World Publishing Expo 2016 in
Vienna filled with activities and significances
For news publishers, recent Vienna edition of the World Publishing Expo 2016 had brought a handful of innovations, which the industry is now carrying forward to a new scale. Organised from October 10-12, 2016 at Vienna, Austria, the expo was set to be a meeting point for more than hundred of exhibitors showing latest news media publishing and production technologies.
Organised by WAN-IFRA, the World Publishing Expo 2016 drew more than 4,000 key visitors from 69 countries. Stages as a global meeting point for the news media industry, the expo at Vienna showcased innovations from a team of 115 companies, which comprised a line ranging from start-ups to major manufacturers of heavy equipments, plus numerous systems suppliers, exhibiting innovations that the news media industry has duly developed in the latest shifts. The new Digital Advertising Pavilion at the expo housed 10 exhibitors in an innovative arrangement.
Visitors and exhibitors from various countries, including India and many others from Eastern Europe, Greece, North America, etc expressed their privilege to be at expo where they would get fantastic prospect to extend leads. “I have been attending World Publishing Expo over the last 30 years, and I found every edition of the expo valuable for being a strategic platform for in-depth discussions with vendors and to exchange experiences with peers,” said Kasturi Balaji, director, Kasturi & Sons Ltd (publishers of The Hindu).
Diverse exhibitors
Exhibitors at the expo included not only the most important suppliers to the publishing industry but also newcomers and start-ups, presenting innovative solutions and products that help boost revenue and streamline publishing workflows. “Coming into the expo, we were concerned that in a drupa year attendance would be lower than in previous years. But the contacts we made were good and quite high. We had a number of contacts who told us that they would like to see more vendors, so it’s important to have a true presentation of the full newspaper spectrum at a show like this,” said Dr Hauke Berndt, MD, ppi Media.
Gian Camillo Vezzoli, VP-product management, Atex Media stated that their cooperation with WAN-IFRA, like with the guided tours, was really good. And having the conferences proved a really good mix for both visitors and exhibitors. Euronews has recently started experimenting with 360-degree video – a technology that ties in nicely with the news organisation’s philosophy of empowering its audience. Duncan Hooper, editor-in-chief (digital platforms) of Euronews, shared some of the lessons his team has learned along the way. “We wanted to use VR because we think it can help us tell stories in a better way. Our philosophy is that we want to empower the audience,” he said.
Future of news media
At the final conference session of the World Publishing Expo 2016, representatives of different organisations presented their strategies for the future. Among the keynote speakers, Milou Klein Lankhorst described the book-publishing activities of a young, reader-funded in-depth-journalism site called The Correspondent, based in the Netherlands. “It might seem ironic that an otherwise online-only publishing operation finds it beneficial to publish in a tradition-bound medium. But books, she said, are a natural outcome of the journalistic process at The Correspondent and have numerous advantages for the organisation. Since the news site’s specialty is journalism with an emphasis on long reads and unusual perspectives, as opposed to breaking news, a book is just one step further.
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Milou Klein was followed on the stage by Çaglar Gögüs, CEO of Hürriyet, Turkey, a large, legacy-media organisation undergoing a digital transformation. In other sessions, a plethora of publishers shared experiences, tips for working with online video.
Award winners
Among the winners of the World Digital Media Awards, which recognised excellences in best news media publishing practices from all corners of the globe, Malayala Manorama Company (Kerala) won the ‘Best News Website’ accolade for its Manorama Online. Other winners were from the countries including Oman, South Africa, Mexico and many others from central Europe.
WAN-IFRA was grateful to all exhibitors, sponsors, visitors and speakers who made the expo happen. The next edition of the expo in 2017 will be held in Berlin.
CROMOMAN 4-1 at Namasthe
Telangana goes into production
Last year, manroland India made a breakthrough by clinching an order for CROMOMAN 4-1 newspaper press from Namasthe Telangana, a Telugu newspaper headquartered in Hyderabad (Telangana). The web press, designed suitably considering the Indian market conditions, started production at the newspaper from October 11, 2016. It’s a 4-tower 4-1 web press capable of versatile printing, such as 32 pages, two times 16 pages, 24 pages plus 8 pages and other possibilities of two books in parallel production. Also, the press features an additional quarter-fold for magazine printing in maximum production speed of 75,000 cph.
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Talking about the new manroland press, Damodar Rao, chairman & MD, Namasthe Telangana said, “With the new CROMOMAN 4-1 we perfectly focus on our future business; and now, we are able to handle various other print jobs in addition to our daily newspaper.” He added that the adoption of the press would make their soon-to-be-released English daily standout among others. Damodar himself pushed the ‘start’ button of the press for first production run.
CROMOMAN 4-1 is equipped with several automation systems, such as an automatic web up device or manroland web systems Inline Control Systems for colour register control with manual camera movement and cut-off control. PECOM control system in the press offers the best possible technology for easy operation and short makeready and changeover times. All this ensures perfect quality and productivity. “The investment in a highly advanced CROMOMAN 4-1 reflects the development of Namasthe Telangana in becoming a modern and state-of-the-art newspaper publisher,” remarked Sudeep Bhattacharjee, MD, manroland India Pvt Ltd. According to Srinivas Ch, MD, Namasthe Telangana said they have had a very close observation of the press, which is known for efficiency, energy-saving and high output.
