Newspaper & Mailroom

London Meeting To Focus on Digital News Business

Monday 08. April 2013 - Digital Media Europe Examines Paid Content, Social & Mobile, Business Innovation and Advertising

For three days in April, the digital news media world will gather in London for a meeting focused on what news companies need to do to thrive on digital. It isn’t an easy task.
Digital Media Europe, to be held from 15 to 17 April at the 200 Aldersgate conference venue near St Paul’s in London, will bring together publishers, editors and leading international media experts for discussions on mobile and social news delivery, business innovation, paid content, digital advertising and the future of news
“Our meeting is aimed at nothing less than getting new ideas, recognising best practices and identifying sustainable strategies for news media businesses,” said Stig Nordqvist, Executive Director of Publishing & Digital for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), which is organising the conference.
“Let’s face it, the shifting media landscape is proving to be a daunting challenge to news businesses. But, thankfully, there are media companies that are finding their way through innovation to reaching wider audiences and raising significant digital revenue,” he said.
Digital Media Europe will begin with a day-long focus on mobile and social media. The second day is dedicated to paid content strategies and business innovation. The third day will provide a look at digital advertising innovations.
Conference highlights include:
Monday, April 15, Mobile and Social Monday
– Opening addresses by Andy Wiedlin, Chief Revenue Officer, BuzzFeed, responsible for leading BuzzFeed’s revenue growth strategy, and former publisher Fernando Magalhães Portella, now Diretor Presidente of Jereissati Participações S.A in Brazil (net revenues of US$ 16 billion).
– Rebecca McPheters, CEO of McPheters & Co, will provide a worldwide tour of trends and best practices in App development.
– A mobile business panel with Gabriele Ottino, Project Manager Business Development at Tamedia (Switzerland); Federico Vittadello, Digital Innovation Lab at RCS MediaGroup (Italy) and Anthony Sullivan, Group Product Manager at The Guardian.
– What’s next in social: creating social experiences that stretch traditional media platforms. Anthony Rose, co-founder and CTO of zeebox, will discuss the possibilities in a Q&A with Sarah Marshall, Technology Editor at journalism.co.uk. (Watch a video preview here).
– Alternative business models and the impact of consumerism. Matt Gierhart, Global Head of Social at OgilvyAction, will moderate a panel discussion on taking a more consumer focused approach (Watch a video preview here). The panel will include Frederik Frede, Creative Director and founder of Freunde von Freunden (Germany); Johannes Kleske, co-founder, Third Wave (Germany), Paul Hood, Digital Director, Archant (United Kingdom); and Yoon Sterkenburg, Head of Online Marketing & Analytics at TMG Online (UK).
Tuesday, April 16, Paid Content and Differentiation
– Paid content strategies from Donata Hopfen, Managing Director of Bild Digital; Paul Smurl, Vice President, NYTimes.com Paid Products, Brooke Christofferson, Vice President of Market and Business Development at Republic Media (Gannett), Thomas Schultz-Homberg, Head of Electronic Media, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frédérique Lancien, marketing director L’Equipe.
– Tools and services related to paid content and implementation with Tony Haile, CEO of Chartbeat, Sue Brooks, Director of Video Transformation, Associated Press (video preview here), and Matthew Guest and Paul Lee from Deloitte.
– Expert tips from first-hand experience developing paid content strategies that work, with Stig Nordqvist and WAN-IFRA’s Frenemies Consulting team.
Business Innovation
– What’s hot in classifieds? Moderated by Katja Riefler, AIM Group principal and director for EMEA. Stéphanie Delestre, CEO of Qapa.fr, will talk about a new model that disrupts the audience hierarchy of France’s leading job boards. Dave Martin, Pocket Recruit co-founder (United Kingdom), will talk about when mobile serves recruitment needs. The panel will also feature Dominic Bönisch, entrepreneur – online classified markets, joblocal (Germany).
– Xen Lategan, Founder of PXi Ventures, will present product journeys for Vinepeek and Tagstar.
– Open Data with ScraperWiki. The organisation, which fosters an active community of open data coders and data journalists, was founded in 2009 by Julian Todd and Aine McGuire and won the Knight News Challenge. ScraperWiki closed a million dollar round of investment last year.
– Johnny Ryan, Chief Innovation Officer for The Irish Times, will show how to make beautiful, data-driven graphics and resell them as templates on the GetBulb Marketplace.
– First international presentation for journalism start up Newsmodo by its Australian founder, Rakhal Ebeli.
Wednesday, April 17, Advertising
Three areas of focus: accelerate understanding of new digital advertising formats and practices, innovate in solutions and justify higher ad prices.
– Q&A session with James Bromley, former Managing Director of MailOnline, on growing digital advertising, Tom Jenen, Head of Marketplace Development for Northern Europe at Google, Pierre Conte, Président of FigaroMedias and Martin van der Meij, Business Development Manager, Automated Trading at Telegraaf Media Groep.