WARSAW, POLAND: Poland is a rare country where online advertising is already twice as large as newspaper advertising. If that's the future for other advertising markets, then the experiences of the Agora group provide important lessons for newspaper advertising departments everywhere.
Anna Podkowinska, the revenue director for Internet Agora, and Marek Tretyn, general director of Advertising Sales, represent the company's print and digital worlds. How they work together for digital and print success will be the subject of a major presentation at the World Newspaper Advertising Conference, to be held on 1 and 2 March in Prague, Czech Republic.
For the first time, Podkowinska and Tretyn will tell how they carried out a nationwide reorganisation of 20 local sales offices to reflect the changing Polish ad market. The presentation, "Structure follows strategy: Process integration digital & print," will cover the entire strategy, including offers, workflow and results.
Online media took 17% of the total Polish advertising market in the third quarter of 2011, compared with 8.5% for print, and online represents 42% of Agora's ad revenues. Both Agora's online and print businesses are profitable, with EBITDA margins of 10% for digital and 20% for print last year.
More than 300 newspaper advertising executives are expected to attend the 22nd World Newspaper Advertising Conference, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). The conference provides strategies and ideas to help newspapers protect and increase advertising revenues in highly competitive markets. Full conference details can be found here.
Other speakers include:
- Henrik Bruun, manager of Loyalty and Relations for NORDJYSKE Medier in Denmark, whose title alone illustrates a new approach to customers. Nordjyske was one of the first companies in the world to embrace media integration and has an array of dailies, weeklies, broadcast and mobile and web publications.
- Sharon Knitter, senior director of Mobile at Cars. com in the United States, whose is responsible for development of the company's mobile site and mobile apps designed to enhance service to car shoppers on the go. She also assists with the development of advertising products for manufacturers and dealers to help them reach this growing segment.
- Peter Zollman, founding principal of AIM Group and Classified Intelligence, one of the most inspirational speakers in the media business today. Zollman has been in the news business for 35 years and been actively involved in interactive media for more than 20. He is executive editor and publisher of Classified Intelligence Report, and has written many industry "white papers" and special reports about interactive media and classified ads. Zollman conducts workshops for dot-coms and newspapers and has worked with many of the leading companies globally in the classified advertising field.
- Adrian Norris, managing editor for Design and Presentation for Canada's Globe & Mail, whose new look was awarded best redesign internationally by the Society of News Design. Norris, with extensive industry experience on three continents, is a leading expert in newspaper and web production, digital and print integration and web design.
- Shailesh Gupta, marketing director for Jagran Prakashan, which has "preferred partner status" with leading media agencies as the most read and circulated daily in India. Gupta will describe the company's new approach to newspaper marketing, including how it works in an advisory capacity to many advertisers throughout the country.
- Jeffrey Litvack, general manager for Global Product Development for The Associated Press, who is responsible for identifying and assessing new digital revenue opportunities for AP worldwide. Under his leadership, AP has launched the AP Mobile News Network, and iCircular, the first mobile digital preprint business for newspapers.
- Constantine Kamaras, vice chairman of 24 Media, Greece's leading digital media group both in terms of total users and advertising revenues. Its portfolio includes more than a dozen premier brands as well as content and ad sales partnerships with global properties such as Dailymotion, Myspace and NBA. He was previously publisher and CEO of Sport.gr, one of the largest sports portals in Greece.
- Rob Paterson, group managing director of Friday Media in the United Kingdom and former chair of the International Classified Media Association. Paterson is part of a management team that took a small regional print classified business and transformed it into a multi-product, 70 business group that today operates in more than 30 countries with a predominantly online portfolio that stretches from jobs in aviation to a guide of the best pubs in London.
- Plus many more.
For the evolving conference programme, registration details and other information, please consult http://www.wan-ifra.org/advertising2012.
The conference will be preceded by a one-day workshop on 29 February on how to develop and implement a multimedia ad sales strategy. The programme is designed to provide advertising executives with a simple but comprehensive set of planning tools for multimedia advertising strategy development. Details can be found here.
WAN-IFRA will also be conducting a Study Tour to leading European media houses from 23 to 27 April 2012. Participants in the "360° Advertising Sales Strategies" study tour will save 250 Euros on registration for the World Newspaper Advertising Conference. For details, click here.
