Shaping newspaper business model - World Newspaper Congress

Mark Contreras, SVP of EW Scripps, and Tim Brooks, MD of Guardian News and Media, will be sharing the stage at the 63rd World Newspaper Congress in Beirut looking at new business models for the future of newspapers. The congress will be held in Lebanon 7-10 June 2010.

New business strategies

Contreras, the incoming chairman of the Newspaper Association of America, and Brooks, the chairman of the Newspaper Publishers Association in the United Kingdom, will speak in a congress session dedicated to new business strategies. They will be joined by Olivier Fleurot, the CEO of Publicis Group for public relations, corporate and financial communications and events management and a former chief executive of the Financial Times, and Mohamed Alayyan, the chairman of Al Ghad Newspaper in Jordan, a pioneer in multimedia development.

Contreras is responsible for the newspaper division at E.W. Scripps, which operates daily and community newspapers in 14 markets and the Scripps Howard News Service. He recently cited these elements as influencing new newspaper business models: the evolution of behaviourally targeted advertising, the changing definition of relevant markets, stronger copyright and licensing protection, and creation of a uniform online audience standard.

Brooks is responsible for Guardian Media Group's core division, which publishes its flagship national newspapers the Guardian and the Observer as well as the Guardian.co.uk website, which attracts more than 36 million unique users a month. With a focus on expanding audiences beyond the UK borders the website has as many users in the United States as it does in the United Kingdom the Guardian is expanding the definition of a newspaper in the digital age.

Highlights of the congress:

"World trends in the newspaper industry: An update", the annual state of the industry address by Timothy Balding, director-general of WAN-IFRA Global Affairs.
Presentation of the best from the 2010 strategy reports of WAN-IFRA's major Shaping the Future of the Newspaper research project, analysing developments and opportunities in the press industry.
The 2010 Global Report on Innovations in Newspapers by the Innovation International Media Consulting Group.
Annual round table seminars on press freedom ("What's ahead for the independent Arab press"), digital media ("Digital Futures 2010"), and young readership development ("Winning strategies for engaging the young latest strategies").
A gala opening ceremony that includes presentation of the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize from WAN-IFRA. The 2010 Golden Pen will be presented to Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeid-Abadi.
A session on new content platforms, which will examine the surge in sales of electronic readers for books, notably 'tablets', and the multiplication of mobile devices with easy and comfortable access to news sites. These developments have given a new lease of life to the idea that wireless platforms may yet take a central role in news publishing. The session will examine current newspaper experiments in publishing on such devices and takes a whirlwind tour of what's now on the market.

The events will be opened by the Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri.

1,500 publishers, CEOs, managing directors, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives and their guests are expected to attend the congress, 17th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2010, the global meetings of the world's press organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and hosted by the An-Nahar newspaper.

For more information, go to www.wanlebanon2010.com.