World News Media Congress comes to Africa

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It will be only the second time the World News Media Congress has come to the African continent following the success of the Cape Town event in 2007. The Congress is part of a broader plan to expand activities in Africa and connect with colleagues who are leading the media transformation across the continent.

Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA, said: “We are thrilled to be bringing the Congress back to Africa. Our local partners are outlining groundbreaking support for our ambitious plans and Durban - an award-winning city in one of the most attractive tourist destinations in South Africa – is the ideal venue. News publishing companies in South Africa are demonstrating a real thirst for innovation that we will have a taste of during our upcoming Digital Media Africa conference on 28-30 September 2016. This will be a fantastic kick-start in preparation for the Congress next year.”

The events - to be held in Johannesburg in September 2016 and Durban in June 2017 - are part of a broader expansion of WAN-IFRA’s activities in Africa.

In January of this year, the Women In News (WIN) initiative, a highly regarded leadership programme for women media professionals, began its sixth year on the continent. Bringing together middle and senior managers from newspapers in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as a team of coaches and mentors from local and international markets, the programme empowers women journalists and editors to contribute to the editorial agenda and progress to greater levels of decision-making within their media.

The goal of the project, which is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is to assist women media professionals who are under-represented in top management positions to excel in their careers. The initiative also engages the media industry at the global level to sensitise and promote change from within, and forms part of WAN-IFRA’s Gender and Media Freedom Strategy.

The strategy combines WAN-IFRA’s global experience in running advocacy and development initiatives in support of media freedom and democracy with the first-hand knowledge of the impact gender-based programmes can have on media and society.

More information on WAN-IFRA’s current Media Freedom work can be found at www.wan-ifra.org.

World News Media Congress

More than 1,000 publishers, chief editors, managing directors, CEOs and other senior news publishing executives are expected to attend the 69th World News Media Congress, the 24th World Editors Forum and the 27th World Advertising Forum in Durban. Next year’s annual global meeting of the world's press will include sessions on strategy, revenue, and editorial development, research and innovation, as well as issues related to small and mid-sized publishers.

The World News media Congress will also bring hundreds of participants from WAN-IFRA’s Media Freedom programmes together with Congress delegates for an exclusive international summit focussing on gender in the news industry. WAN-IFRA’s Africa Media Freedom Committee, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark under the Strengthening Media and Society programme, will also direct advocacy actions and targeted campaigns highlighting press freedom issues on the continent in the lead up to, and during Congress.

Other new features for the World News media Congress 2017 will include a thoughtful analysis of the World News Media Outlook, a global industry survey  providing news executives with the cutting-edge intelligence needed to benchmark company performance and to help devise innovative strategies to ensure future business success. The Outlook, together with the World Press Trends annual report, help to better understand and quantify the news  industry's responses to the challenges faced.

Registration for the 69th World News Media Congress in Durban, from 7th to 9th June 2017 is now open at www.wan-ifra.org.