Newspaper & Mailroom

Axel Springer and Guardian CEOs among experts opening World Publishing Expo in Berlin

Wednesday 28. August 2013 - Four top industry experts will take the stage to discuss the future of news publishing during the opening ceremony of this year's World Publishing Expo on 7 October in Berlin.

Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Guardian CEO Andrew Miller, WAN-IFRA President and Stampen Chairman Tomas Brunegård, and US-based author and analyst Ken Doctor, will offer Expo visitors their views on our industry’s future.
The starting ceremony will give participants a taste of the wealth of strategic insights being offered in Berlin, which among other events, include two premium conferences: the 12th International Newsroom Summit and the 6th Tablet and App Summit as well as a Berlin Start-Up Tour. The events also include Shaping the Future of News Publishing Forums on digital printing strategies, new revenue streams and audience analytics.
The opening will conclude with a presentation of the winners of the first WAN-IFRA/World Editors Forum Media Hack Day aimed at cracking the codes for the news of the future. The Hack Day will be conducted in partnership with Axel Springer and Storyful and is supported by CCI.
With more than 300 exhibitors and 8,000 visitors expected in Berlin for the World Publishing Expo in October, the event will once again live up to its reputation as the largest global trade exhibition for the news publishing and media industry.
Open Media Innovation Hub
WAN-IFRA’s Open Media Innovation Hub is an initiative designed to share new ideas and to provide a platform for publishers to network with innovators from within the industry and beyond. The Hub will be organising a hackathon during the Expo, and will showcase itself during a Media Port session that will feature: Ulrich Schmitz, Chief Technology Officer at Axel Springer, Germany, Johnny Ryan, Chief Innovation Officer at the Irish Times, Helene Juhola, Director R&D at the Federation of the Finnish Media Industry (Finnmedia), Rick van Dijk, Operational Director for Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers in the Netherlands, and Ole Molgaard, Program Director at CBS Executive, Denmark.
Tours to Start Ups
The Expo will take advantage of Berlin’s reputation as an incubator for start-up companies by organising a tour for participants to meet and network with these innovators.
The Exhibition
The World Publishing Expo (IFRA Expo and Conference) will be held at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds from 7 to 9 October next. The Expo, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) for more than four decades, showcases the latest technologies and brings together suppliers to the industry with its thought leaders and decision makers. It is one of the world’s best venues for the latest developments in print, workflow efficiency, social-local-mobile, revenue generation, and more.
Conferences for media professionals: both paid and free
More than 200 speakers and presenters will be featured over the Expo’s three days, in both free and paid-for events.
The free events, to be held on four “Media Port” stages scattered throughout the Expo, will feature collaborations between publishers and suppliers and provide case studies of what can help publishers now. The paid events are for top-level industry executives and editors and will discuss strategies for the future of news publishing.
These premium events include the 6th Tablet and App Summit on 7 and 8 October, the World Editors Forum International Newsroom Summit on 8 and 9 October, and three Shaping the Future of News Publishing (SFN) Forums on digital printing opportunities (7 October), audience analytics (8 October) and new revenue streams (9 October).
The Tablet & App Summit will focus on the next generation of apps and tablets and present successful cases in what appears to be a golden age of experimentation. Among others speakers, Mario Garcia will share some of his iPad Design Lab ideas. Other speakers include Guy Crevier, President and Publisher of La Presse in Canada, which has invested millions in tablet strategy, and Audra Martin, Vice President of The Economist Digital, which has been reinvented for mobile platforms.
The World Editors Forum’s 12th International Newsroom Summit aims to provide strategies for breaking down barriers in the newsroom and increasing collaborations between editorial and technology and among broadcast, print and digital operations. Speakers include Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of Strategy for News Corp., Kerry Northrup, creator of the US$2.5 million Newsplex prototype convergent newsroom-studio and currently the Turner Multimedia Professor at Western Kentucky University, and Anthony De Rosa, Editor-in-Chief of Circa, the first born-on-mobile news publisher.
Three, one-day Shaping the Future of News Publishing Forums offer case studies of successful initiatives in digital printing , developing new revenue streams , and making the most of audience analytics .
The Open “Media Port” Stages will focus on four issues of key concern to news publishers: So-Lo-Mo (social-local-mobile), Power of Print, Workflow efficiency, and Revenue. Exhibitors and publishers alike will be demonstrating best practices in presentations that will continue non-stop throughout the three-day Expo.
Workshops
The Expo will be providing participants with the opportunity to attend three workshops: one for German speakers on Cross Media Sales (10 October), and four in English, on Search Engine Optimisation , Lean Manufacturing , Smart Paywalls , and a tutorial on improving newspaper color quality for the International Newspaper Color Quality Club.
Social Events
WAN-IFRA events are always known for their conviviality, and the Expo is no exception. The Expo will feature a News Publishers’ Night at the architectural monument Umspannwerk Kreuzberg, a former electricity generating facility that is now home to a variety of companies from the creative and web industry. Other events include a Women in Media event and an Apéritif Français.