Dialogues on growth and innovations echoed at
WAN-IFRA India 2015
Indonesian daily Kompas honoured
with World Young Reader News Publisher Award
Once again, WAN-IFRA India arrived in Mumbai with a host of activities, including
back to back summits, parallel expositions of latest newspaper printing technologies
and more. Co-sponsored by INS, around 600 delegates from more than 30 countries
rushed to the global event that chose the city again after 12 years, during which a
handful of growth and innovations is being progressed. SK Khurana, editor and
SM Dutt, technical editor, All About Newspapers recount a brief account of the
three-day conference and expo that pulled a league of South Asian news media
stalwarts to the influential confluence of innovative ideas and technologies.
Ever since the WAN-IFRA India
Conference & Expo was last organised
in Mumbai around a decade back, the
industry has embraced tremendous changes.
These changes were what all discussed and
demonstrated by a multitude of news media
leaders from South Asia during the WANIFRA
India 2015 Conference and Expo held
from September 02-04 at BEC, Mumbai.
Of the perceptible changes is the change
developed in the reading habit of people
as well as the emergence of digital news
media. The latter includes smart-phone,
which is considered as new revenue source
and innovative news dissemination route
for news media houses these days.
Onset of the conference and expo was
marked with a common inaugural session
to all forums/summits, in which Magdoom
Mohamed, managing director, WAN-IFRA
South Asia, India delivered a welcome
address, followed by the opening address
from K Balaji, chairman, WAN-IFRA South
Asia Committee and director, Kasturi &
Sons Ltd, India.
For youngsters only
A big ovation at the opening session
was for the World Young Reader News
Publisher of the Year Award conferred
on the Indonesian daily Kompas. “The
newspaper has had a major role in creating
new citizens capable of sustaining their own
freedom of expression and peaceful change
of government—two basic elements for any
democracy,” announced Jacob Mathew, past
president of WAN-IFRA and executive editor
of Malayala Manorama, who presented
the accolade of the prestigious award to
the Indonesian newspaper. He added that
Kompas is also at the forefront of connecting
to young audience via social media with
actions that serve the public, create good
fun and teach them about journalism.
Kompas provides a sustained and committed
effort to not only promote brand loyalty
among young people but also to engage
and teach them about how to be more
civically active democratic citizens. The
World Young Reader News Publishers
awards are clustered into seven categories:
teaching freedom, digital first, brand,
editorial, enduring excellence, news in
education and public service. Among the
winners, Kids' News, a children newspaper
from Denmark, bagged the silver award in
the ‘teaching freedom’ category.
The whole three days of the conference
were sub-divided into World Editors
Forum (Newsroom Summit), World Printers
Forum (Printing Summit) and Crossmedia
Advertising Summit, with a common closing
session for all. Also featured on the sidelines
were three learning workshops titled Energy
and power quality management; Increasing
revenue in classifieds; and Integrated
newsroom.
Day One
Print and digital go hand-in-hand
In his common keynote address on the
opening day of the three-day conference and
expo, Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief, English
and Malay Newspapers Division, Singapore
Press Holdings Ltd (SPH) affirmed that
South Asian newspaper publishers continue
to increase their print business and they
are also undergoing a digital revolution.
Addressing the importance of print and
digital together he spoke of being relevant
for a technology savvy population while
keeping print alive and kicking.
Till 2003, SPH engaged in production of
five magazine titles; but the count has
reached 100 today, which include both
fully-owned and some licensed ones. They
also produce a special weekly newspaper for
Indian communities residing in Singapore.
On revenue generation, Patrick said there’s
no free product at all in the news media
business as cover prices must be relevantly
tagged. “Audience engagement is another
important aspect as one needs to reach,
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connect and engage to readers round the
clock from morning till bedtime using
news alerts via SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter,
Facebook or others,” he advised.
Adaptation to digital age
Speaking at the Newsroom Summit, Thomas
Jacob, chief operating officer, WAN-IFRA
Germany revealed that the trend of news
publishing in digital age is catching on.
On what publishers can do, he urged to
understand the disruption patterns first
and master the digital eco-system. Of the
important points he specifically pointed
at was the role of a chief content officer
who understands the various platforms and
capable to optimise the audience engagement.
Among the other keynote speakers at the
session included Nicholas Dawes, chief
editorial officer, HT Media Ltd, India, who
indicated ‘integrated newsroom’ as the way
forward to improve efficiency.
Among the others in the pool of speakers
in the summit comprised Marcelo Rech,
executive director of journalism, Zero Hora
and president, World Editors Forum, Brazil;
he talked about the increasing importance
of professional journalism in the world of
digital age. Then sharing the growth story
of ESPN Cricinfo’s in-house digital video
production teams and editorial teams, Gaurav
Kalra, senior editor-video, espncricinfo,
India, recommended the effective role of
high-quality videos in storytelling.
Going for lower gsm newsprint
On the other side, Printing Summit hosted
a series of valuable discussions, among
which Benedicte Gercke, category directorpaper
& energy, News UK and Ireland
(UK), presented provocative ideas and
concepts of newsprint procurement as well
as operational excellences in the session on
‘Excellence and Innovation in Newspaper
Production’. She imparted a case study
on optimisation of paper and energy from
one of the largest printers in the world.
In the similar tone, Thomas Isaksen, CEO,
Procurement Association of Danish Press,
Denmark appealed everyone to stay together,
win together. The association serves as a
single newsprint source to all newspapers
in the country. Pointing out the emergence
of exceptionally formulated newsprint of 40
gsm with specific opacity, Thomas related
his talk to the policies and programmes the
association has taken up to keep the cost
of newspapers low in Denmark.
Procurement Association of Danish Press
has been in close association with a
number of paper mills over the last 95
years in Denmark; and they facilitate
a technical support group consisting of
managers from the country’s leading printing
houses. When it came to counting overall
newspaper production cost nowadays,
Thomas revealed that newsprint occupies
50 percent—which was higher earlier—
and rest increasingly goes for charges of
inks, software upgradation and manpower.
The discussion continued as Mohanraj P,
AGM-production, The Hindu, contributed
his share to the maintenance of excellence
and innovation in newspaper production,
explaining the systematic approach they
follow to standardise production using lower
gsm newsprint.
Advertising facts and trends
‘Ad strategies for changing media
landscape’ was the topic of discussion
at Cross Media Advertising Summit.
The day-long summit covered a range
of topics related to advertising facts and
trends, ad innovations, new native called
digital and revenue generation in major
verticals, in which the keynote speakers
were Thomas Jacob, chief operating officer,
WAN-IFRA, Germany, who opened the
day’s summit with his talk on ‘Global
media trends’ along with others including
Kadar Gavane, VP, comScore Inc, India;
Anand Chakravarthy, managing partner,
Maxus, India; Shantanu Bhanja, chief
digital officer, HT Media, India; and Peter
Zollman, founding principal, Advanced
Interactive Media Group, USA.
Day Two
Welcome to the club
The second day dawned on a significant
session on ‘Colour Quality’ at Printing
Summit. Anand Srinivasan, research
manager, WAN-IFRA India, opened the
session with the announcement of advantages
of enrolling into the International Newspapers
Color Quality Club (INCQC) 2016-2018,
which is open to all. He explained how
publications of all sorts—dailies, weeklies,
monthlies and fortnightlies—could use
the competition in the club to improve
their process in achieving consistency
in print quality. The competition covers
four technical categories: coldset ink on
newsprint, heatset/UV inks on newsprint,
semi-commercial printing with SC or LWC;
and extra ordinary printing condition for
digital, flexo, coloured newspapers and
newspapers that prefer their own in-house
quality standard.
Seconding what Anand narrated about
the INCQC in the preceding session,
PT Bhasi, GM-production and maintenance,
Mathrubhumi, explained what it took for
them to win the membership to the club
wherein they have won in the 2014-2016
batch in their first attempt. He presented a
case study on the Malayalam daily’s print
quality control that eventually led them to
the hard-earned club membership.
Advantageous FM screen
Followed-up next in the session on ‘Color
Quality’, Anjan Majumdar, vice presidentquality
& EHS, HT Media Ltd, India, narrated
the systematic approach to implement
FM screening in newspaper production,
a relatively new subject. Reasons for the
selection of FM, according to Anjan, are
set for: smooth dot renderation, strong spots
on plates, easy control of dot gain, ease
of ink control on press, RIP and system
speed, among others. As a result, he said
Hindustan Times has successfully brought
60 percent of paper consumption to 40
and 42 gsm; saved upto 5-10 percent of
ink and advertisers are elated to the print
production on FM. Revealed in his narrative
included the company’s initiative in DM
screen as well.
New age journalism
As the summits were organised back to
back, on the other side of the conference
hall on the second day was a session
titled ‘Challenges and opportunities facing
journalism’ in the World Editors Forum
where a host of eminent media personalities
shared their views and activities in the new
age journalism. Rohit Khanna, executive
editor, The Quint, India, rationalised how
editors and journalists would approach new
story telling techniques. In the session,
Najia Ashar, senior anchor, Geo News
Television, Pakistan, underlined safety
training and guidelines for media persons
as she picked up the instances of online
visualisations to train journalists reporting
from dangerous zones.
More on the other side of the conference,
Crossmedia Advertising Summit brought on
stage a host of eminent speakers materialising
the advantage of connecting brands to
the audience. Among the speakers were
Rahul Kansal, executive president, Bennett,
Coleman & Co Ltd, India; Mark Hollands,
CEO, The Newspaper Works, Australia;
Shailesh Amolkar, chief marketing officer,
Sakal Media Group, India and others.
Day Three
Innovations that work
On the third day of the conference, a
session titled ‘Trends in print production’
at the Printing Summit witnessed a line
of speakers talking in length about the
newly set trends. Opening the session,
Snehasis Chandra Roy, associate vice
president-technical, ABP Pvt Ltd, India,
shared some innovations which ABP
has so far adopted to impress readers
and advertisers alike. Unable to attend
the conference, but directly streamed
live online from Dubai to interact with
the audience, Samer Sabri Abdel Qader,
director-digital & prepress, Masar Printing
& Publishing, UAE, presented his share of
ideas on the adoption of new technologies
for sustainability and new business.
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Masar Printing & Publishing boasts a stateof-
the-art production facility of half a million
sq ft in Dubai where equipped technologies
of all sorts, including web-offset, commercial
web-offset and digital presses—certainly a
mega portfolio comprising Kodak NexPress,
Kodak Prosper, manroland CROMOMAN
and so on. Samer encouraged everyone to go
for the mixed combo of new technologies,
in which digital presses are vital to play
around innovations. He communicated that
the pre-calculated AMC costing and sevenyear
life span of the digital presses helps
determine the input costs correctly.
Going ‘green’
In the follow-up part of the session,
Neeraj Mahajan, vice president-technical,
Lokmat, India, precisely elaborated the
newspaper’s focus on ‘green’ technologies
in their overall production process. With
a quick flashback of the newspaper,
established in 1971 with its first Marathi
edition, then English edition in 1987 and
Hindi in 1989, what Neeraj revealed was
their eco-friendly production process. Their
adoption of renewable energy, minimisation
of non-recyclable liquids, reduction in carbon
footprints and such other strategies eventually
helped Lokmat reap unmatched advancements
in using ‘green’ and sustainable technologies.
New revenue stream
Newsroom Summit, common with the
Crossmedia Advertising Summit, on the third
day opened up discussions on ‘New revenue
streams’. Of the three speakers imposingly
holding the session, Ashwin Sridhar, global
head, Digital Products Revenue, The
Economist Group, UK, shared their thriving
journey into the programmatic advertising
through challenges and opportunities. In
the similar tone, Dr Dietmar Schantin,
founder, Institute for Media Strategies,
UK, discussed and demonstrated about
virticalisation and communities of interest
for new revenue growth. Switching the
discussion to the topic on revenue beyond
advertising, Arpan Chatterjee, assistant vice
president and business head, KSL Digital,
India, narrated about new and innovative
ways to diversify consumer streams.
Closing session
At the closure of the three-day conference
and expo, Manfred Werfel, director, Word
Printers Forum, WAN-IFRA, Germany,
presented business model for sustainable print
in which he stated that the printing industry
is innovating and experimenting to come up
with solution best suited to challenges. He
observed the cost of printing is coming more
and more into focus, those who don’t adapt
will lose their market position. Moreover, he
pronounced ‘print is part of the newspaper’s
future.’ In the session, Shrijeet Mishra, chief
operating officer, Bennett, Coleman & Co
Ltd, India, conveyed that the companies
that continue to invest in their innovative
capabilities during the tough economic times
are those that fare best when growth returns.
The ultimate closing note from Rainer Esser,
CEO, Zeit Online, Germany, opened up with
his story of a long road traffic he experienced
in Mumbai as his first impression (laughing)
of the city on his maiden visit to India. Key
factors of success, he then changed the topic,
consisted of steady improvement in layout
and editorial designs, winning and keeping
the best and most diverse staff, and most
importantly the use of ‘big data’ to keep
in touch and engage with young readers by
embracing digital opportunities. A focus on
cooperation between management and editorial
staff was what he mentioned is yet a key
to success.
Eventful expo
Winners of World Young Reader News Publisher of the Year Awards
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The expo organised in parallel to the three days of WAN-IFRA India Conference
2015 hosted a group of 65 exhibitors from India and abroad showcasing their
machines and services, which include printing presses, prepress equipments,
editorial systems, archiving systems, digital media management and mobile app
developments. Prominent among the exhibitors were ABB, Alpap, Cadgraf, CCI,
4C Plus, FUJIFILM India, GOSS International, Kodak India, Krause, manroland
web systems, Manugraph, Memory Repro, Mosca, Newstech, Poddar Global, ppi
Media, PRAKASH Web Offset, QuadTech, SLKCG, Technicon India, TOYO Inks
Arets, WRH Global, among others. Eminent sponsors of the conference and expo
comprised: Atex, CCI, DIC, Google, Huber Group, Kreatio, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries,
ppi Media, TechNova and The New York Times (News Service and Syndicate).
