The 20th annual WAN-IFRA India 2012 Conference, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), opened today with a call for the newspaper industry to embrace the multimedia future.
"Today, the media industry is facing different kinds of challenges from all fronts," said Jacob Mathew, the president of WAN-IFRA, in his opening address. "The initiatives taken by WAN-IFRA in organising the media event in Pune this year is most relevant to publishers and editors as the future belongs to those who accept new ideas and innovation. The tools and modes of news gathering, editing, printing and distribution are changing at a quick pace. We need to equip ourselves to face the new business challenges."
The two-day conference, which drew more than 350 delegates from 22 countries, was inaugurated by Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor-in-chief of The Post Publishing Public Co Ltd, Thailand, P G Pawar, chairman, Sakaal Media Group and Mathew, at Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre, Pune. The event is co-sponsored by The Indian Newspaper Society (INS).
"The newspaper business will coexist with other media platforms, as long as news publishers are open to change and put the interest of readers in the front" said Pichai Chuensuksawadi, delivering the keynote address of the conference.
"In order to grow, news publishers should be willing to take advantage of the growth of other media and equip their organisations with necessary knowledge, infrastructure and manpower" he said.
The WAN-IFRA India Conference is the biggest conference for news publishers in South Asia. More than 20 suppliers of various product and services to the newspaper printing and publishing industry are present. The conference has three parallel sessions - a Newsroom Summit for editors, a Crossmedia Advertising Summit for advertising managers and a Printing Summit for printing managers, aiming to provide direction for the future of the news publishing business.
The conference is covered live in multiblog. To follow the conference in real time, please visit www.wan-ifra.org/india2012_blog.
WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18 000 publications, 15 000 online sites and over 3000 companies in more than 120 countries. The organisation was created by the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry.
Go to: http://www.wan-ifra.org
