All About Newspapers

Publish Asia 2010
poised to drive news publishing business upward
August 3-5, 2010; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

hile an urgency to rethink news media business models in Asia is being felt in the aftermath of the economic crisis, publishers need to rebuild their content generation, production and delivery processes, keeping costs strictly under control. The future of news media organisations in the coming years will depend on their capacity to reach out to new audiences and to new advertisers. And there’s no time to loose! With a showcase of new ideas, concepts and best practices from around the world, Publish Asia 2010 - under the theme ‘Rethink, Rebuild and Reach Out!’ - will help Asian publishers to drive media growth in the post recession era, showing how media companies in Asia and elsewhere have managed to maintain profits during the crisis or have prepared effectively for the recovery. Rescheduled to be held during August 3-5, 2010 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the event will feature three targeted concurrent conferences including CEO Conference, Newsroom Summit Asia, and Printing Summit Asia; four learning workshops on iPad for newspapers, Implementing newsroom 3.0, Crossmedia advertising, and Cost control in production; apart from an exhibition of the latest products and services from suppliers to the media industry. Leading suppliers and providers of technologies to the newspaper and news publishing industry, including 4C Plus, ABB, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Atex, CCI, Coremedia, Digital Technology International (DTI), EAE, NewspaperDirect, OneVision Software, Pongrass Publishing, ppi Media, VG News Portal, etc will present their latest offerings at the Publish Asia Expo (August 04-05).

Providing the opportunities to explore innovations in the printing plant, the newsroom and the sales department and showcase original ventures for creating new revenue streams, the event would prove a fruitful destination for every one.

The CEO Conference for senior management executives aims to cover business issues, trends and case studies that are current and relevant to Asian publishers. The objective is to provide tangible ideas from around the world that can help position media company’s for growth and improve their bottom line.

While Newsroom Summit Asia will tackle the problems and challenges facing editors, managing editors, news editors, chief reporters and all those who are involved in leading and managing newsrooms in a multiple media environment. The second Asian Editors Forum will also be held during Newsroom Summit to discuss issues of common interest and identify the areas where resources can be shared or pooled.

Similarly, Printing Summit Asia will focus on technical and production directors, prepress and plant managers as well as IT heads that are tasked with managing the publishing and printing operations. During this summit, WAN-IFRA’s Asian Production Forum will also be launched, which will facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of user experiences amongst technology and production executives associated with Asian media companies.

The pre conference workshop on iPad for newspapers (Aug 03) will provide insights on creating a ‘killer iPad App’.

Crossmedia approach can improve the value delivered to the advertiser and increase the sales revenue. How this can be done, what management, infrastructure and processes are necessary to optimise advertising sales for a portfolio of multimedia products and what are the first steps to implement these changes in a traditional media company will be the focus of Crossmedia advertising workshop (Aug 03).

Improving newsroom efficiency and content quality on multiple platforms requires radical changes in traditional newsrooms’organization. The Newsroom 3.0 workshop (Aug 03) combines strategic, operational, cultural and change managerial aspects of editorial change processes, based on concrete examples from around the world.

Likewise, during the recent crisis, many publishing houses came up with innovative ideas to reduce cost in every sphere of activities. In the Cost control in production workshop, production directors from leading media companies and WAN-IFRA experts will share valuable tips and insights on reducing costs in print production.

Speakers from India at Publish Asia 2010 will include Kasturi Balaji, managing director of Kasturi and Sons, publisher of The Hindu newspaper; Sanat Hazra, technical director of The Times of India; Alok Sanwal, head, I-next (Dainik Jagran); and Anand Srinivasan, research engineer, WAN-IFRA India. While other speakers are: Maani Safa, head of mobile at The Telegraph in the United Kingdom; Roman Gallo, director for media strategies at PPF Media in the Czech Republic; Shaun Morgan, business development manager at Fairfax Media in Australia; Theo Blanco, vice president for sales and marketing at Upsala Nya Tidning in Sweden; Azrul Ananda, chief operating officer, Jawa Pos, Indonesia; Geoff Tan, senior vice president, head of strategic marketing and customer service for Singapore Press Holdings; Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor-in-chief, The Bangkok Post, Thailand; Emmanuel Sauquet, Asia Pacific director of partnerships for Google; Sankarshanan, VP, Shanghai Printing Group Company, China; Premesh Chandran, co-founder and CEO, Malaysiakini, Malaysia; Chitra Rajaram, director, Newshub, MediaCorp, Singapore; etc.

On the occasion, the winners of the prestigious Asia Media Awards that honours the best in print, design, infographics, special sections and photojournalism across Asia Pacific will also be presented on August 04, 2010.