Press freedom remained a big concern at
Publish Asia 2014
in addition to current technological highlights
First time venue Hong Kong hosted Publish Asia 2014 to successfully stage seminars, summits and conferences giving ‘press freedom concerns’ a major highlight. Around 400 key global media executives from 29 countries were gathered at Kowloon for fruitful discussions on the future of journalism. Pointing out the fact that media companies are now plunged into the mist of a technological storm constantly compelling everyone to re-invent new ways to survive, SK Khurana, editor, All About Newspapers reports a brief account of the two-day event where the industry leaders mutually interacted and shared key insights to efficiently adapt themselves to the changes
(including technologically) in order to remain relevant and profitable.
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Unveiling of Publish Asia 2014 at Kowloon in Hong Kong set off in a traditional way of formal inauguration. The issue of ‘press freedom’ to the forefront, Tomas Brunegard, president, WAN-IFRA in his opening address condemned the recent attacks on media personalities in the former British colony. Hong Kong has also slipped in the press freedom ranking to 61st spot out of 180 countries. Just a decade ago, it was one of the best places in Asia in terms of press freedom when the ranking was first organised. “Two high-level executives from Hong Kong Morning News were assaulted last month. And there was a brutal attack on former chief-editor of Ming Pao, Kevin Lau,” mentioned Tomas adding that China still locks dozens of journalists in prison. Urging to pursue justice, he demanded, “No journalist should be in prison for doing their job.”
Drawing attention to the changes swiftly taking place across the news media industry, Tomas asserted that ‘Change’ has become the buzzword these days as new technologies keep pouring in. He further mentioned that the notion of new waves and new generations is coming to reality with the world of news media today witnessing 2.5 billion readers all over the globe. But he pointed out that financial, new media, new regulations and free/demographic expressions still remain four big challenges in the industry.
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In the similar line, Leung Chun-ying, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region addressed the packed ballroom of media leaders that the commitment to having an ‘unfettered’ media landscape in the city remains a priority. He conveyed that press freedom was not just a constitutional duty but a cornerstone for Hong Kong’s status as a global society and an intellectual city. Leung subsequently proclaimed, “Press freedom is about our way of life and suitable actions are underway for media freedom.” He further added that economic freedom is another initiative in the multi-language city of Hong Kong with focus on minimum or no taxation, update technologies/highest mobile penetration, etc.
While press freedom remained a vital issue of concern, those media leaders from all over the world at Publish Asia 2014 also discussed other problems that the industry has been facing, from falling advertising revenues to the challenges posed by new modes of digital distribution to other interesting topics through a series of CEO conferences, advertising summits, newsroom summits and printing & production seminars.
Exhibitors and sponsors
Prominent table top exhibitors who brought solutions to Publish Asia 2014 included WoodWing, Cxense, Atex, CCI, NEWSCYCLE Solutions, Mediaspectrum, Protecmedia, ppi Media, Crowdynews, Tolerans, Pongrass, 4Cplus, red.web and Miles 33. Distinguished among them, Protecmedia is an international software engineering and services company which develops applications and services for publishing firms covering all aspects of advertising. Newstech (India) Pvt Ltd is a recent authourised distributor of Protecmedia products in India. Tolerans is a leader in in-line stitching systems for newspapers and commercial prints. This Swiss company, which has installed more than 2,000 stitching systems over 70 countries, revealed new attractions at Publish Asia 2014. Ferag India added in their portfolio to distribute Tolerans products across the country.
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Pongrass is yet another innovator of publishing software which newspapers rely on the company’s state-of-the-art solutions for publications of all sizes, from the smallest weekly to enterprise solutions. An all alone exhibitor from India, with their core focus on media, 4Cplus boasts of its team comprising more than 150 engineers and domain experts who have been providing services to news publishers in Asia and Africa. And to mention a few, manroland web systems, Cxense, Atex, Alfamedia, Google, NEXT Media and Xalok were some sponsors who lent generous support to the success of Publish Asia 2014.
New media disruption
In his opening keynote address at the CEO Conference’s first session titled ‘Riding the Waves of News Media Disruption’ on the first day, Sverre Munck, CEO, Libras, SA and former vice president, Schibsted, Norway delivered a fruitful discourse about searching for competitive advantage, from stable to unstable competitive dynamics in the news industry. He underlined how Schibsted has broken the historical business model of the newspapers, moving on from a natural monopoly to the new competitive dynamics.
Session 2 of the conference staged talk on a thought-provoking topic ‘The Content Monetisation Controversy’, in which Jeff Folckemer, SVP Hearst Newspapers and president of Media Services and Affiliates LocalEdge, Hearst Media, USA spoke about the importance of partnering with pure-players and success models of newspaper publishers in partnership with online platforms like Yahoo, Facebook or Google. He mentioned that 65.5 percent share now remain with Google. As he predicted that traditional media alone may not work now, newspaper revenue started with $1,000,000 in 2014 will be at $548,861 in 2020 and growth rate will be at -13 percent compared to -7 percent today. Relative measures he suggested include consumers’ customer survey that eventually helps a lot. In such scenario, he further urged about hiring the best people and giving relevant training to staff as well.
Native advertising is one of the most promising online advertising formats for content producers. In this respect, ‘How High Can Native Advertising Rise’ was yet another hot topic at the CEO Conference in which a panel comprising Michelle Haase, regional advertising manager-Asia, The New York Times, Hong Kong; Mo Chung, general manger, digital sales, Next Mobile Ltd, Hong Kong; and Anez Albert, digital sales director, APAC, The Economist Group, Hong Kong answered the question – Can news publishers benefit from online advertising format without compromising their most valuable asset, credibility?
Revenue stream diversification
Star attraction:
Flying Drone camera on display.
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Further, at the second half of the first day at CEO Conference, expert CEOs weighed in on diversifying revenue streams. How best to monetise the news business in an ever changing technological landscape? This is a question that every media executive has been asking in recent times. Some news companies are seen as leaders in the area of innovative revenue streams. Some successfully emulate them. Unfortunately, there are others who have been slow to the game or who have made blunders when it comes to embracing new ways to run their businesses. “But there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution,” said Robin Hu, CEO, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong.
Robin further explained that there are some absolute necessities required to come out on top. Firstly, one needs original content, said the CEO of the paper which scored a global coup last year for which the credit must go to Edward Snowden. He also highlighted the need to improve productivity in the newsroom. “The day will come when you have more work but less staff members,” he said. And as mobile usage keeps rising in the region, Hu explained that there were many factors involved in studying consumer patterns from the mental states of tablet, mobile and web users. “75 percent of our traffic comes from outside Hong Kong and so then it becomes a global product,” added Robin.
Wong Chun Wai, CEO, Star Publications, Malaysia shared some of the major milestones his company had achieved – from having just one English newspaper to becoming a multimedia group with a TV channel, a free Chinese paper and more – during the discussion on diversifying revenue streams. Wong praised his neighbouring Singapore Press Holdings’ foresight in investing in property back at a time when shareholders had questioned the rationale of the move.
Audience engagement
On the second day at CEO Conference, panelists stressed on a brand new social media newswire launched to filter raw content for journalists. Facebook and Storyful that aggregate news from social media platforms have come together to launch FB Newswire. In his keynote speech, Mark Little, CEO & founder, Storyful said the newswire, which is a monthly paid subscription service, aims to help journalists separate the newsworthy content from all the noise. A former television foreign correspondent, Mark further said it was vital now for reporters to be able to get their hands on verified real time information in an intelligent stream.
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“For over three years, Storyful has been mining the social web, including Facebook, for the most compelling content, separating news from noise, truth from fiction, and sharing the stories worth telling,” said Aine Kerr, managing editor, Storyful. “Today, we are partnering with Facebook to build a realtime home for those verified images, posts and videos. We will be finding and verifying compelling videos, images and posts around breaking news stories and tentpole events, unearthing trends and memes and debunking false stories and myths,” she added. Storyful, which was acquired by News Corp last year, is now looking at expanding to the Southeast Asian region.
Learning from others
In this session of the CEO Conference, Scott Lamb, international vice president, BuzzFeed talked about what news publishers can learn from them. On this he narrated, “When I started BuzzFeed, we had no idea what we were doing initially. We just tried a lot of different things.” While news organisations around the world are cutting costs, BuzzFeed has been spreading its paws further. A guest speaker at Publish Asia 2014, Scott said the company has Southeast Asia in their radar. BuzzFeed has already expanded to Japan and India.
Fostering innovation in advertising
Advertising Summit on the second day of Publish Asia gorged on different topics leveraging the ways to foster innovation to generate new revenues from advertisements. During the session, Dog Willis, managing editor, Lebedev Holdings, UK unfolded their success story by declaring, “They said our newspaper was dead… tell that to our 1.5 million new readers.” Five years after their acquisition by a colourful Russian oligarch, The Independent and Evening Standard are back to profitability. The group has experienced a four-fold growth to two million readers by launching a new national newspaper.
Closing of the Advertising Summit marked with a discussion over future of Drone Journalism. Sithikorn Wongwudtianum, photographer, The Bangkok Post, Thailand and Pichai Chuensuksawadi, group editor-in-chief, Post Publishing, Thailand narrated how will the media use Drones in the field for reporting in future.
Digital vs inkjet
Asian Media Awards
And the winners are…
Indeed an enticement at Publish Asia 2014 was the ‘13th Asian Media Awards’ for which a record of 534 entries comprising newspapers and magazines from all over Asia and the Middle East competed for excellence in printing quality, design, infographics, photojournalism, editorial content, newspaper marketing and community service. Among the 45 winners recognised with the prestigious accolades were five newspaper houses from India which bagged eight awards in different categories, viz, HT Media Limited (Bronze in ‘Best in Print' for Hindustan Times); The Indian Express Ltd (Bronze in ‘Best in Design’ for their website of Finalcial Express); HT Media Limited (Bronze in ‘Best in Editorial Content’ for the project 'My India My Voice 2013'); Kasturi & Sons Ltd (Silver in ‘Best in Newspaper Marketing’ for the project ‘We Have Changed With You’ for The Hindu); Jagran Prakashan Ltd (Silver in ‘Best in Newspaper Marketing’ for Dainik Jagran); Kasturi & Sons Ltd (Bronze in ‘Best in Newspaper Marketing’ for the project ‘Behave Yourself India' in The Hindu); Malayala Manorama Company Ltd (Gold in ‘Best in Photojournalism’ in Malayala Manorama); and (Bronze in ‘Best in Photojournalism’ for The Week).
The Best in Print Awards were sponsored by manroland web systems and those overseas winners in top positions included The Star (Malaysia), The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), Singapore Press Holdings (Singapore) and The New Straits Times (Malaysia), among others honoured at a gala ceremony organised gracefully.
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Chaired by Anand Srinivasan, research engineer, WAN-IFRA India, Printing & Production Seminars staged a session titled ‘Hybrid Printing’ under which a panel of eminent speakers delivered a series of dialogues on the trends of digital printing. Hubert Pedurand, director-collective action, INIGraph, France pointed out the differences in ‘Digital Printer vs Inkjet Heads’ with a highlight on the need of digital printing solutions for the Indian market.
Presenting two case studies from China and Germany, Evandro Matteucci, VP-marketing & GM, Graphics APAC, Eastman Kodak, China stressed on how newspapers can become more relevant and attractive as a media vehicle or new business model to ad agencies and brand owners through adoption of hybrid printing solutions. In the follow-up was Hubert Pedurand, CEO, RotOcean, France spotlighting their stance after five years of their link to digital. He revealed a case study on their fully digital printing centre located on Reunion Island.
Going green
A big concern among the current trends in the industry highlighted during the talks and discussions at Printing & Production Seminars on the last day of Publish Asia 2014 was eco-friendliness. At the session titled ‘Why going green?’, Sanat Hazra, technical director, Bennett & Coleman, India explained why do we need to save recourses. Followed up next on the same topic in the Session 2 was about ‘Going Green: From Concept to Implementation’ in which Sanat further explicated different projects that The Times of India has worked on to significantly contribute to improving process efficiently and consequently reducing cost across its 56 printing sites.
Sanat further elaborated on an initiative implemented in their facilities towards ‘green’ by forming CIG (Continuous Improvement Group) which ultimately helped them save newsprints, energy, water and ink. Speaking on ‘Grow Green in India’, Anand Srinivasan revealed the findings with respect to WAN-IFRA-led green projects in five printing centres across India in just four months. End of the session was marked with Sanat’s prolific dialogue on ‘going green’ for improving competitive advantages.
Finally, what it perceptibly observed was a steep decline in the number of organisations attending the Publish Asia 2014. Compared to the previous editions, presence of around 150 organisations this year is indeed a low attendance. This is a matter of concern that needs to be looked into seriously. Many questions have been put up whether is it due to the lack of participants or the content of the event not suitable with news media organisations or something else?
