World News Media Congress expecting delegates from 80 countries

Being held from 1-3 June 2015 at the Washington Hilton, DC, it will offer news media executives an opportunity to find fresh solutions for the revenue and editorial challenges of digital transition.

The events will take advantage of the location by offering the latest strategies from major US news media, but will also feature presentations from Brazil, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Norway, the UK, India and many other countries and markets on four continents.

"This network of colleagues provides an opportunity to hear directly from news executives from far-flung places who have developed successful strategies that are easily transferable to other markets," said Larry Kilman, the Secretary General of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the organiser of the events.

"News executives tend to look close to home for ideas and strategies but WAN-IFRA and the Congress afford them the opportunity to hear about developments from around the world, from executives and editors with exciting approaches and ideas to share."

Speakers
Some of the confirmed speakers include:

• Arunabh Das Sharma, President of the Times Group in India and an expert in handling business strategies across a range of markets and platforms. He has worked in both mature and emerging market environments in India, China and the US and will share his experiences at the Congress

• Marta Gleich, Executive Editor of Zero Hora, the leading newspaper of the South of Brazil, known for its digital innovation and for opening space for its readers

• Martin Baron, Executive Editor of The Washington Post, who oversees The Post's print and digital operations. Under his leadership, The Post newsroom won two Pulitzer Prizes in 2014, including the prestigious public service medal for a series of stories based on classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden that exposed the National Security Agency's massive global surveillance programs.

• Paul Smurl, GM for Core Digital Products at The News York Times, who has spent the past decade at the Times in digital product development, paid content, advertising sales, strategic planning and business development roles

• Rita Chinyoka, Publisher and CEO of Alpha Media Holdings, the largest independent newspaper group in Zimbabwe that prints, markets and distributes four publications on various platforms, including print, online and mobile. In a country where mobile is emerging as the preferred news medium, the company has embarked on a 'mobile first' digital strategy that has resulted in two innovative digital products for mobile devices

• Torry Pedersen, the CEO and Editor-in-chief of Verdens Gang, the leading news site/newspaper in Norway that is among the most profitable news organisations in Europe

• Troy Young, President of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, who oversees the digital content, technology, operations, product and business development strategies for 18 brand websites such as Cosmopolitan, Popular Mechanics, ELLE, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar and Seventeen, which attract more than 100 million unique visitors and 740 million page views monthly

• Vivian Schiller, former President and CEO of National Public Radio and former global chair of news at Twitter and one of the world's most compelling executives at the forefront of media and technology

For more information, go to www.wan-ifra.org/DC2015.