Günter Grass to speak at 17th World Editors Forum

Grass, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999, is known for his political engagement with issues such as the Nazi past, the arms race, environmentalism, racism, and the unification of Germany.

The World Editors Forum calls 2010 "The Tablet Year" and has dedicated much of its annual conference to how mobile distribution is changing the news business.

Giovanni di Lorenzo attends forum

The WEF has also announced that Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor-in-chief of Die Zeit and one of Germany's best-known journalists, will present a keynote address on "Why I Believe in Print." Di Lorenzo argues that as long as editors are unable to sufficiently monetise digital content, they should work even harder to defend and diversify print.

Di Lorenzo is not opposed to technological progress: he will also talk about the promise the iPad and other tablets hold for newspapers.

The conference will provide editors with new business models, an overview of trends in the industry, and practical information they can use in their newsrooms today.

IFRA Expo

The World Editors Forum will run alongside the IFRA Expo, an international exhibition of the news publishing and media industries. In addition to the global exhibition, the expo in Hamburg features several conferences, seminars and meetings for news executives.

For more information on the IFRA Expo, which runs 4-6 October, go to www.ifraexpo.com.

World Editors Forum speakers include:

• Bart Brouwers, managing editor for hyperlocal Online Media at the Telegraaf Media Group in the Netherlands. Brouwers, who will talk about using crowd-sourcing and social networks in hyperlocal news, is responsible within TMG for building an online network of hyperlocal platforms for news and other information.
  
• Rainer Esser, publisher of Die Zeit, the leading weekly newspaper in Germany. Esser, who will speak about content monetisation, has been involved in the evolution of the paper's newsroom and has overseen substantial subscriber growth.
  
• Claudio Giua, director of development and innovation at Gruppo Editoriale l' Espresso in Italy, who will lead a special workshop on "Our News and Google News: How can we cooperate?" Giua was a reporter and editor for 20 years at La Repubblica and at local dailies, then founder and general manager of Kataweb, the digital division of Gruppo Editoriale l'Espresso.
  
• Eric Hazan, a partner with McKinsey & Company, who will present the WEF-McKinsey 2010 Newsroom Barometer, a survey of editors-in-chief from around the world. Hazan is a leader of McKinsey's Global Media and Entertainment practice, with a major focus on print newspapers and the magazine industry.
  
• Sylvie Kauffmann, editor-in-chief of France's Le Monde, who will participate in a session on new storytelling models for newspapers in the digital age. Kauffman became the first female editor-in-chief of Le Monde in early 2010.
  
• Edward Roussel, digital editor for the Telegraph Media Group in the United Kingdom, who has been involved in restructuring the Telegraph's newsroom over the past four years, increasing the newspaper group's focus on digital media.
  
• Paul Steiger, the editor-in-chief and founder of ProPublica in the United States, the largest investigative journalism operation in the country. Steiger, who will speak about new ways to fund quality journalism, is a former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal.
  
• Alfredo Triviño, director of creative projects for News International in the United Kingdom, who will speak about new content platforms and their value for newspaper companies.
  
• Gregor Waller, VP for strategy and innovation and a board member of Axel Springer's WELT Group in Germany, who will speak about new content platforms and whether they represent a breakthrough for newspaper companies.

For more information, go to www.wefhamburg2010.com.