Newspaper & Mailroom
Newspaper Trade Fair Closes on Successful Note, Despite Economy
Friday 16. October 2009 - Some 6,700 visitors from 78 countries visited the four-day IFRA Expo 2009, the worlds largest trade fair for the newspaper industry, which closed in Vienna on Thursday.
“It is safe to say that the number of participants exceeded expectations, and it is gratifying that, in the midst of a global economic crisis, that so many people chose to make the trip to Vienna. We expect to do even better next year in Hamburg,” said Reiner Mittelbach, co-CEO of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the organiser of the event.
“What weve seen here is an industry responding well to the changing media landscape, and seeking solutions, both technical and strategic, to ensure profitability in the years ahead, in print and online.”
The 39th annual exhibition included 284 exhibitors from 27 countries, including printing press manufacturers, editorial and advertising system providers, new media providers and other suppliers to the newspaper industry. The Expo covered more than 11,000 square meters of space at the Reed Messe Wien Exhibition Centre.
Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom were the most represented countries among visitors to the Expo. One-quarter of the visitors were managing directors or CEOs, 13 percent were technical or production directors, and 13 percent were editors.
The event was accompanied by a series of seminars on a wide variety of newspaper topics, bringing top newspaper executives together to discuss the future of the industry. More from these events can be found on the WAN-IFRA Multiblog at www.wan-ifra.org/blogs/ifraexpo09.
WAN-IFRA presented the winners of the XMA Cross Media Awards 2009 at the exhibition. The focus of the awards was “cross media design and branding”. This international media prize, presented for the fourth time, is awarded for especially successful examples of publishing on multiple channels (print, online, mobile, event, etc.). More on the competition, including the XMA 2009 Winners Book, can be found at www.ifra.com/xma. Publishing houses from Croatia, Germany, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom received awards.
The 2010 Expo will be held in Hamburg, Germany, from 4 to 6 October 2010, with a one-day conference to follow on 7 October.
Comments from participants
Gabriella Franzini, Group CEO of EidosMedia:
“Certainly we had less companies than in the past, but the ones who came were here for real business. And, we had meetings with new companies, big companies, for the first time. So we are pleased.”
Klaus Schmidt, Vice President, Director of Marketing/Corporate Communications, Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft (KBA):
“I think everybody in the industry has to come together in an Expo like this. It makes sense to have these meetings because you can meet all the suppliers, many of the customers. The cost-benefit ratio of exhibitions like this is good.”
“The industry will change, the role of newspapers will change, but the newspaper will still be the backbone of many activities. The core brand is the newspaper, and the brand can carry online activities.”
Michael Medalyer, spokesperson for AbitibiBowater:
“In terms of the show itself, this is our sixth year and our participation has vindicated every reason we had for exhibiting here six years ago; it is clearly the meeting place for not just our continental European customers but for customers from the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and we treat the Expo very seriously. We fly in a big contingent of people from our headquarters in Montreal, all our agents from Europe, a team that looks after sales in Latin America and Asia Pacific – and they have all been non-stop busy.”
Roberto Antoniotti, CEO Content Management Division & Southern Region, ATEX:
“I think that, under the current economic conditions, this show is better than others, because customers who are paying the cost to come to Vienna are seriously looking for something. So it means something important is on the agenda.”
“What I see as positive for all of us is, weve been having much more business driven conversations, and thats a good sign. Despite the economic issues the industry is facing, Ive met people with the will to change it, to fight, and none of them are considering death in terms of the business were in.”
René Luchsinger, Marketing Director, ferag:
“As far as we are concerned, the IFRA Expo, together with drupa, are the most important events to show our capabilities, our image and our culture. One way to do that is to enthuse our customer base and you can only do that by showing the technology.”
Ronald Marien, Director Marketing Communications, Agfa Graphics:
“Im positively surprised, in the context. There were customers who visited the show who we thought were not going to come. We really think we need to be here, because the WAN-IFRA Expo is the place for publishers to catch up with everything and meet their suppliers.”
Steve Kirk, Head of Marketing, Centre of Excellence Printing, ABB:
“It has been a very good Expo for us. When I look at our reservations, we had at least as many visits as in the past couple of years. I suspect there has been a slight reduction in the number of people walking around, the spontaneous visits, but the number of pre-arranged visits has been very high. Its been a rewarding week for us. The IFRA Expo is the most important trade show for us. We meet all our customers and potential customers in four days, this is very efficient for us.”
Thomas Hauser, Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications, manroland:
“The presence of our customers was a little over expectations, and there have been some few, weak signals for recovery.”
He said the tone of the Expo was set during the opening ceremony. “They spoke positively about the future of our industry and especially print. From my point of view that was an inspirational and motivational message for the audience.”
Olaf Schwemmer, Managing Director of Myllykoski Sales GmbH:
“The show has been better than I expected. There were a lot of customers on Monday – you often have a good day on Tuesday but I didnt expect Monday to be so good and I was surprised to see so many here.”
Hans Walla, Marketing Manager, Prepress Solutions, Graphic Systems Division, Fujifilm:
“We were a little bit about nervous about what it might be here but our decision to participate was quite clear. We are dedicated to the newspaper industry and we have to be here. Regarding future participation, we made our decision to participate next year, and we based our decision on our experience in this Expo. We had a busy Monday, which in the past had been a slow start, a very busy Tuesday, and a very busy Wednesday morning. We are happy with this IFRA Expo, with Vienna and with the cooperation with WAN-IFRA.”
Kim Svendsen, Marketing Manager, CCI Europe:
“Weve been doing demonstrations back-to-back for two days, with very few open spots. We came here with a new release, and weve had a very, very good response. The numbers (of visitors) has been down, but its the qualified people who are here. We dont see one newspaper showing up with 20 or 25 people, it is four or five, but its a question of getting to talk to the right people. This show is definitely the right place to meet the right people.”
Frauke Kasting, Marketing Manager, Press & Media Relations, vjoon, Germany:
“We did quite a lot of demonstrations here and made contacts. It was really a bit above expectations. We thought it was a good show, we even closed some deals, including one with Computerwelt, an Austrian bi-weekly that wanted to include a community on their website and wanted an editorial system that can hep bloggers.”
Stefan Wegdell, Managing Director of Nip Control, Sweden:
“This has been the best show weve ever had. Incredible. We have had a lot of high-level visitors and first-timers.”
Dirk Neubauer, Managing Director of evolver, Germany:
“The shows been great for us. Weve had a lot of appointments, and also talked with some people we have not had contact with before.”
Joachim Melzer, Sales Manager, FUNKINFORM, Germany:
“Were very satisfied. We have been very busy up to now. We see customers looking for new investments.”