News media evolution: Start the year with new skills and knowledge

Four major regional and global events are scheduled between January and April, providing an array of presentations on everything from maximising print profits to the latest digital developments. A full programme of study tours is also planned in 2013, covering print production, newsrooms, digital advertising and publishing strategies.

These include:

• Digital Media Europe 2013, a major conference on new media developments from across the continent that focuses on managing media industry change, growing digital revenue from all sources, and providing ideas for innovation from pure digital players. The event will be held in London from 15 to 17 April 2013.

Confirmed speakers include Donata Hopfen, managing director of Bild Digital in Germany, which will introduce paid digital content in 2013; Pierre Conte, president of FigaroMedias, the advertising branch of Group Figaro in France, which makes 20% of its revenue from digital; and Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, a leading real-time data service whose clients include CNN, The New York Times, Gilt Groupe and Starbucks. Conference details can be found here.

• Printing Summit 2013, which focuses on maximising the power of print, which remains the generator of most newspaper company revenues. The event, to be held in Hamburg, Germany, on 19 and 20 March, will examine printing process and business innovations, design, environmental issues, cost savings and more.

Confirmed speakers include Adrian Norris, creative director for Canada's Globe and Mail; Josef Konrad Schiessl, technical director for Germany's Süddeutscher Verlag, one of the most modern and efficient printing facilities in Europe; Takehiko Murase, engineering centre manager for Asahi Printech in Japan, which prints the Asahi Shimbun, the world's second largest newspaper with more than 7.6 million daily copies; and many more. Conference details can be found here.

• Study Tour: Strictly digital - SXSW Festival and West Coast Innovators, which will take a small, exclusive group of news media executives to the South by Southwest Interactive Accelerator Festival in Austin, Texas, and then to visit pure digital leaders in San Francisco, California. Full details of the event, to be held from 10 to 15 March, can be found here.

• The 8th Middle East Conference, to be held on 26 and 27 February in Dubai, will present an overview of news media innovations from around the globe for Middle East audiences.

Speakers include: Mario Garcia, CEO & founder, Garcia Media Group in the United States, Mohammad Alayyan, publisher and chairman of United Jordan Press in Jordan; Ravindra Dhariwal, CEO of The Times of India; and many others. Conference details can be found here.

• Digital Media India 2013, a conference and workshop for South Asian news media executives that presents successful digital publishing initiatives and strategies from around the world. The event will be held in New Delhi on 28 to 30 January.

Confirmed speakers include: Johnson Goh, vice president for Strategic Marketing & Head of Singapore Press Holdings Online Classifieds, who will present SPH's mobile strategies; Anita Nayyar, CEO of Havas Media for India & South Asia, who will present a digital advertising case study from an agency point of view; Stig Nordqvist, executive director, Emerging Digital Platforms at WAN-IFRA, who will present a digital trends overview; and other speakers to be announced. Conference details can be found here.

For the full 2013 calendar of WAN-IFRA events, including the 65th World Newspaper Congress, 20th World Editors Forum and 23rd World Newspaper Advertising Forum from 2 to 5 June in Bangkok, Thailand, go to http://www.wan-ifra.org/events.