Leadership for newspapers: What skills do publishers need?

How to find and nurture newspaper leaders and provide them with the skills they need are among the most pressing challenges facing the industry, and the subject of a major session at the World Newspaper Congress, to be held from 12 to 15 October in Vienna, Austria.

"News industry leaders have to understand not only that the story is more important than the distribution channel, but also that they have to lead an even more important paradigm shift," says Ulrik Haagerup, a Congress speaker who heads the news division at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and has become a renown global expert on cross-media publishing leadership.

Too much bad news is... bad news

"News in the future needs to be more than bad stories angled only on conflicts, drama, crooks and people to feel sorry for ... news in the future needs to be about solutions and inspiration to the problems facing our customers, and the societies journalism are meant to cover," he says.

Haagerup, a member of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism, will be joined in the session on leadership by Tom Cummings, co-author of "Leadership Landscapes" and a founder of the Executive Learning Partnership in the United States, Johnny Hustler, managing director of Archant Regional in the United Kingdom, and more speakers to be announced.

More than 1200 publishers, CEOs, managing directors, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives are expected in Vienna for the Congress, World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo, the global annual summit meetings of the world's press organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). Full details, including the programme and registration information, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/6x223jy.

Other Congress highlights include:

• A session focused on how the newspaper industry responds to rapid and constant change, featuring Rolv Erik Ryssdal, CEO of Norway-based Schibsted, Eugen Russ, CEO of Vorarlberger Medienhaus in Austria, Jeongdo Hong, chief strategy officer of JoongAng Media Network in Korea, Hanzade Dogan Boyner, chairwoman of Dogan Gazetecilik, Turkey's biggest media group, Damian Kudryavtsev, CEO of Kommersant Publishing House in Russia, and Wilfred David Kiboro, Group CEO of Nation Media Group in Kenya.

• A session dedicated to new revenue opportunities and business models to preserve the financial sustainability and financial independence of news publishers. The session will include: Juan Luis Cebrián, CEO of Spain's Prisa Group, Gregor Waller, former head of strategy and innovation for Germany's Axel Springer, and other speakers to be announced.

• A session dedicated to digital innovations, featuring one of the most innovative publishers in Asia, the first tablet-only newspaper, and industry 'frenemies' Facebook and Google, to examine trends and success factors in digital, what new business and revenue models are promising and the role of social media. Speakers include Justin Osofsky, director of strategic partnerships for Facebook, Mariam Mammen Mathew, chief operating officer of Manorama Online in India, Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, director of marketing for The Daily and Madhav Chinnappa, strategic partner development Manager for Google Books & News.

• An examination of new business opportunities, both traditional for newspaper companies and entirely new as well. As the newspaper business is no long based on the simple revenue model of advertising and circulation revenue, many new business and revenue models are emerging. Session speakers include Ravi Dhariwal, CEO of The Times of India, Soheil Dastyari, CEO of Gruner+Jahr Corporate Editors in Germany and Urs Gossweiler, CEO of Gossweiler Media in Switzerland.

• The annual presentation of the Innovations in Newspapers World Report, prepared for WAN-IFRA by Innovation Media Consulting, which this year will focus on: how to make pay walls work; how to re-invent narratives and workflows for the mobile news experience; the impact and implications of the iPad; and newspaper engagement with social media. And, as always, the presentation will be illustrated with case studies from around the world.

• An update of World Press Trends, the annual report from WAN-IFRA that is the primary and most authoritative source of data on the newspaper industry worldwide. Covering all 233 countries and territories were newspapers are published, the report and presentation provide vital statistics and analyses of the global industry as well as individual markets.

The events, hosted by the Austrian Newspaper Association (VÖZ), will be accompanied by a rich social programme, tours, meetings with local and international political, business and cultural leaders, and more.

The Congress and Editors Forum is being held this year in conjunction with IFRA Expo, the largest global trade exhibition for the news publishing and media industry. The Expo will proceed the Congress and Forum, giving newspaper professionals the opportunity to benefit from a mega 'Newspaper Week' event. Full details on all the events can be found at http://www.worldnewspaperweek.org.