Newspaper ad departments look to 2010

The event annually draws hundreds of newspaper advertising executives from around the globe, who meet to discuss increasing advertising revenues at a time when competition has never been greater.

The event, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), includes content from WAN-IFRA's global newspaper and media research projects and features the most effective advertising strategies from among WAN-IFRA's 18,000 newspaper members worldwide.

The conference programme and other details can be found at www.ifra.com/worldadvertising.

Confirmed speakers include:

Annelies Van Den Belt, Group CEO of Russian-based SUP Fabrik, an online media company that includes an online sales house which sells both Russian and foreign media sites including Yahoo, the BBC, and a number of newspaper sites. Van Den Belt, who is the former digital media director for News International and new media director for the Telegraph Group in the UK, will participate in a session that provides an economic outlook for advertising.

Moritz Wuttke, CEO and founder of NextMediaInitiatives, based in China and Switzerland, and the former CEO for Publicitas in Asia and China, whose presentation will focus on the impact of Google and Yahoo on the online advertising market and what publishers can do to increase their online ad revenues.

Ross Biggam, the director general of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT), who will present lessons and advertising strategies from the television industry as it undergoes transformation in the multimedia age.

Michael Paustian, the deputy editor-in-chief of Bild, Europe's largest newspaper, which is a leader in user-generated content, and user-generated advertising strategies. Bild has created an advertising portal on bild.de where users upload, manage and pay for their own advertisements. Paustian's presentation will examine the advertising portal, "Bild Dir Deine Werbung", which was launched with Germany's biggest pitch in advertising history.

John Bradshaw, CEO of MFA in the United Kingdom and Portugal, who will examine hyperlocal and social network advertising opportunities.

Mark Rix, CEO of Associated Newspapers' Dubai subsidiary, Catchpole Communications, the publisher of 7 Days, and former managing director of MEN Media in the United Kingdom, who will take part in a training and development panel discussion. Other panellists include Lynn Cunningham, human resources director of Telegraph Media Group, Eamonn Byrne, business director at WAN-IFRA, Paustian, and Van Den Belt.

More speakers will be announced.