the world over that claim that freedom and pluralism and democracy are incompatible with, and even impossible, in ethnically and religiously diverse societies. It is reassuring to see that not only is the press in India growing in leaps and bounds, but that it clearly sees itself to have major responsibilities in helping this process of nation building, while never compromising its freedom to judge and criticize. And the size of the press in India is truly staggering: almost twenty percent of all the newspapers sold daily in the world are sold here in India, which quite recently surpassed China as the largest press market.”

The newspaper industry’s representative association made an impassioned defense of copyright to Google’s chief attorney, calling for “a more rigorous and unambiguous acceptance” of publishers’ rights to decide how their content is used. In a debate at the World Newspaper Congress with David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal counsel of Google, Gavin O’Reilly, president of WAN-IFRA, said, “Being able to make a commercial return, it is essential to justify investment in content - whether we are talking news or education or entertainment - and that depends on having the mechanism to choose how that content is distributed, used and paid for.

“That is why copyright was invented 300 years ago - and when you consider the breadth, depth, richness and diversity of 21st century media, it has been a stunning success - and that is why copyright remains as relevant today.” But O’Reilly added, “What is clear is that, collectively, we haven’t made copyright work properly on the web, and that is down to, we, the content creators who have, perhaps foolishly, failed to enforce our copyright.”

Drummond denied that Google violated copyright. “This is not a question of Google not respecting copyright. This is a fundamental disagreement when you’re applying copyright rules on the web,” he said, adding that the idea that indexing sites was a violation “flies in the face of how the web has been built and how it operates.” But Drummond said Google was interested in working with the newspaper industry, and announced that Google was launching a separate crawler for Google News, so that publishers can give one set of instructions on how their content should be treated in Google News, and a different set of instructions for Google Search. He pointed out that Google News offers publishers a billion clicks a month and massive traffic, which he called “a source of promotion undreamed of just a few years ago.”

O’Reilly said: “Unfortunately, the pat answer always seems to be, ‘don’t complain - aren’t I giving you traffic?’ As if I could take traffic to my bank manager. But shouldn’t I have the right to determine - as a fair trade for my own content - whether I want traffic or something else? Leaving aside the thorny issue of dominant market position that Google enjoys, why should I just be forced to accept Google’s business model of site referral as the only online model?”

He called for adoption of the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), a new protocol back by WAN-IFRA and others in the industry that allows publishers to describe how their online content can be used in a way that the news aggregators’ automated indexing crawlers can read. “If Google are genuinely pro-copyright, then they must be pro-ACAP, or at least pro its goals, as all ACAP seeks to do is to make copyright work on the web, by creating an infrastructure that is universal - not proprietorial, not owned by any one individual business, not confined to specific media, not telling anyone what their business model should or shouldn’t be, but making it easier for them to choose. An open standard available to everyone and at no cost to the user.”

Also participating in the debate

were: Kees Spaan, president of the Dutch Newspaper Publishers Association and chairman of the Copyright Working Party of the European Newspaper Publishers Association, and Dae-Whan Chang, chairman of Maeil Business Newspaper and TV in Korea. The debate was the closing session at the event.

Pakistan joins WAN-IFRA The All Pakistan Newspaper Society (APNS), which represents 304 newspapers and six advertising agencies, has joined the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). APNS is the 79th national newspaper association to join WAN-IFRA. APNS was formally admitted by the board of WAN-IFRA, which met during the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India. “The APNS is active in defending and promoting press freedom and the professional interests of newspapers in a country that is particularly difficult for the media,” said Timothy Balding, co-CEO of WAN-IFRA. Pakistan has become one of the world’s most deadly countries for journalists.