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Digital Media India 2015 forecasts
digital growth alongside print

It is evident that there are countries like India where printed newspapers continue to grow, but the era of digital is also at hand. That was the message from the just concluded Digital Media India 2015 at New Delhi.

Organised by WAN-IFRA, the South Asian edition of the Digital Media India in New Delhi dug up the future trends and roles of digital news media in the very near future. “Though print circulations of leading newspapers continue to increase in India and in many developing countries, publishers have no choice but to increase their digital presence,” said Raghav Bahl, founder, Network 18. He added that it should take about five years for English newspapers to capitulate before a full scale digital assault, while it could take a decade before other Indian language newspapers have to face the same reality.

In the new order, according to Raghav, news publishing cannot continue to be linear, but has to be conversational. This was the same remark echoed by numerous speakers during the two-day conference, which attracted participants from 10 countries. The conference was dedicated to discussions on content creation, delivery of news, revenue models and understanding and using audience data.

Mobile media penetration
Digital Media India 2015 offered strategies and best practices that reflected the rapid growth of digital penetration in the country and elsewhere in Asia, especially with mobile. Publishers were encouraged to increase their mobile presence quickly. Kalle Jungkvist, senior advisor to Schibsted Media Group in Sweden, said that mobile is the perfect medium for offering premium content.

Think shareability and audience at the outset of the story; Use chat apps to offer tailored content; Sub-segment audience and service relevant content; Offer different revenue strategies for different advertisers; Embrace programmatic advertising for sale of banner ads, and a direct relationship with advertisers for sale of premium inventory were some of the takeaways from the conference.


Discussion on ad partnership
The conference was concluded with a panel discussion on ‘Should Publishers be Selective in Choosing Their Digital Advertising Partners?’ led by Ben Shaw, director of global advisory of WANIFRA. The panelists proclaimed they would aim for more direct relationships with advertisers, but ad exchanges are a reality and they use them for selling some of their common ad inventory. They also called for news publishers to come together and build their own ad exchange.

The conference was sponsored by 4CPlus, CCI Europe, PPI Media, Proteck and Wood wing. WAN-IFRA News Publishing Focus and Asian Newspaper Focus were the official publications of the conference. The supporting publications of the event were All About Newspapers, GXPress, Indian Printer & Publisher and RIND Survey. WAN IFRA’s Digital Media conferences have become a referent in the digital publishing industry, with more than 1,200 delegates from around the globe attending the Digital Media Europe (DME), Digital Media Asia (DMA), Digital Media India (DMI) and Digital Media Latinoamérica (DML) editions last year. This DM network of events makes it one of the most relevant international business platforms dedicated to the transformation of the news media industry. Next edition of the conference (Digital Media Europe) will be organised from April 20-22, 2015 in London.

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