WAN-IFRA India 2014 takes a
closer look at world press trends
News publishers gathered at the recent WAN-IFRA India 2014 organised in New Delhi
were told that finding sustainable business models for digital news media is important both
for business and health of a democratic society. The two-day conference opened with a
clarion call for the need of finding sustainable business models for digital news media.
SK Khurana, editor, All About Newspapers reports how the conference developed a
confluence for news publishers looking to find ways to increase their business
in today’s fragmented media environment.
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WAN-IFRA India 2014 in New
Delhi sought to provide key
lessons from around the globe
and a direction for the future. More than
375 delegates from 20 countries attended
the 22nd annual conference of WAN-IFRA.
Welcome address from Magdoom Mohamad,
managing director, WAN-IFRA South Asia
was followed by opening remarks from K
Balaji, chairman, WAN-IFRA South Asia
Committee and director, Kasturi & Sons
and keynote address from Vincent Peyregne,
CEO, WAN-IFRA.
“Today, approximately 2.5 billion people
around the world read newspapers in print
and 800 million on digital platforms. Print
and digital combined are increasing audiences
for newspapers globally,” mentioned Vincent
Peyregne. He further mentioned that while
print and digital are increasing audiences
for newspapers globally, the digital revenues
are not keeping pace. “Finding sustainable
business models for digital news media is
not only important for your business, but
for the future health of debate in democratic
society,” he adds.
Productive summits
Three parallel summits viz. i) Newsroom
Summit for editors and newsroom managers,
ii) Printing Summit for newspaper
production managers and iii) Crossmedia
Advertising Summit for advertising
managers and business development
executives mainly composed the two-day
conference. Earlier during the inaugural
session, WAN-IFRA’s latest special report
Newsprint Waste Management, authored
by K Balaji, chairman of WAN-IFRA
South Asia Committee and director of
Kasturi & Sons, the publishers of the
daily The Hindu, was formally presented.
The report was released by Jacob Mathew,
immediate past president of WAN-IFRA and
received by DD Purkayastha, chairman of
WAN-IFRA Advisory Council and CEO &
MD of ABP Pvt Ltd.
Keynote speakers
The fruitful summits at WAN-IFRA 2014
were full blown with thoughtful speeches
from the eminent industry leaders, namely,
TN Ninan, chairman, Business Standard Ltd
and board member of WAN-IFRA World
Editors Forum; Rob Rose, investigative
journalist with Sunday Times in South Africa;
Mariam Mammen Mathew, COO, Manorama
Online; Andrew Holden, editor-in-chief, The
Age, Australia; R Sukumar, editor, Mint;
Sunil Patil, senior manager and Amit Gupta,
deputy chief manager of Bennett, Coleman
& Co; Rahul Kansal, executive president,
Bennett, Coleman & Co; Shantanu Bhanja,
VP-marketing for HT Media; Florian Nehm,
head of corporate sustainability and EU
Affairs, Axel Springer, Germany; and Kartik
Taneja, head, channel sales, Google India,
among many others.
The conference also included panel
discussions on ‘Are Young Readers Moving
Away from News? How to Engage the
Young Readers to Secure the Future of
News Media?’, led by Raj Chengappa,
editor-in-chief of The Tribune along with
Jacob Mathew, executive editor, Malayala
Manorama; Sanjay Gupta, editor-in-chief
and CEO, Jagran Prakashan; and Serene
Goh, editor - schools, for The Strait Times,
Singapore.
Newsroom Summit
Under the theme ‘The Story Telling
Revolution’, TN Ninan, chairman, Business
Standard Ltd, India and board member,
World Editors Forum in his opening note
in this session talked about the blurring line
between business and editorial. He signified
where to draw the Lakshman Rekha. In the
followed up session on digital storytelling,
Kevin Anderson, editor, Gannett Media, USA
addressed the importance of focusing on the
reader’s medium. And investigative journalist
Rob Rose from Sunday Times, South Africa
revealed some facts about investigative
journalism coming under risk worldwide.
Other persuasive discussions during the
summit included the phenomenal digital
transformation of Malayala Manorama.
Mariam Mammen Mathew, COO, Manorama
Online, India explained how did they gear
up to face the digital revolution.
Drawing the experiences from HT-Mint,
Sukumar, editor, LIVE-Mint narrated about
integrated newsroom and web-first approach.
Second day of the summit witnessed a string
of sessions on varied topics including ‘Can a
newspaper preserve a nation’s future?’ Dainik
Jagran reaches nearly one million students to
educate them to become future of tomorrow.
This was a case study presented by Basant
Rathore, head of brand and strategy, Jagran
Prakashan. In addition, The Telegraph’s
Tiger Reporter Programme, in which student
reporters from 82 schools learn how to do
news then produced most of the content for
the 16-page publication, was what it related
to this session in the summit by Anupam
Aashish, manager, Y-Vertical, ABP.
A panel discussion among editors/CEOs
from South Asia on the topic ‘Who are
our future readers?’ was very much an eyeopening
part of the session. Sanjay Gupta,
editor-in-chief & CEO, Jagran Prakashan,
India; Jacob Mathew, executive editor,
Malayala Manorama, India; and Serene Goh,
editor-schools, The Straits Times, Singapore
were the respective panelists at the discussion
session in which panel chair Raj Chenppa,
editor-in-chief, The Tribune analysed whether
the reading habit is vanishing among the
younger generation. The discussion stressed
on the engagement of readers to secure the
future of news media.
Printing Summit
In a session titled ‘Achieving and Sustaining
Operational Excellence’, K Balaji, director,
Kasturi & Sons and chairman, WAN-IFRA
South Asia Committee presented WANIFRA’s
new special report on energy
management. The energy consumption in
printing plants has reduced due to the onset
of the latest press technologies. However,
there are still untapped areas. Sunil Patil,
senior manager and Amit Gupta, deputy
chief manager, Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd
stressed on this topic, followed by Snehasis
Roy, AVP - manufacturing, ABP on the same.
While achieving and sustaining operational
excellence, what can we learn from a
manufacturing company? Vijay Apte,
GM - application engineering, SKF India
explained the objectives to invest rightly
to achieve production. Perspectives from
Malayala Manorama, which invested in
five double width presses, PK Philip, chief
GM, Malayala Manorama, elaborated the
prospects on sustainable operations.
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Second day of the summit revolved around
printing plant and their environmental effects.
In this context, Srinivasan, research engineer,
WAN-IFRA India explained the association’s
green project aiming at reduced environment
impact and saving cost at printing plant. In
the similar tone, SS Kulkarni, GM-technical,
Micro Inks narrated the importance of ecofriendly
materials presenting the company’s
case study reports.
Crossmedia Advertising Summit
‘Fresh Strategies for Turbulent Times’ was
the opening topic at this concluding summit
at the two-day conference. Talking about
the brand building strategies of The Times
of India, Rahul Kansal, executive president,
Bennett, Coleman and Co explained what
it took to build the brand and considering
the increasing news consumption in multiple
media, what are the strategies to keep
readers and advertisers loyal to the brand.
The discussion continued with strategies
in the cut throat competition and means
of alliances between newspapers. Shantanu
Bhanja, VP - marketing, HT Media shared
the discussion on the prospects of newspapers
joining together to offer advertising to clients
at a single point of contact.
Setting a spotlight on the ongoing digital
trends that have been shaping the Indian
online space, mass penetration of internet,
news consumption in digital devices,
programmatic advertising were the key points
which Kedar Gavane, director, ComScore
Inc talked in length during the session.
What was discussed on the second day of
the summit was about ‘Multiple Platforms;
Multiple Opportunities.’ This session drew
attention of the attendees to the power of
relevance in digital advertising with relevant
instances from the world’s largest travel site
Tripadvisor. What can newspapers learn?
Nikhil Ganju, country head, Tripadvisor
discussed about the fundamentals whether
it could generate much needed revenue
from digital.
‘Social media’ was just another point of
discussion at the concluding part of the
summit. Shekhar Sharma, national director,
GroupM Interaction explained how new
advertising opportunities have been dwelled
in social media circuit. Further, brand
promotion through social events was another
aspect discussed expansively in this session.
AJ Christopher, national head - marketing,
Eenadu referred the newspaper’s seventh
edition of Eenadu Cricket Tournament that
saw more than 1500 teams turned up. He
remarked that the strategy behind such events
was for brand promotion.
Common closing session of the summit
highlighted some common topics like Drone
Journalism, which news media are looking
ahead to the full utilisation of this new
remote reporting technology. Benchmarking
for Indian newspapers, DD Purkayashtha,
MD & CEO, ABP and chairman, WANIFRA
Advisory Council revealed the report
on WAN-IFRA’s first-of-its-kind project for
efficiency improvement in newspapers.
Big presence
Offered on the sidelines of the conference
were opportunities to meet the leading
suppliers of the news publishing industry,
who were participating in the info-table
exhibition. Some of those exhibitors putting
up an innovative range of machines and
technologies included Graf Impex and which
showcased its breakthrough technologies in
colour registration, cut-off control, news
monitoring system, online glue, aroma and
spray dampening.
Poddar Global, one of the leading importers
and distributors of newsprint and paper in the
Indian newspaper market, equally attracted
visitors. Swedish company Tolerans, known
for advanced in-line stitching systems for
newspapers and commercial prints, revealed
its stitching technologies for compact
newspaper formats.
Stand of Newstech India was set to be a
one-stop destination for its state-of-the-art
equipments for pre-press, press and post-press
operations as well as compatible consumables
including plates, chemicals and blankets for
newspaper production. Globally acclaimed
Indian web offset press manufacturer The
Printers House (tph) showcased know-how
of its Orient range of machines.
As sponsors, big machine and technology
manufactures like manroland web systems,
Fujifilm, Goss International, Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries, TechNova and Micro
Inks (Huber Group) made their presence in
the conference. Showcased from manroland
web systems were the company’s economic
solutions in newspaper and commercial web
offset printing, which visitors could select
a versatile and innovative array of products
and services portfolio.
Goss International pulled attention of
attendees around to its ‘unique capabilities’
of Magnum Compact at its stand. Other
participants included Splice Solutions,
Comyan and ppi Media.
WAN-IFRA India 2015 Conference &
Expo will be held from September 02-04
at BEC, Mumbai.