IFRA Magazine 2009-01

magazine www.iframagazine.com

J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9 EUR 8 / US$ 10 English edition D20835E

Reducing costs and internal reorganisation took a big leap in IFRA Magazine‘s annual survey as two of the most pressing budgetary and strategic issues facing news publishers in 2009.

Plus 5 ideas for getting the most from IFRA membership Members play an active role in all of IFRA‘s activities

Middle East and Beyond the Printed Word recaps Both events carry a familiar ring: converge resources

DECISION-MAKERS‘ GUIDE 2009

40 top ideas for news publishers

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01.2009

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OUR VIEWPOINT

Idea No. 41: a hybrid print-ePaper layout IFRA Magazine uses unique design by Mario García Add this to the 40 other top ideas presented in this our annual Decision-makers’ Guide for News Publishers: Make your layout work as well for e-readers as it does for print readers.

We are proud to relaunch IFRA Magazine this month with a groundbreaking new design based on that intuitive concept. We are also proud that our new look comes courtesy of long-time IFRA friend Mario García. It is appropriate that the world’s leading news publication designer has redesigned the world’s leading magazine for news publishers.

Mario’s inspiration sprang from the phenomenal circulation growth IFRA Magazine has achieved over the past three years since introducing ePaper technology. While our printed edition remains unrivalled for impact in the industry, our ePaper edition has expanded IFRA’s reach manyfold. Since 2006, ePaper has helped us nearly double the circulation it took the previous 40 years to build in print alone.

As more people started using IFRA Magazine ePaper, however, we found that our traditional print-oriented layout was not ideal for digital reading. The multi-column format typical of designed publications forces e-readers on computers, mobile phones and other devices to constantly scroll down, up and over to follow an article. Zooming in often causes one to lose all feel for a page’s navigation and structure.

Mario’s innovation was to embed an e-reading panel in our pages. This is an area sized like the display of an e-reading device, where the main text and images are contained in a single wide column so that articles are easier to zoom, scroll and read on screen. [See the illustration on ePaper Page 3b.] At the same time, the width and font size of the one main column abide by readability guidelines developed through decades of experience in print.

Another aspect of our hybrid publishing model is evidenced by articles listed on lettered pages (i.e. 3a, 15a, 25a) in the table of contents. These pages appear only in the full version of IFRA Magazine published in ePaper. If you are reading the Executive Print Edition right now and want access to this expanded, multimedia-enhanced content, sign up for a companion ePaper subscription at www.ifra.com/subscribe. It is free to all employees of IFRA member or affiliated companies.

In thanking Mario, his Creative Director Christian Fortanet and IFRA Art Director Gordon Steiger for their work This may very well creating and implementing this new layout, I can’t help but be a solution that point out one particularly subtle element of their brilliance. even daily newspaNote that the right-arrow used to highlight key informapers may be willing tion is actually the stylised “A” from IFRA’s logo turned on to experiment with. side. It is a small thing, but it is the kind of understated detail that marks true design professionals – in print, ePaper MARIO GARCÍA or any medium.

”

KERRY J. NORTHRUP DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS

IFRA Magazine is the international journal of news publishing reader@ifra.com – to comment ads@ifra.com – for opportunities www.ifra.com/ pressrelease – to upload industry announcements and media www.ifra.com/ subscribe – to start or change your subscription +49.6151.733-789 – to call the editor

See “Between printnets and digital natives” – ePaper Page 3a

northrup@ifra.com www.ifrasearch.com

3a

VIEWPOINT

01.2009

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Between printnets and digital natives Mario García with notes on designing the new IFRA Magazine

MARIO R. GARCÍA PRESIDENT, GARCÍA MEDIA

Mario García has devoted more than 30 years to redesigning publications, and has personally collaborated with over 450 news organisations, from such large projects as The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Handelsblatt and Die Zeit, to medium-size newspapers, such as The Charlotte Observer, or smaller ones in the heartland of America, such as the Lawrence (Kansas) Journal-World.

When Kerry Northrup, IFRA’s Publications Director, first approached me about taking a look at the association’s magazine and rethinking its look, I examined two editions prior to our meeting in Frankfurt, and decided that, indeed, this was not a bad looking publication. It had a good navigational system, clean, legible typography, and even generous use of white space. So, I asked myself, what is it that IFRA wants to change, and, most importantly, why?

It was when we sat down for a full briefing that I began to get the idea of what this project involved – and, I admit, when I truly became excited about the prospects of working with Kerry and his team on this.

No print publication should be rethought today without paying attention to its digital companions. I agree with William Powers, media columnist for the National Journal magazine, who writes that “print is eternal.” However, it will only be eternal if it adapts to changes that are too rapid to assimilate properly. For editors, it is a constant dilemma about content and how to treat it; for publishers, the questions are many, and range from running the finances of their firms across multi platforms to how to give each of the platforms its appropriate role, while attracting new audiences without alienating the loyal ones.

In fact, when Rupert Murdoch recently addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors, he said: “I come to this discussion not as an expert with all the answers, but as someone searching for answers to an emerging medium that is not my native language. Like many of you in this room, I’m a digital immigrant. I wasn’t weaned on the web, nor coddled on a computer. Instead, I grew up in a highly centralised world where news and information were tightly controlled by a few editors, who deemed to tell us what we could and should know. My two young daughters, on the other hand, will be digital natives. They’ll never know a world without ubiquitous broadband Internet access.”

Some get more specific than that. For example, Philip Meyer, author of the book “The Vanishing Newspaper,” examines today’s declining readership and states that the last reader will recycle the last printed paper in 2040 – April 2040, to be exact. My last grandchild, born November 10, 2008, will be 31 then, indeed, a digital native.

However, in between, we are going through a period of transition, where readers who grew up with print but who have taken quickly to the charms and efficiency of the Internet, go easily from columns of printed text to Google screens. It is a back-andforth journey, repeated several times daily, which in fact brings about some definite reading behavioural patterns: No print publicaThese readers can read deeply, but they are voracious tion should be scanners who value effective navigation and who are not rethought today very forgiving when it comes to design that is intricate and without paying atnot functional. tention to its digital Maybe these are not yet among Murdoch’s digital nacompanions. tives, but they are what I would call printnets – at home in

”

MARIO GARCÍA

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3b

VIEWPOINT

01.2009

e-reading panels and info widgets:

HYBRID PRINT-EPAPER LAYOUT WORKS IN BOTH MEDIA.

both the worlds of print and the Internet. They vary in age from 35 to 80 – as we were able to verify during the 2007 remake of The Wall Street Journal. We have an obligation to design publications that cater to them, the pre-digital native audience.

Perhaps our design concept for IFRA Magazine, which like many newspapers and magazines worldwide has an ePaper edition as its companion, is one of the first examples of a systematic approach to creating a visual presentation that is as good for the printed edition as for its ePaper version.

The concept Kerry and I sat down for hours and I took my sketch pad out. Soon, I was looking at the canvas of the printed page, and comparing it as it appears on the screen for those reading the ePaper edition. The first thing that caught my eye was the page architecture.

The traditional magazine grid of three columns of text, which works extremely well for print, may not provide the best solution for those reading on a screen, where the eyes move horizontally across from left to right. The up and down movement of narrow columns so familiar in print definitely does not do the job as effectively on a screen.

We created a grid that adapts to both, allowing for a two-way traffic with deep reading in the wider column measurement, and for scanning, secondary readings in the narrower columns.

The new IFRA Magazine design you see accommodates both well, with a variety of grid structures for photo positioning, quotes, additional information, and good architectural contrast between the elements.

This may very well be a solution that even daily newspapers may be willing to experiment with. And, yes, I still think that the printed product of the future will be more compact, thus facilitating grids similar to those you see now in your IFRA Magazine.

It is never too late to prepare our publications for the digital natives, and, definitely, it is time to make sure that we don’t alienate the printnets who move from our print to our digital products with great ease.

The IFRA Magazine new look paves the way.

Designed into the new IFRA Magazine page grid are two frames (marked with red boxes in this illustration) where the main text and images are positioned. These frames act like embedded e-reading panels on the printed page, presenting the article in a format that is easy to zoom, scroll and read on digital devices. Narrow outside columns hold various graphical information summaries that IFRA editors refer to as info widgets.

mario@ garcia-media.com Kerry J. Northrup www.ifrasearch.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

01.2009

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Decision-Makers’ Guide 2 40 top ideas for news publis

10

14

15a

16

18

5 top ideas for reducing production costs

5 top ideas to promote the newspaper brand

5 top ideas for growing circulation

5 top ideas for generating new ad revenu

5 top ideas for technology investment

1 Upgrade exisiting equipment 2 Treat water waste 3 Work with closed-loop register control 4 Eliminate hardcopy proofs 5 Consider leasing services – SaaS

1 Co-brand with advertisers 2 Break down the barriers 3 Make your own TV – in miniature 4 Create a TV channel – cheaply 5 Reach out to the workplace – with style

1 Focus on readers you don‘t have 2 Invent products for new segments 3 Integrated newsroom for multimedia content 4 Help define the next generation of readers 5 Research, research, research

1 Offer video ads 2 Online games 3 Mobile platforms’ potential 4 Use aimed and measurable ads 5 Extend customer services

1 Automated production solutions 2 Semi-passive RFID for newsprint 3 Low-cost hyperlocal video 4 Digital printing of niche editions 5 Make mobile websites a priority

Read the complete media-enhanced IFRA Magazine in ePaper including articles on lettered pages – www.iframagazine.com/epaper

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2009 shers

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

01.2009

Publishing Priorities The annual IFRA Magazine survey shows that priorities in budgets and planning have shifted dramatically in the past year at most media houses around the world.

Revenue concerns are now front and centre, with convergence and digital strategy required to deliver more tangible results.

22

25a

5 top ideas for editorial reorganisation

5 top ideas for newspaper mobile services

5 top ideas in newspaper websites

1 Optimise editorial planning 2 Generate rather than check quality 3 Modularise page production 4 Develop staff skills 5 Adapt content for multiple use

1 Mobilise your content 2 Use tags/codes to link print, digital content 3 Use mobile devices for news coverage 4 Streamline production tracking via mobile devices 5 Use mobile devices in print distribution proces

1 High-quality video and web TV 2 Making the best of social networks 3 A clear strategy towards search and search engines 4 Embrace databases 5 Good journalism

6

26 Plus 5 top ideas to get the most from your IFRA membership 1 Get a free ePaper subscription to IFRA Magazine 2 Set the agenda for Events and Exhibitions 3 Training and Newsplex offer 4 Benchmark your printing quality with INCQC 5 Be a part of eRev 2011

3 Our Viewpoint Relaunch

3a Mario GarcĂ­a Designing the new IFRA Magazine

30 IFRA Board Globe-spanning

32 IFRA Bulletin Beyond the Printed Word; Middle East Conference

6

DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE

01.2009

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focus

”

In the last few months, we have seen the increase in the cost of newsprint going up by 54 percent. This becomes unbearable .

SHRIKANT PATANKAR, CEO OF SAKAAL TIMES, INDIA

Tight budgets in Not surprisingly, in the absence of reliable forecasts for their next year’s revenues, the participants in our annual survey of budget priorities for 2009 go for “reducing costs.” To sum up, the objective is to do a lot more with fewer resources as key projects will not slow down.

While not laying any claim to being a statistically representative study, this annual survey of budget priorities – now in its third edition – provides a sufficiently realistic reflection of the

IFRA Magazine survey on budget priorities Developing new reader audiences/markets

60.6 %

60.8 %

53.8 %

46.1 %

53.8 %

31.5 %

53.0 %

63.8 %

53.0 %

57.7 %

52.3 %

40.0 %

50.0 %

56.9 %

47.7 %

50.8 %

46.2 %

56.9 %

46.2 %

50.0 %

40.9 %

42.3 %

Customer relationship management Reducing personnel costs Expanding/changing web strategy Advertiser relationships Internal reorganisation

This third annual survey on budget priorities was conducted in October.

About 245 managers of news publishing companies from 42 countries responded about the difficult task of outlining their strategy for 2009.

New business activities/ business models Editorial convergence/ cross-media Newspaper marketing/ brand development IT/editorial/ digital systems Video/audio content

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DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE

01.2009

n 2009 issues concerning our industry. The main change in this year’s listing of priorities is, unsurprisingly, “cutting personnel costs.” In October 2007, for their 2008 budget forecasts, the participants had ranked this topic in 17th place. For 2009, it leaped into third position, followed closely by “internal reorganisation.”

Act on production costs For the first time, the part of the annual survey reserved for comments was heavily used.

Some 46 managers wanted to add to their remarks. And these proved highly interesting.

The first comment received concerned the impact of the price of paper. “Newsprint prices

On the web : W Detailed results of the survey Link: 7799 W Results for the different languages Link: 7799

Make it a budget and strategic priority in 2009 Made it a priority in survey 2008 Production/ workflow automation

37.9 %

36.1 %

36.4 %

40.8 %

34.1 %

30.0 %

33.3 %

32.3 %

32.6 %

33.1 %

We want to improve the quality of our online services, both for advertisers and readers, and re-adjust our price structure.

31.1 %

32.3 %

MATTHIAS TIETZ, MANAGER, RHEINISCHE POST GROUP

26.5 %

29.2 %

25.8 %

30.0 %

25.8 %

30.0 %

23.5 %

23.1 %

Classified advertising alternatives Developing/expanding mobile strategy Weblog, moblog, podcasting, other new digital formats Mergers/acquisitions/ investments Production/materials/ colour quality

”

Partnering with other media companies Press equipment/ facilities Circulation credibility Distribution equipment/ systems Valérie Arnould arnould@ifra.com

Outsourcing

22.7 %

16.9 %

Christian Pradel Herbert Bär www.ifrasearch.com

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DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE

01.2009

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focus

“We are part of News Corporation, and there is a company-wide initiative to reduce our carbon footprint ,“ says John Tabor of the Seacoast Media Group, explaining why the environment will be one of his budget priorities in 2009.

”

By innovation we mean establishing a new hyperlocal website – we’re a small six-days-aweek paper. Daily circulation around 5500 issues. We want to be more than hyperlocal!

CLAUS THOMSEN, DIRECTOR, MORSØ FOLKEBLAD

will force us to alter the shape of newspapers,” stated the publisher of a U.K. regional daily. But there are many others who are also concerned about the possible affects on circulation: “For print media, the increase in newsprint cost has become a critical issue. As a circulation strategy, we need to find an optimum quantity, since going overboard increases cost inputs to unbearable proportions,” says Shrikant Patankar, CEO of Sakaal Times in India. “The cost of newsprint is likely to come down, but not to the tune of ‘oil.’ Hence the survivability of newspapers will always be critical for the next year and a half at least.”

The concern extends to all material and industrial process costs. Those who replied to our survey know that revenues will probably decline, so they decided to tackle the industrial question head-on. “Either we improve capacity utilisation in printing, and if not possible we need to engage in cost reduction,” says Leif Wiklund, chairman of Bold Printing in Sweden (a subsidiary of the Bonnier newspaper group and one of the largest European printers). More radically, a manager of Prisa stressed the group’s decision “to outsource all printing: to sell its industrial activities and subcontract its printing requirements.”

Situated between these two scenarios is that adopted by the small Danish newspaper group Morsø Folkeblad based in Nykøbing Mors (on the island of Mors, 22,000 inhabitants): “We have already decided on a reorganisation in our company. Our printing plant will become an independent company, which we will still own (100 percent). We are giving it ‘its own life’ – and know that we have to earn money with it. We have invested more than 10 million euros in a new printing plant,” says Claus Thomsen, managing director.

The group has bought a KBA Cortina press. This represents the company’s biggest investment since its foundation some 130 years ago.

End discussions, put into practice The second recurring comment, and this time it made no difference which language the survey was conducted in (English, French, German or Spanish), is summed up well by Jorma Raike, executive director of Kustannusosakeyhtiö Kauppalehti in Finland: “We need to work on the creation of a hybrid medium by putting together print and web into one journalistically as well as economically viable media concept.” When Raike speaks of creating a hybrid medium, others announce their willingness to act in order to get powerful multimedia forces in their operations. “We will invest in the efficiency of our multimedia newsrooms,” says Ruth Blanch Martin, deputy director of PrisaCom. In parallel, the advertising departments will be trained and organised to market all of these offerings to advertisers. “We are going to integrate our print and online marketing teams,” says Phillip Crawley, publisher of The Globe and Mail (Canada) in this survey.

Invest in customer relations Retain your customers, attract new ones and manage relations with advertisers emerged as the main concerns of the survey participants.

A Dutch publisher expressed worry due to the threat of losing advertisers. And a Hong Kong publisher said that his priority in 2009 will be “building great relations with all advertiser categories.”

Several replies revealed the wish to obtain a better transparency for the service provided. For the U.S. publisher John Tabor of the local newspaper group Seacoast Media (a subsidiary of News Corporation), this transparency also means supplying measurable results: “We are developing an Internet search marketing program for local businesses comprised of selling Google Adwords, custom-built landing pages for the Adwords campaigns and metrics. Google recommends landing pages as a way to maximise lead generation with Adwords.”

JOHN TABOR: WANTS TO MAXIMISE RETURNS FOR LOCAL ADVERTISERS.

CLAUS THOMSEN : SELLS PRINTING SERVICES AND IS BANKING ON HYPERLOCAL.

PHILLIP CRAWLEY : CREATING A MULTIMEDIA MARKETING FORCE.

4x1 to 6x2 cylinder formats

Heatset, coldset or combined

Up to 80,000 cph New automated features and configurations

Lasting impressions With over 600 units sold and 10 years of service, the Goss Uniliner速 press has been re-styled and improved to meet a market in constant evolution. New features have been added for greater flexibility, faster job changes, enhanced productivity and simplified operation. 速

www.gossinternational.com

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DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE

01.2009

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5 top ideas: how to save on production costs

CLOSED-LOOP REGISTER CONTROL INSIDE A RUNNING PRESS (SEE IDEA 3 ON OPPOSITE PAGE).

Saving has priority. In view of the uncertain future facing the printed newspaper – further accentuated by the current nancial crisis – this is true today more than ever before. Whereas the hesitancy to invest is understandable, in many cases savings can be achieved only through investment. The old adage that “from nothing comes nothing” still applies.

Cost savings: 1 Upgrade exisiting equipment 2 Treat water waste 3 Work with closed-loop register control 4 Eliminate hardcopy proofs 5 Consider leasing services – SaaS

The quickest savings results are obtained in the most cost-intensive areas of newspaper production, namely personnel and consumables. Where the “cheap” possibilities are already exhausted – many newspaper operations have already implemented various savings programmes – automation and other intelligent solutions are the next logical step that pay off in the medium term and lower costs on a sustained basis.

Idea 1: Instead of a new press: retrofit, upgrade, rebuild What can be done if the old rotary press becomes increasingly unreliable, if it becomes increasingly more expensive to maintain, waste levels get out of control, colour capacity and printing quality no longer suffice to satisfy customer demands? If it is time to invest in a new press but this is ruled out for the time being due to the economic situation?

Retrofitting older presses can postpone a due investment in their replacement for a number of years and at the same time offer solid cost benefits: less waste, lower maintenance costs, more production safety, reduced manning levels.

Reducing the newspaper format is a proven way to lower paper costs. Announced price rises of up to 20 percent make paper consumption an increasingly important factor.

Whereas in Europe many newspapers are changing to tabloid to save paper, the favoured

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01.2009

DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE

approach in the United States is to reduce the newspaper width by rebuilding the press accordingly. Already the first titles are being produced with 44 inches (about112 cm) web width (about 28 cm page width).

Pressline Services, a company specialising in retrofitting in the U.S.A., has now developed a concept that open up entirely new prospects: With 3volution, a double-circumference press becomes a press with three plates around the cylinder. This reduces cut-off (and paper consumption!) by one-third and increases press productivity at a single stroke by 50 percent. Pressline CEO Jim Gore says: “Your return, when you are running a lot of tonnage, can be as little as 15 or 18 months. Compared to a new press, the investment is about 25 to 30 percent of the cost, depending on the number of printing couples.”

Idea 2: Instead of costly disposal, filter and re-use fountain solution Fountain solution, an essential component of the offset process, constitutes a significant cost factor. In this case it is not only the water consumption and additives that give rise to costs but also especially the expensive disposal of the waste water after use – something that is inefficient also from the environmental point of view (transport to treatment). The use of a filter system can be of major assistance here, e.g. such as is in operation at Lensing-Wolff Druck in Dortmund. The two technotrans filter systems used there eliminate the total costs of removing 96 tonnes of fountain solution annually. Moreover, some 2700 tonnes of fountain solution additive are eliminated. “We have calculated that our two filter systems paid for themselves within about two years,” says Elmar Edeler, who is a member of the management board of the printing company.

Baldwin also offers filter solutions: The U.K. Trinity Mirror newspaper printing plant has installed the BaldwinLongLife-C system on a Goss Colorliner press equipped with 12 printing towers. ”We were generating such significant amounts of waste water that it was costing us more than 20,000 pounds (approx. 23,700 euros) per annum to have it removed,“ says operations manager Alex Henderson. The use of the filter system has lowered the amount of waste water from 16,500 litres monthly to 100 litres. Savings also have been achieved in the use of fountain solution additive, of which about 4000 litres annually had to be used because about 2 percent was lost together with the disposed fountain solution.

Both the technotrans and Baldwin systems work in accordance with the cross-flow filtration principle and use ceramic filters. Systems for treating waste water treatment from the production process (e.g. filtration systems or systems for minimising the amount of waste water by means of a special evaporation process) are offered by, among others, the Spanish Controlgraf (www.controlgraf.com) company.

Idea 3: Closed-Loop colour register control lowers waste

11

Fountain solution filtration over disposal: The technotrans delta.f cross-flow filtration system installed at Lensing-Wolff is connected to the delta sd fountain solution treatment system, which mixes fresh water and fountain solution.

Link 7745

ePaper extra: W Maximum utilisation by retrofitting and lifecycle management

On the website: W Interview with Jim Gore, Pressline Link 7672 W Vacuum evaporation reduces waste water Link 7723 W Video of the Q.I. Press Controls mRC register control system iframagazine. com/multiblog/ item/IFRA-7KUFFF

Closed-Loop register control systems directly affect the printing quality and therefore can help achieve savings in the short term by reducing printed waste. Depending on the situation at the outset and the production structure concerned, colour register control can pay off within a short period. Two years ago, the U.S. newspaper The Daily Sun in Florida began to use a QuadTech Register Guidance system that works with cameras and small register marks to control colour register. Operations manager Ingo Fockler says, “We are pretty close (to reaching the ROI). With newsprint prices soaring we are reaching that goal even quicker STEFFEN HELMSCHROTT: now. Our ROI was based on waste savings.”

BERLINER ZEITUNG CUTSteffen Helmschrott, CEO of BVZ Berliner Zeitungsdruck in TING WASTE. Germany, has achieved much success with a Q.I. Press Controls colour register control system. “We have met our expectations in relation to waste reduction. At the Berliner Zeitung we managed to reduce waste by 1 to 1.3 percent.“ That allowed the planned payback (within three years) to be achieved.

Charlotte Janischewski

Idea 4: Extensive elimination of hardcopy proofs

Q.I. Press Controls

It is customary at newspaper printing plants to produce four-colour page proofs, especially

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janischewski@ifra.com

30% faster, 50% less cleaning agent, significantly longer maintenance intervals

Robert Heitzer, Production Manager and Uwe Seifert, Deputy Production Manager SV-Druckzentrum Steinhausen, Munich, Germany

“During a nine-month field test at our printing site the new Baldwin ProTech2 NP brush cleaning technology was optimized to the extent that the desired results are achieved with around 30% faster cleaning and 50% lower consumption of cleaning agent. The new integrated self-cleaning prevents unnecessary loss of cleaning agent and adds to extended maintenance intervals.”

YEARS

Read the full story at

www.baldwintech.com

12

LEITFADEN FÜR ENTSCHEIDER DECISION-MAKERS’ GUIDE2009

of large-sized ads, as binding copy for the printer at the control desk. Where large production volumes are concerned, this can be very costly. Besides the costs of data handling and colour management as well as paper and toner, the time required to sort and distribute the sheets must also be taken into account.

But before thinking about eliminating hardcopy proofs it should first be clarified what purpose they serve and how this can be ensured in a different way. Basically, the proof is used firstly to check that all page elements are present and correctly positioned, and secondly as a binding colour copy. Whereas a softproof, i.e. the representation of the corresponding page on a monitor at the control desk, is ideally produced from the RIP data and is fully sufficient for checking completeness and correct positioning, it is not always enough in relation to colour reliability. A number of factors play a part here, e.g. light influences as well as the characteristics of the monitor.

The company Just-Normlicht focused especially on this topic and directs its efforts towards simulating these influences as exactly as possible by using covered, specially illuminated viewing cabins and a measuring device for analysis and adjustment of the monitor to suit the light conditions in each case. But the colour accuracy of the print product begins a lot earlier on, namely with the data handling. “A wholly standardised production in accordance with ISO-12647-3 is the best precondition for correct colour densities and therefore colour accuracy,“ says Roland Thees, research manager newspaper production at IFRA. If production is done from start to finish in accordance with standards, press and control desk are equipped with automated measuring and control features and a monitor is used to view the result, it may be possible to limit the use of hardcopies to random tests.

Idea 5: SaaS – lease service instead of buying software Since IFRA Expo 2008 at the latest, Software as a Service (SaaS) is a topic that repeatedly comes up in connection with lowering costs in the IT/systems area. The concept: instead of buying software and bearing responsibility for installation, maintenance, updates, etc., SaaS allows the use of these functionalities via web technology. No more investing in systems and complex IT infrastructure and management, but instead dependable monthly costs for an exactly defined service.

The editorial system of the French manufacturer PubliAtis is based entirely on web technologies; all functionalities are accessible via the Internet browser, so that no software must be installed on the computers of the users. Other system providers that offer SaaS (as an alternative) include, for example, Atex, DTI and Protec. SaaS means that “you get the necessary new functions without having to directly pay the costs. You obtain the latest components simply by paying a monthly fee,“ says Don Oldham of DTI. The Brazilian media group Diários Associados recently acquired a 750-seat Hermes system solution from Atex based on the SaaS model.

A stable Internet connection is especially important for this working method, as temporary failures can stop online work with SaaS applications for the duration of the interruption.

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Cost optimisation

”

We give newspapers a huge opportunity to look into the future while they are running their existing equipment.

Already in the past years, cost-saving measures were at the top of the agenda. The present financial crisis gives the situation a new dimension: personnel cuts, outsourcing, merging of newsrooms, print cooperation agreements, reduced page counts or even the shutdown of a printed edition are just some of the direct consequences. Although in most cases planned investments are not stopped, new projects are being postponed here and there.

The dilemma is that especially investments in improving productivity and environmentfriendly processes have the potential to lower costs in the long term and increase competitiveness. Where consideration is given to investing, a decision is made dependent on fast ROI. Maximising the level of utilisation of production installations by modernising is a possible approach.

JIM GORE, PRESSLINE

Outdated already after 20 years?

Charlotte Janischewski janischewski@ifra.com Online interview with Jim Gore: 7672 www.ifrasearch.com

The mechanical state of an older rotary press is often still good, but it no longer satisfies the increased production demands. Total modernisation, especially of control and drive features, can bring about major improvements and, for example, reduce significantly manning and waste levels. Companies offering retrofit programmes for newspaper presses include ABB (www.abb.ch), EAE (www.eae.com) and Harland Simon (www.harlandsimon.com).

Modernisation and extension measures are the chosen method to enhance the reliability and performance of the installations at a fraction of the capital costs required for replacing a printing press. Steve Kirk, head of marketing, ABB Switzerland, sees a greatly increased interest in press modernisation resulting from the trend towards shorter-term investments: “If publishing houses face an uncertain future in the long term, they expect very short ROI times. This means a significantly greater interest in retrofit solutions.”

Al Byrd, production manager at The Virginian-Pilot, Virginia, U.S.A., where five Goss Metro presses were retrofit, says (in a video testimonial on www.gossinternational.com): “Overall we were very happy with the results of all retrofit printing units, especially as regards colour reproduction.” He claims savings of 19 percent less printed waste and 17 percent fewer web breaks.

The productive life of a rotary press is not everywhere identical. Whereas in Europe depreciation times of 15 years are standard, a press of a similar age installed in the U.S.A. is considered to be in its prime. “The majority of printing presses (approx. 80 percent) in use today in the U.S.A. are between 20 and 40 years old,” says Jim Gore, CEO of Pressline Services in the U.S.A. [Interview online: 7672]. “With our retrofits, we add another 20 years to the lifecycles of 20 to 30-year-old presses. We offer customers all the benefits of a brand new press for about 25 to 30 percent of the costs, thus giving them leeway for another 20 years.”

This company (www.presslineservices.com) specialises in rebuilding and upgrading presses and has already rebuilt many presses in the U.S.A. for narrow web widths. Changing from two to three-plate cylinder circumference is a wholly new concept for which the company has applied for several patents. According to Gore, a rebuilding project takes about 15 months.

Besides the effects as regards productivity and paper economies, this method of format reduction has the added advantage that – other than in the case of a change to the tabloid format – it is possible to retain the accustomed section structure of the newspaper.

Aimed in much the same direction are the manufacturers’ lifecycle management or lifetime support programmes (for presses and mailroom installations) that, on condition that the installations are properly maintained, can lower operating costs by up to 20 percent and increase the lifecycle of the presses. Other factors that must be taken into account are length of guarantee for replacement parts as well as personnel training and sensitising them to the importance of managing the means of production.

Empowering the News Publishing Industry

E V E NT S

load Down 009: dar 2 n e l a c .com/ a r f i . www nts eve

Conferences & Study Tours 2009 Find ideas, get connected, achieve success!

Five reasons to attend IFRA Events: Q Identify the latest trends in the news publishing industry Q Hear case studies from all over the world Q Learn from colleaguessâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; expertise and experience Q Exchange ideas to develop your business Q Get inspired and informed among friends

IFRA Events Team Washingtonplatz 64287 Darmstadt Germany Phone: +49.6151.733-6 events@ifra.com www.ifra.com/events

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5 top ideas: extending the reach of your brand

BOLLYWOOD STAR BOMAN IRANI, LEFT, WITH THE WINNER OF MID DAY’S LUNCH PROMOTION. SEE IDEA 5 ON NEXT PAGE.

Cross-media marketing has made it clear that the real value of a newspaper is not whether readers hold it in their hands – it’s whether they hold it in their hearts. Capitalising on that brand means extending it – but not to the point of overstretch. Something these examples do to perfection.

Idea 1: Co-brand with advertisers

Brand building 1 Co-brand with advertisers 2 Break down the barriers 3 Make your own TV – in miniature 4 Create a TV channel – cheaply 5 Reach out to the workplace – with style

Good advertising promotions are also an excellent opportunity for cross-promotion, and tapping into the marketing might of supermarkets has proved an excellent means of extending a brand’s reach.

When the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the U.K. ran an Active Kids campaign to mobilise local communities and promote healthier lifestyles, Associated Newspapers saw the potential to both satisfy a major advertiser and promote itself in the process. The campaign revolved around a scheme to hand out vouchers in return for purchases that could be exchanged for sports equipment for schools.

Associated used The Mail on Sunday and its Northcliffe portfolio of local papers to promote the campaign with a “posterzine” (a 16-page magazine, which was cover-wrapped with a poster and distributed in a polybag cover with The Mail on Sunday) and a microsite with viral games, downloads and a holiday competition.

Alex Seligman, Sainsbury’s senior marketing manager, spoke of the newspapers “depth and breadth of bespoke communication....[and] understanding of the importance of building reader relationships.” The Mail on Sunday in turn enjoyed increased traffic to its website and circulation around the campaign while at the same time reinforcing its brand credentials as a family newspaper.

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Idea 2: Break down the barriers “Our publisher, Phillip Crawley, has been making significant investments on an ongoing basis, through a process called ‘reimagination,’” says Teena Poirier, senior manager, Marketing Solutions Group at The Globe and Mail, Canada.

Reimagination means a number of things but it’s significant that the key is tearing down the traditional paper walls of newspapers. “This process involves cross-departmental teams, meeting on a regular basis and working through very specific challenges facing many brands in the volatile marketing environment that is our reality today,” Poirier says. In addition to removing barriers between editorial and sales, the paper has stopped seeing its traditional product as being separate from new media. Breaking down the barriers may be the best bet for building the brand.

Idea 3: Make your own TV – in miniature A good brand can transcend its original medium and cross smoothly into others. That’s been demonstrated by Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, which introduced its print readership to a cartoon strip featuring a hard-drinking, foul-mouthed, sweet little old lady called Gunvor Isachsen. They then took that idea and in conjunction with a production company created a series of comedy shorts as video. Ads were integrated into the video and online space for a chocolate brand that sponsored the venture, but there is no doubt the newspaper itself went a long way towards promoting the brand to a youth audience by revealing itself as a strong and entertaining product – whatever medium it chose to use.

Idea 4: Create a TV channel – cheaply YouTube is a moving target and a lot has been made of the fact that it is increasingly corporate, but it remains a powerful means of getting a message across and newspapers ignore it at their peril. Which is why a number of newspapers have created branded YouTube channels using the YouTube API, which allows developers to code the video-sharing website to suit its own needs, and dovetail with existing content management systems to make uploading video a single-click operation.

The U.K.’s Trinity Mirror, with its portfolio of regional titles, has launched 20 branded channels as companions to local papers. Online video channels are a cost-effective means of targeting niche markets, and by publishing video content on YouTube, the papers show a popular touch that fits well with the brand.

From comic strip character to video star, Norway’s Verdens Gang created a popular cartoon character and then brought her to life on video in comedy shorts with integrated ads. See Idea 4, at left.

Idea 5: Reach out to the workplace – with style We all spend more time at work than we’d like to, and newspapers have long realised the importance of the office-bound audience. Newspaper websites with sudoku and celebrity gossip have proved a successful way of extending the brand contact with workers throughout the day. In Mumbai, however, the readers of MiD DAY, a title known for its celebrity coverage, now hope for the paper to make its presence felt much more forcibly.

Cashing in on the huge popularity of the Bollywood movie industry, MiD DAY linked up with film promoters and started to run a regular competition where winners got to have a meal with a star from the film. The key to the branding triumph lay in the fact that the meal had to be lunch, and had to start at the winner’s office place. Given the name of the paper and its reputation as a fun read with strong entertainment coverage, this was perfect positioning, and it’s not hard to imagine the buzz amongst co-workers when a film star turns up.

Steve Shipside reader@ifra.com www.ifra.com/xma www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: increasing read How is it that some newspapers have managed to increase their readership at a time when so many observers are queueing up to declare newspapers dead? These five approaches work for others – perhaps they can do the same for you.

Idea 1: Focus on readers that do not exist yet A strong sense of identity is crucial to a newspaper – it is the foundation the brand is built on – but there is always the risk that newspapers will fixate on its known readership and forget to look at those who don’t read the paper at all. Jochen Dieckow, responsible for digital and business development topics at IFRA, suggests that you “do more research on non-readers who don’t read your products and get to know what they want and how and when they want it.” The classic “unreachable” target is the YouTube generation who don’t automatically reach for paper products, and yet any number of cross-media “outreach” exercises suggest that they will do so with encouragement. Ekstra Bladet in Denmark created an online forum for young sports enthusiasts and saw sales increase by 6.4 percent. The Age in Australia started a “Super Quiz” linking up paper and web; circulation increased by 28,000 copies during the bi-annual quiz periods.

Idea 2: Invent products for new segments The days of “one size fits all” are over and no, niche publishing doesn’t mean a Sunday supplement approach is the answer with one paper for all and some inserts to appeal to youth or women. True niche publishing means chasing down real niche groups and delivering what they want. That’s the approach of initiatives such as Dan Pacheco’s Printcasting, which produces short run, niche newsletters by combining the wealth of user-generated content with existing online tools. [See our Flashlight Report on Printcasting at www.ifra.com/flashlight] The content is user generated but used by permission, the production is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA HAS INCREASED ITS CIRCULATION DURING THIS PAST YEAR.

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dership fully automated, and the distribution can either be online or printed with a frequency and print run chosen by the newspaper. That bridges the gap between on and offline content while allowing newspapers to experiment with niche products for minimal outlay. As Pacheco puts it, “The fact that those stories would be printed and delivered to their neighbours was very powerful to people; they’d see their content crossing the ‘fridge barrier,’ meaning that their stories were clipped and posted on refrigerators all over town.”

Idea 3: High-quality newsroom to deliver high-quality, multimedia content Everyone wants to cut costs, but integration means that high-quality output and financial streamlining can go hand in hand. Asked how Axel Springer’s Die Welt and Die Welt Kompakt in Germany managed to increase their circulation, Jan Bayer, general manager of the regional and subscription newspapers for the company, doesn’t hesitate to reply. “The key factors continue to be our high standard of editorial quality, further brand reinforcement and cross-media mutual support of the titles. ... With two daily newspapers, one weekly newspaper, one Internet-based and one mobile offering, Die Welt group today uses all channels available to modern media. Since 2006, the contents for these media channels have been produced in a modern, integrated newsroom. Other reasons for our success include the aimed extension of the area of distribution of Welt Kompakt into the eastern German federal states as well as our consistent investment in editorial quality, something that has been acknowledged once again this year by many journalism prizes.”

Increasing eyeballs: 1 Focus on readers you don‘t have 2 Invent products for new segments 3 Integrated newsroom for multimedia content 4 Help define the next generation of readers 5 Research, research, research

Idea 4: Help define the next generation of readers Targeting the next generation is on every paper’s To Do list, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the next generation is simply a question of age. The Wall Street Journal Asia, for example, has shifted its circulation marketing efforts to younger readers but also to women in recognition of the fact that increasingly women are moving into decision-making roles, even in industries that have long resisted the development. “With an increasing number of affluent, influential women moving into senior management and political leadership roles in Asia, we have initiated a number of special programmes designed to reach them, such as our Women in Business initiative, which recognises the achievements of business women in the region,” says Joe Spitzer, director of communications, Dow Jones & Company (Asia), [Complete interview with Joe Spitzer: Direct link 7790.]

Idea 5: Research, research, research Or to put it another way – don’t (just) take our word for it. What works for another title can and will work for yours but only if that step is appropriate for your potential readership. Building new circulation is not about inspired guesswork but rather about taking the time and trouble to find out a) not just why existing readers are going but where, and b) asking whether non-readers are refusing the paper, aren’t aware of it, or aren’t yet addressed by it. Any of the above ideas is no more than a panic reaction if it’s not backed up by the research that shows it is relevant to your potential readership, and while that research can seem costly and slow, it is undoubtedly immensely rewarding.

Steve Shipside reader@ifra.com Dow Jones & Company www.wsj.com www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: generating new advertising revenue ANDY PHELAN, CHIEF EDITOR, HERALD EXPRESS, CONVINCED NOT ONLY NEW ADVERTISERS WITH THE MOD MY MOTOR PROJECT BUT ALSO THE JURY OF THE IFRA XMA-CROSS MEDIA AWARDS.

Most forecasts predict that newspaper advertising revenues are destined to shrink in most markets in 2009 and 2010. Even the growth in online advertising is slowing. But despite all this, there are moves towards attracting new advertisers and their budgets.

The challenge is to offer cost-conscious advertisers quanti able results for speci c target groups.

The following tips are only just a selection. “In the digital age we are only constrained by our imaginations,” says Andy Phelan, chief editor of the Herald Express in the U.K. He reiterates this statement in his viewpoint (see web reference on the opposite page).

Idea 1: Better utilise the potential of video ads

Generating new advertising 1 Video ads 2 Online games 3 Mobile platforms’ potential 4 Use aimed and measurable ads 5 Extend customer services

News video clips are today a standard feature of newspaper websites. The objective now is to earn money with this medium. “The bulk of online video programming is now supported by advertising, with ad formats ranging from in-stream ads – pre-rolls, mid-rolls and post-rolls – to in-text and in-banner ads,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Video Content: Harnessing a Mass Audience. German publisher Axel Springer also demonstrates that it is possible to market not only the video content produced by its own journalists but also that supplied by its readers. To further promote this market (and generate additional income), the publishing house has plans to market video cameras mainly to so-called “reader-reporters” of the popular Bild newspaper.

The online edition of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat also offers video clips.

Ida Virkki, product manager, Helsingin Sanomat Digital, has the following to say about potential advertising possibilities: “Video advertising on the web is efficient and can be longer

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and more complex than TV advertising, because users can rewind the video if they liked it.

We use videos as a pre-roll ad before our own journalistic videos, or show them like normal banner ads.”

Idea 2: Reach the young target audience with In-Game Advertising The ad market in online games has enormous potential – also for news publishers. Every third Internet user in the United States plays online games at least once weekly (USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, “The 2008 Digital Future Project - Year Seven”). That opens new possibilities equally for newspaper brands and advertisers to reach the young, Internet-savvy target audience. Herald Express is building on its in-house gaming concepts that open a whole range of marketing opportunities. [Read Andy Phelan‘s approach to this online at: www.ifra.com/xma-andyphelan.]

One alternative is licensed online games, e.g. from Greentube, such as are used in the online edition of the Slovenian newspaper zurnal24. “In-Game advertising is a way of getting advertisers into media where they have not been active before. It is for advertisers who are not satisfied with classic online advertising. With the In-Game advertising, you have to cover at least your game-related expenses, but you get a lot of self-advertising and attention,” says Barbara Franko, Online sales director for zurnal24.si (see web reference).

ADVERTISING IN ONLINE GAMES: SKI CHALLENGE FROM GREENTUBE.

Idea 3: Integrate mobile platforms into advertising strategy Most newspaper websites are now optimised for mobile media. But still the advertising options are far from utilised. “Some revenue opportunities will be new, like the ‘bounceback’ message that anyone who sends us an SMS receives, which we can sell on to advertisers,” says Phelan. “This can be highly targeted – each incoming SMS carries a code which tells us what the sender is contacting us about. For instance, it’s fair to assume that if a sender is entering a competition to win tickets to a rock music show, they are likely to be interested in other, similar events elsewhere. We can sell that audience to an advertiser.”

Idea 4: Use aimed and measurable forms of advertising “Now is the time to step up efforts to better measure marketing. The goal is to be accountable for every dollar spent,” writes Geoffrey Ramsey, CEO eMarketer, in the strategy paper “Digital Marketing Now: Seven Strategies for Surviving the Downturn” (Nov. 2008).

According to Ida Virkki, newspapers are compelled to adapt rapidly to this trend: “Some 80 percent of all online advertising sold in the U.S. is already CPC- (cost per click) or CPA(cost per action) based advertising. While media companies in Finland are still wondering what they should do, the big players (AOL, Google, etc.) are already entering the market with better technologies and all the knowledge they have gained from other markets.“ Idea 5: Give customers full service and tap into their marketing budgets No one knows the regional media and advertising market and its target audiences better than the regional newspapers themselves. Regional newspapers can, and must, use this expertise in an aimed way. Thus they can become the leading regional media and advertising experts, and consequently the perfect contact partner for regional advertisers. Frank Meik, publishing consultant and author of the IFRA Special Report “Advertising Business Strategies. Customer Centric Communication,” explains this in an interview (see web reference).

The basic precondition for this all-round approach is to know as closely as possible both your own readers/users as well as your advertisers. Marianne Siproudhis reports (see web reference) about how Manchette Publicité, marketing agent for the French Amaury Group (Le Parisien, L‘Equipe), collects relevant data and trains staff accordingly.

On our website: W Andy Phelan, Herald Express, Link 7686 W Ida Virkki, Helsingin Sanomat Digital, Link 7276 W Barbara Franko, zurnal24.si, Link 7690 W Frank Meik, media consultant, CCC Concept, Link 7279 W Marianne Siproudhis, Manchette Publicité, Link 7285 W Katja Riefler, media consultant, Link 7694

Michael Kaczmarek kaczmarek@ifra.com Oliver Northrup www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: technology inv

EPC ECO PRINT GROEP IN BELGIUM IS ONE OF THE MOST AUTOMATED PRINTING PLANTS IN THE WORLD.

Investing in technology may seem a risky strategy when times are tough, but a wisely chosen investment not only helps steal a march on the competition – it should help save money, minimise waste, and make the most of existing assets. Here are ve to watch for in 2009.

Idea 1: Automated production

Technology investments 1 Automated production solutions 2 Semi-passive RFID for newsprint 3 Low-cost hyperlocal video 4 Digital printing of niche editions 5 Make mobile websites a priority

Printed newspapers need to increase product quality and efficiency, and lower cost per copy in order to face the challenges of ever-tougher markets. Trends such as magazine-like, full-colour editions and niche editions mean smaller runs which in turn mean more time spent on change-overs. Automation means reducing that time, minimising costs, and cutting waste to a bare minimum. And while the printing press itself is still not fully automatic, there are many steps in the production process that are. “You have almost automatic paper logistic systems including digital paper inventory management,” says Manfred Werfel, IFRA Director Research and Deputy CEO. “You have automatic ink and water supply systems.

One of the latest developments is automatic plate change. Automatic plate transport systems have been available for many years. In the future we expect that CTP, plate transport and plate change will be included into digital plate management systems, which make sure that the right plate is mounted on the right cylinder just in time. Web and colour register control are no issues any more, but density control is still under development.”

Idea 2: Semi-passive RFID Newsprint is going up by 20 percent – so the simple paper roll is ever more valuable. RFID has proved a great way of tracking paper rolls. The most common RFID is passive, where

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vestments the chip remains dormant until it passes a reading station, which then reads the information. The problem is that passive RFID can’t be read through a full paper drum. So the RFID tag is placed on the wrapping, which means it is lost the moment the roll is opened. That in turn means any half-used rolls are untrackable – a growing problem given the increasing demands for multiple-format editions and accompanying changes of paper rolls. Semi-Passive RFID uses an environmentally friendly printed circuit battery that lasts years and boosts its signal strength sufficiently for the tag to be safely located at the heart of the drum. That way the roll remains tagged for the whole of its active life, avoiding the waste of lost partreels, or the downtime caused by wrong paper or the search for the right reel.

Idea 3: Embrace hyper-local video In the U.K., the regional press is celebrating after the shelving of a 68-million-pound project to extend the BBC’s regional coverage with a hyper-local broadband video service. BBC Trust Chairman Michael Lyons said this was due to “the negative impact that the local video proposition could have on commercial media services which are valued by the public and are already under pressure.” Relief all round in the regional press, but also a huge opportunity that will go to waste if newspapers don’t move into the gap. Lyons added: “There’s nobody who can be satisfied with the quality of local news in most parts of the United Kingdom… The local press has nothing like the strength that it once had.” Digital video has never been cheaper or easier. The latest YouTube-friendly video cameras such as the Flip don’t even require cables and feature one-button operation, automatic light correction and are “ruggedised.” The hardware investment is relatively low. The real investment is in training and change management, but this is the moment to seize that opportunity.

Semi-passive RFID solutions, such as those from IdentPro (above) and Emsys, shown at IFRA Expo 2008, can help publishers to better track news reels.

Idea 4: Digital printing of small runs Newspapers will diversify into different formats and digital solutions, such as Kodak’s Continuous Inkjet Technology make it possible (and profitable) to produce small runs of many different editions. Digital printing of 500 copies of 20 different editions costs around the same as printing 10,000 copies of one edition meaning that publishers can afford to experiment in the quest for new niche markets. Combinations such as the Versamark VX5000 Printing System with inline finishing from Hunkeler have already been demonstrated and can output duplex, full-process-colour newspapers at the rate of more than 1000, 40-page broadsheets per hour. Hunkeler’s inline finishing systems can cut and fold at the full production speed of the printer.

On the web: W Viewpoint by Manfred Werfel, Link 7766 W Categories of RFID tags, Link 3368

Idea 5: Make mobile websites a priority Previously websites on mobile phones were a cut-down version of the real thing. In these days of iPhones and Storms, mobile consumers are no longer content with anything other than the full web experience (albeit on a very small screen). Whether that content is compressed for phones on the server side or the client side, the newspapers that will win are those who take the trouble to ensure their sites deliver the best information first. Right now the way to do that is with Cascading Style Sheets. If you haven’t looked into sorting your site for the handheld screen, then this is unquestionably a priority for 2009. See more on mobile on page 22.

Steve Shipside reader@ifra.com Courtesy of ECO Print www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: editorial reorga

PLANNING IS EMPHASISED IN THE NOTTINGHAM EVENING POST NEWSROOM

Reorganisation and restructuring editorial processes offer major potential for a sustained increase in effectiveness and ef ciency in the newsroom as well as securing or even enhancing quality.

In the search for newsroom savings, IFRA Newsplex Director Dietmar Schantin says too many publishing houses are haphazardly reducing staff without considering the mediumand long-term consequences. Schantin offers five measures better than such short-term thinking. [Read Schantinâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s manuscript with Direct Link 7741 at www.iframagazine.com.]

Idea 1: Optimise editorial planning

Reorganising editorial: 1 Optimise editorial planning 2 Generate rather than check quality 3 Modularise page production 4 Develop staff skills 5 Adapt content for multiple use

Decide early on, at least in outline, the topics, timing and positioning of content in print and online media. A precondition is to differentiate topics in regard to relevance, topicality and best possible platform. Not everything is equally important to the public, not everything is breaking news and not everything is suitable for multiplatform coverage.

Through improved and earlier cross-media planning, it is possible to give reporters, photographers and production specialists assignments that are both more precise and more in advance. This improves the quality of the articles, reducing the need for reworking. Production workloads are spread more evenly. Such a strategy was introduced recently at the Nottingham Evening Post in the U.K. and has been applied successfully for a long time at Nordjyske Medier in Denmark.

Idea 2: Generate rather than check quality In many newsrooms, basic requirements such as correct grammar and spelling are not part of the content-generating process. Instead, time is spent later on cross-checking and correcting. This is time that would be better invested in creative tasks. And the absence of upstream feedback from editors back to reporters means there is no learning effect.

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S P E C I A L R E P O RT Empowering the News Publishing Industry 09.2008

The changing newsroom III: Principles and guidelines for managing change

Paradoxically, experience shows that having many checks does not necessarily improve quality and can even introduce new errors. The Daily Telegraph in London halved the number of checks without lowering the standard of quality, by giving every editor in the news chain more responsibility. The freed-up time is invested in more digital journalism.

Idea 3: Modularise page production Use of page design modules makes it possible to quickly produce pages and know early on about their content and layout needs. This in turn facilitates giving reporters more precise assigned lengths for articles. It also reduces peak page production workloads on deadline.

The New York Daily News, for example, has compiled a catalogue of page templates to simplify production of local pages. According to the editor in chief, this has not harmed the pages’ attractiveness or originality, both of which are important for a tabloid newspaper.

A must read for: Managing Director/CEO/Chairman Chief Information Of cer IT Manager Catchwords: Business/Management/Organisation Industry and Company Information Information Technology

www.ifra.com/specialreports

Third in a series on “The Changing Newsroom” IFRA Special Report 09.2008, being released this month, features lessons learned from four editorial reorganisations and a set of guidelines for successful newsroom restructuring – www.ifra. com/research.

Idea 4: Develop staff skills Newsroom personnel must be qualified in necessary skills such as cross-media planning, prioritising content based on target audiences and taking advantage of the many possibilities of new digital formats. Leadership is also increasingly important, as in effective communication of tasks and constructive criticism.

However, more important than specific skills is having the right attitude. An in-depth understanding of the objectives and agreement by each individual on the sense of the measures are preconditions for their successful implementation. Such understanding and specialised skills come through good training programmes.

Idea 5: Adapt content for multiple use Some topics are not subject to geographic or time limitations and can be adapted for several target audiences relatively simply. Examples are news about celebrities and new car models, and service information on health, fashion, education or career.

Such content can be obtained from external sources such as news agencies or, in publishing houses that produce several different titles, can be produced in joint newsrooms operating as internal agencies. The individual identity of the titles is not endangered as long as core topics constituting their brand DNA are not outsourced or centrally produced.

The Blue Group of the Axel Springer publishing corporation in Berlin is an example.

From a large-scale newsroom, topics are generated that are subsequently modified for a wide range of different outlets including a regional newspaper (Berliner Morgenpost), a national newspaper (Die Welt) and its light edition (Welt Kompakt), a national Sunday newspaper (Welt am Sonntag) and their accompanying websites.

Another 5 ideas: W From Juan Antonio Giner, editor of Innovations in Newspapers Direct Link 7777

Kerry J. Northrup northrup@ifra.com Nottingham Evening Post www.ifra.com/newsplex www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: mobilise your content, work ows USING QR CODES LIKE THIS ONE (WHICH LINKS TO WWW.IFRAMAGAZINE.COM) IS A WAY TO USE MOBILE TO CONNECT READERS FROM PRINT TO DIGITAL. SEE IDEA 2.

If you are a news publisher, making the most of mobile devices is no longer something to think about. It is something to do. Now. Why? Because that is where the audience is. And unlike with their computers, much of your audience – and your potential audience – have their mobile phones within reach at all times.

Mobile ideas: 1 Mobilise your content 2 Use tags/codes to link print, digital content 3 Use mobile devices for news coverage 4 Streamline production tracking via mobile 5 Use mobile devices in print distribution process

While expanding customer reach throughout the day should be a compelling enough reason to get into mobile, there are also several other areas where mobile opportunities can benefit news publishers, such as news gathering, monitoring print production and improving print distribution. Here are five areas to implement mobile services and workflows: Idea 1: Mobilise your content There are two general ways to mobilise content, according to Kristina Bürén, business development manager for IFRA Sweden, and the author of IFRA’s most recent Special Report on Mobile Services. The first, and more basic, possibility, she says, is to start by offering SMS services and try to build communications with readers via mobile by asking them to send in news tips, participate in “best picture” contests via MMS, and vote for things via mobile phone. That way, publishers can start building a relationship with customers and then build up a database as they find out what readers are interested in that could be connected to everything from what type of information they are interested in to advertising.

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The second possibility is to publish a dedicated mobile site, which could be compared with a streamlined version of a news website. Many suppliers offer products and services in this area [See www.ifraexpo.com for a list of vendors who recently exhibited mobile solutions at IFRA Expo in Amsterdam.].

Idea 2: Use tags / codes to link print, digital content After seeing first-hand the popularity of the codes (similar to the one on page 22) that Japanese publishers put in their print editions to enable readers to access digital content via mobile phones, Jan Helin, editor in chief of Aftonbladet in Sweden, said that it became clear to him that the technique could be used elsewhere as well. The codes are printed on pages in the newspapers and users simply aim their phones at the tags and click to connect to digital content (audio, video, web).

Helin told participants at the recent Beyond the Printed Word Conference in Budapest, that Aftonbladet’s basic goal when starting the project was to become the world’s first newspaper to offer moving pictures. [See video clips of Helin talking about the project at www.iframagazine.com/beyond_08] Aftonbladet’s new mobile tagging system has become a hit in Sweden, and was awarded the Gold Mobile for best Swedish mobile news service in 2008. Aftonbladet is placing about 10 mobile tags in each print edition that readers can then quickly scan with their mobile phone to get instant video clips related to the given print story. [To create your own QR codes, see http://qrcode.kaywa.com/]

Voices of Africa mobile coverage Journalists cover four countries in Africa using mobile devices and sending via wireless connections.

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Ferag AG Zurichstrasse 74 CH-8340 Hinwil Phone +41 44 938 60 00 Fax +41 44 938 60 60 info@ferag.com www.ferag.com

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www.iframagazine.com

Idea 3: Use mobile devices for news coverage Mobile devices offer an ideal way to provide brief, “live” coverage of news and events and allow journalists to send text, images and video – either back to the newsroom or directly on to consumers by posting straight to the web. For publishers who are not yet reporting with mobile and are unsure of where to start, look at what Voices of Africa and Gannett in the United States are doing.

Voices of Africa is equipping young journalists with basic but effective mobile gear to allow them to report and file from nearly anywhere via their mobile phone connection (see more at www.iframagazine.com – article direct link 7743). As we reported last year (see our March 2008 issue, page 21), Gannett has turned many of its journalists into MoJos (Mobile Journalists) who work entirely away from the newsroom. [See what equipment Gannett is using at Direct Link 5355 on www.iframagazine.com].

Idea 4: Track production via mobile

IQ MOBILE FROM QI PRESS CONTROLS ALLOWS PRODUCTION MANAGERS TO TRACK DATA REMOTELY. SEE IDEA 4.

A new offering featured at IFRA Expo 2008 from QI Press Controls adds production to the departments where mobile allows production managers to view quality updates remotely.

The company’s IQMobile module is part of its web-based quality management system and enables use on the Apple iPhone. With IQMobile, production managers can view their production results on the go, using a 3G or WiFi connection. Menno Jansen, CEO of QI Press Controls, says the data that can be checked by a mobile production manager includes: Colour register, colour density cut-off and the sidelay position of each individual web, waste (good / bad copies wasted, shipped), press performance, and crew performance. [See Jansen interview at Direct Link 7111 at www.iframagazine.com].

On the web:

Idea 5: Use mobile devices in print distribution process

W Voices of Africa project aims Link 7743 W Gannett’s mobile reporting gear Link 5355 W QI Press Controls CEO Menno Jansen interview Link 7111 W IFRA Sweden’s Kristina Bürén’s mobile advice Link 7742 W UNT Distribution’s Hans Lindberg on BlackBerry use Link 7744

UNT Distribution, a Swedish distribution company owned by publisher Upsala Nya Tidning, delivers national and regional morning papers as well as 15 magazines and other publications. The company is using BlackBerry devices to help communicate information to its 300 carriers who distribute 80,000 copies each day. Hans Lindberg, UNT Distribution’s managing director, says using the BlackBerry devices has helped the company reduce their complaints by more than 25 percent since they began using the devices in 2007.

“Each complaint might cost us 4 or 5 euros and if you reduce that somewhere between 10 and 20 a day, it’s quite a lot,” Lindberg told us in early 2008. In an update from him in December, he said that in addition to the continued reduced complaint levels, which remain above 25 percent, that “during a period of delays at our printing plant, we received a lot of goodwill among our distributors since we have been able to have a constant information exchange and forecast of the actual delay. [Other issues, such as] sorting errors, lack of copies, etc., are also communicated a lot earlier from the field, which gives us a good possibility to reduce the costs for problem solving.” [See Lindberg interview at Direct Link 7744 at www.iframagazine.com].

Brian Veseling veseling@ifra.com www.iframagazine.com www.ifraexpo.com http://qrcode.kaywa.com www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: make the most of your web assets

ALBERTO TASCÓN WORKS TO MAKE THE WEBSITES OF THE PRISA GROUP AS ATTRACTIVE AS POSSIBLE BY USING FEATURES SUCH AS HIGHDEFINITION VIDEO.

Even in these difficult economic times, the web remains the medium that offers the most growth potential, in connection with mobile devices. Both readers and advertisers will continue to favour the most interesting, useful and innovative sites. So make sure that yours is no exception to this rule!

Idea 1: Offer quality video and TV on the web

Web ideas 1 Quality video and web TV 2 Social networks 3 Search engines 4 Databases 5 Good journalism

“By 2012, online video will account for 30 percent of the traffic on the Internet worldwide,” said Steve Filler, marketing manager of Videojug Corp. for the United Kingdom, at the IFRA Beyond the Printed Word conference in Budapest in November.

This and similar forecasts have encouraged newspaper websites to take the importance of video seriously. That said, it is vital to offer more than just several moving images. El País in Spain uses high-quality video. “We have started to offer HD (high-definition) video, a format that is of interest for users as well as some advertisers, such as film production companies, for whom offering a high-quality spot represents a profitable added value,” said Alberto Tascón of Prisacom S.A. Norway’s Verdens Gang (VG) is an old hand in the use of video and is now turning its attention to Internet TV. “We have acquired the broadcasting rights on web TV for the Norwegian football league in 2009, which will undoubtedly be both a promising and demanding operation,” says Torry Pedersen, CEO of VG. Idea 2: Use the potential of social networks Facebook, Bebo, Tuenti or MySpace… there are many and very different types, but all the social networks have succeeded in attracting large numbers of users. How can a newspaper use these networks? Pedersen explains: “Blogs, video uploads, discussion forums and other

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web 2.0 features are integrated in the editorial storytelling. Furthermore, we operate a community with 70 percent of all Norwegian teenagers registered as an stand-alone entity.

We have also begun to promote our stuff using Facebook for instance. These are early days, but who knows: In a few years we may be talking about ‘FBO’ just as much as we’re discussing ‘SEO’ today.”

Andy Phelan, chief editor of Herald Express, goes even further and sees the future as follows: “If our websites were based on the social networking model – our users sign up to our online community – and we were able to gather data on interests and purchasing history, we could offer a personalised advertising solutions. Imagine a scenario where a member of our site sets up an ‘I love running’ group, which attracts a couple of thousand members. We know who those are and we can allow interested advertisers to reach them very easily. We could go on to organise live events, extending our brand and offering sponsorship opportunities to relevant partners.”

For example, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Le Figaro are already experimenting with this strategy. Since December, on “Mon Figaro,” Internet users can create a personalised page called “profil,” on which the articles selected by the reader are stored as well as the comments he has put below the articles published on lefigaro.fr. By illustrating this profile with a photo or an image (“avatar”), the Internet users can be recognised by the other readers when they participate in the life of the Figaro site through comments.

Idea 3: Have a clear strategy towards search engines and searches In addition to the advertising connected to local searches and the advertising networks bringing together newspapers and search engines, a website must take into account other aspects linked to what Torry Pedersen calls the DNA of the web: search.

Newspapers must optimise video search technology “to be competitive long term, or to gain competitive advantages and further monetise. It’s now mission critical,” says Jake Matthews, VP and head of Video Search, 10e20. “They also must engage in understanding how to leverage social websites in order to get their message and content out there.”

To do so, they will have to use social networks. The search engines are already attempting to discover how these networks can help improve the precision of their results.

This is why newspapers must implement Idea 2 and share their articles, become respected users and promote their contents on the social networks.

Idea 4: Open access to archives and databases In 2008, several renowned newspapers opened up access to their archives and databases to web users. Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun will soon offer new database services, such as access to newsphotos taken between 1874 and 1989. The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph in Canada will open its archives on the Internet via Google. Spain’s La Vanguardia has opened access to its archive with the following results: during the first month of free consultation to the paper’s 127 years of back material, the newspaper recorded 4.5 million page views.

Altogether, over 150,000 unique users from 106 countries have accessed these pages.

Rob Curley, an acknowledged guru for everything concerning the web, stated in a report published by the World Association of Newspapers: “Embrace databases. Calendars.

Restaurants. Churches, Taxes. Home sales. Traffic tickets. Crime. Anything that can be searched like that should be on your site. People want that sort of information, and we should want to make sure that they know the newspaper can give it to them.”

Idea 5: Good journalism is still important Rupert Murdoch knows that in order to sell a product, it must be of an irreproachable quality. “If papers provide readers with news they can trust, we’ll see gains in circulation. For all of my working life, I have believed that there is a social and commercial value in delivering accurate news and information in a cheap and timely way. In this century, the form of delivery may change, but the potential audience for our content will multiply many times over,” the Australian magnate wrote in an open letter published in The Australian, one of his newspapers. There are many who share his view and are continuing to invest in their journalists.

”

Moving images will be a commodity for news sites. Video will further bring down the barriers between TV and the web. Although I don’t think our kind of websites ever will become video-only mediums, mastering video is fundamental when it comes to staying relevant in the battle of people’s amount of time to spend on media.

TORRY PEDERSEN, CEO, VG

On the web: W Interview

with Torry Pedersen, VG Link: 7698 W Interview with Alberto Tascón, Prisacom Link: 7699 W Multiblog of Beyond the Printed Word, the IFRA digital publishing conference that took place in November. www.iframagazine.com/ beyond_08

Mari Pascual pascual@ifra.com Prisacom S.A. www.ifrasearch.com

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5 top ideas: IFRA members

IFRA EXPO OFFERS MEMBERS, BOTH PUBLISHERS AND SUPPLIERS, AN IDEAL PLATFORM TO EXCHANGE IDEAS.

IFRA offers a wide range of services to the industry. Members are the main bene ciaries of IFRA’s work – advanced knowledge, exclusive services as well as special member rates. Here are some tips to make the most of your membership privileges during the coming year.

Idea 1: Sign up for free ePaper subscription today!

IFRA membership advantages: 1 Get a free ePaper subscription to IFRA Magazine 2 Set the agenda for Events and Exhibitions 3 Training and Newsplex offer 4 Benchmark your printing quality with INCQC 5 Be a part of eRev 2011

Get every employee in your IFRA-member company a personal ePaper subscription to IFRA Magazine. It’s free. Simply encourage them to fill out the online form at www.iframagazine.com/subscribe. IFRA Magazine is one of your top member benefits, with its industryleading coverage of news publishing technologies and strategic innovations. But only a few of your top managers receive print copies each month.

Now, through the magazine’s ePaper edition, which can be read both online and offline, IFRA’s knowledge and expertise can benefit a much larger portion of your company. It makes your employees more valuable to you because of their increased awareness of major industry developments worldwide. And it involves them more thoroughly in your valuable IFRA membership.

Idea 2: Build an event programme; join the exhibition network Members have a wealth of opportunities to network and gain valuable information at IFRA’s numerous events. But if you want to get even more involved, we encourage you to get into direct contact with the IFRA Events Department with any suggestions or ideas you may have about an upcoming, or possible new, event. It could be a hot topic or preferable speaker or perfect venue.

We welcome all ideas to make the perfect programme for you. IFRA exhibitions and workshops offer members an excellent platform to get an overview of technological trends in a short timeframe. IFRA supplier members can benefit from substantial discounts on visibility opportunities and preferred allocation at IFRA Expo.

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hip opportunities Idea 3: Call on IFRA Training and IFRA Newsplex IFRA Training supports your staff to develop their skills and competencies to succeed in increasingly challenging times. The IFRA Training programme consists of more than 30 different courses and hundreds of modules that focus on specific areas in the print and digital publication process. The courses were developed and are held by international training specialists with many years of experience in the media industry.

As an IFRA member, we also offer you specific company courses that are tailored to the needs of your organisation and are carried out on-site in your organisation. IFRA Newsplex, a service exclusively for IFRA members, supports your organisation to plan and implement changes in the newsroom to meet the organisational and digital challenges of a modern news operation. In projects in Europe and the United States, the Newsplex team develops newsroom strategies in close collaboration with respective companies’ executive teams, and designs newsroom operations taking into consideration future processes, structures, staff skill profiles and needed infrastructure.

Idea 4: Shore up printing quality by participating in INCQC Finding out how their performance ranks on an international scale is of major interest to many IFRA members. For this reason, at two-year intervals since 1994 IFRA has organised the competition for membership in the International Newspaper Color Quality Club (INCQC) as a high-quality printing benchmark for newspaper printers from all over the world. The doors will open once again in 2009 for the competition. Now is the time to prepare and register for participation.

For the first contest in 1994, 65 newspaper titles took part; in 2008, the number increased to nearly 200. Initially, the Color Quality Club was an exclusively European event. In the meantime, however, participants come from every continent. Today four-colour printing is firmly established and the emphasis is on ensuring consistently high-quality newspaper printing. In view of this development, we have adapted the rules of the competition to suit the changed demands. We will announce the instructions early on in 2009 and open registration for the new competition. Contact us if you are interested, or register right away. Visit www.colorqualityclub.org.

Idea 5: Get involved in eRev 2011 Members of IFRA’s latest Executive Programme, eRev 2011, will soon learn first-hand how developing new business ventures while times are hard pays off. In February, eRev members will visit the Schibsted group in Oslo, Norway, a media group that threw everything at the Internet despite the fact that the dotcom bubble had just burst. Thanks to its strategic decision to keep devoting resources to developing online services over the past dozen years or so, Schibsted now derives 62 percent of its operating profit from online activities. The Oslo trip will be the first of six meetings during the three-year eRev Programme. Fourteen companies are now signed up for the initiative, but there are still slots for more. If you are interested, contact Stig Nordqvist, director Digital Media Research: nordqvist@ifra.com.

IFRA is very present in Asia and other regions around the world. Above, Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor in chief of The Bangkok Post, opened Publish Asia 2008, which was held in Macao, China.

Publish Asia 2009 will be held in Bangkok, 28-29 May.

Upcoming events: W 27-28 January: DagsVara 2009, Stockholm W 12-13 February: Newsroom Summit, Prague W 15-21 February: European Study Tour: Innovative Concepts in Advertising W 5-6 March: News in Printing, Paris

Serving members on a daily basis Last year, IFRA appointed a manager solely dedicated to serving our members on a daily basis. “One of the best ways we can help is by getting you actively involved in all of IFRA’s activities. Overall, the more members make use of our wide range of opportunities to network, communicate and get updated about the industry’s development, the more you will benefit!” says Birke Becker, IFRA Membership Development manager.

IFRA staff reader@ifra.com www.ifra.com www.ifrasearch.com

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IFRA offers members a helping hand with crisis IFRA: What would you recommend to IFRA members and the industry about how to best tackle this present crisis? And what is IFRA doing to address the crisis?

REINER MITTELBACH CEO, IFRA

Reiner Mittelbach joined IFRA in 2001 and has since helped to expand IFRA‘s activities, not only geographically but also strategically.

Among many projects, he played a major role in shifting IFRA‘s focus to also include the business and strategic aspects of publishing, especially those associated with technology.

Here he discusses how IFRA can help members weather the present crisis and beyond.

Dean Roper roper@ifra.com Complete interview: Direct Link 7740 www.ifrasearch.com

MITTELBACH: First of all, we will adjust our topics in all our programmes, our conferences, training, and so on, to reflect what needs to be done now: how you can save money, and where there may still be some revenue potential. But mostly it will be about how to save money in a proactive and efficient way. As for what I would recommend in general, branding and segmentation definitely come to mind. I think we will see publishers working on their brands, those that follow an umbrella concept. The fast-moving consumer goods industry has been smartly segmenting its products for many years. Why aren’t newspapers reacting to that and following the same model?

IFRA: What would be the one idea you would give to IFRA members to make the most of their membership in 2009?

MITTELBACH: Obviously this crisis is real and reaches all across the globe. Therefore, news publishing companies are, naturally, focused on getting through this crisis and the uncertainties that lie ahead. And we are indeed here to help in that respect. But I would strongly recommend to also seek out opportunities and positive aspects of the business during this time. There will be a time when we will have economic growth again, and probably, the news publishing world will look different then – both on the publisher side and the vendor side. I think it is extremely important to be prepared for that moment, and if you really want to be prepared, you must deal with your future today. How should I strategically position my company so one will be ready once this crisis is over? It is important that companies still invest in keeping their personnel ahead of the curve, participate in our conferences, get high-quality training, and read our research reports and regular publications to get as much guidance and input as possible.

IFRA: What is IFRA’s greatest strength in helping its members?

MITTELBACH: Over the years we have travelled extensively in search of best-practice activities and we will continue to do that, to bring our members great examples of how the business is being done and how it will be done in the future. I think in this current crisis where companies are cutting spending in travel, this is where IFRA as an international organisation can really help our members by providing a worldwide perspective. For example, starting with our board. Every time we meet board members, we get first-hand feedback about what is going on around the world. There is no filter. That clearly gives us a knowledge advantage. Then, of course, we have our regional offices and committees where we are able to communicate directly to our members. Also, I think it is important to realise that we have quite a number of experts, not only in print but also in digital platforms. And they are not limited to our Research department. I think we have a number of the industry’s most knowledgeable people in our editorial department, in the way they research, report and present their articles. When it comes to connecting people, our Events department is at the core of many of the industry’s key networks. And when I think about the vendor community, it is important that we continue to be the platform of exchange between publishers and vendors, as both develop new products. This dynamic exchange of opinion and input takes place in our exhibitions, conferences, our committees and so on. And we will not cut back on our events for this year.

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IFRA Board 2009: More glo Europe

Americas

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

ew

Marc Z. Kramer

VICE PRESIDENT Group Managing Director Associated Newspapers Ltd London, United Kingdom

New York Daily News New York, U.S.A. (7662)

Board member since 2003

Mark S. Mikolajczyk

Luc Rademakers

President and Publisher

General Manager, Newspapers

Florida Today

Concentra Media NV

Melbourne, Florida, U.S.A.

Hasselt, Belgium

Board member since 2006

(3276)

Board member since 2007

Vice President of Operations

Director General

Empresa El Mercurio S.A.P.

Le Parisien/Aujourd’hui

Santiago, Chile

Paris, France (3277)

Board member since 2008

(5234)

ew

Jean Hornain

(3278)

N

Rodolfo Álvarez Rapaport

Board member since 2005

(7663)

Kevin Beatty

CEO

Board member since 2008

Board member since 2008

ew

Johnston Press

Montreal, Canada (7661)

N

Chief Executive

La Presse Ltée

N

(7664)

N

Fabrice Nora

ew

Enter numbers in parenthesis online at www.iframagazine.com for more information about individual Board members.

ew

IFRA expanded its board of directors from 18 to 25 members during its annual General Assembly on 29 October in Amsterdam in response to the association’s increasing importance among news publishers around the world.

John Fry

President and publisher

Board member since 2008

Board expands

N

Guy Crevier

Board Director CFPP-Compagnie Française des Papiers de Presse Paris, France Board member since 2008

(7665)

Iñaki Arechabaleta Torróntegui Director General of Regional Markets Vocento S.A. Zamudio, Spain Board member since 2006

Reiner Mittelbach IFRA CEO (3293)

(3282)

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obal than ever Asia / Middle East Media3

Board member since 2001

Moscow, Russia (3286)

Board member since 2008

General Manager

Aftonbladet Nya Medier AB

Press Publishing Group

Stockholm, Sweden

Belgrade, Serbia (5233)

Board member since 2008

Mik채el Pentik채inen

Mohamed K. Alayyan

President Sanoma Corporation Sanoma News Ltd. Sanomat, Finland

Owner & CEO

Board member since 2006

ew

Djordje T. Stefanovic

Editor in Chief

(7666)

N

Kalle Jungkvist

Board member since 2007

ew

Strategy Director

CEO Berner Gruppen AS Oslo, Norway

N

Vasily Gatov

TREASURER Tore Stangebye

(7668)

Jordan United Press Amman, Jordan (3290)

Board member since 2006

(3287)

Managing Director

President and CEO

Al-Yaum Media House

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Manila, The Philippines

(5208)

(7669)

Kasturi Balaji

Horst Pirker Chairman of the Board of Styria Medien AG, Graz, and Publisher of Die Presse Graz, Austria (3288)

ew

N

PRESIDENT

Board member since 1999

Board member since 2008

Pichai Chuensuksawadi

The Post Publishing Public Co Ltd

Kasturi & Sons

Bangkok, Thailand

Chennai, India (7670)

Board member since 2004

Steven Tan

Director

Deputy Chairman

Tamedia AG

The Printers (Mysore) Pvt. Ltd.

Star Publications

Zurich, Switzerland

Bangalore, India

Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

(3284)

Board member since 2004

(3294)

Board member since 2008

ew

K.N. Shanth Kumar

CEO

(3295)

N

Martin Kall

Board member since 2003

(7667)

Editor in Chief

Director

Board member since 2008

Board member since 2008

ew

Spokesman for the (FAZ) Board Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH Frankfurt am Main, Germany

ew

Saleh A. Al-Humaidan

Board member since 2007

N

N

Sandy Prieto-Romualdez

Tobias Trevisan

(7671)

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THE MIDDLE EAST CONFERENCE CONCLUDED WITH A DISCUSSION ON THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN THE REGION.

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We’re ready. Are you?

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A single newsroom is no longer optional. A single newsroom is here, now.

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We’re ready. Are you?

What: 4th IFRA Conference for the Middle East Where: Cairo, Egypt When: 25 and 26 November Participants: Approximately 80 Multiblog: www.iframagazine.com/mideast_08 Many of the participants in the fourth IFRA Conference for the Middle East emphasised that the experiences of their colleagues from all over the world act as an important guide to meeting the challenges the industry will face in the near future.

Newspapers in the Middle East are recording high readership figures as well as a growth-oriented trend in the areas of population development and advertising spend. In contrast, the average amount of time spent on reading newspapers is continuously in decline. The new digital technologies – especially the Internet – have not to date experienced a sufficient dynamic development to challenge the traditional newspaper. However, they will continue to try to and can be expected to achieve it. Therefore, it makes sense to be suitably prepared.

The conference, which was split into two parallel groups of topics, included lectures on the more technical aspects of newspaper production as well as the business aspects. Topics such as motivating personnel, the WAP protocol for development of the mobile web or the importance of a newspaper brand were dealt with, as well as prepress and print workflows or recommendations for ink savings.

Ziad Tuéni, director of the Lebanese Cooperative Printing Company S.A.L., presented participants with a number of tips (such as are already being implemented in countries with a more highly developed economy) to apply in their own businesses.

The conference was complemented by a parallel exhibition featuring some of the industry’s leading suppliers.

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Beyond the Printed Word : converge your resources What: 16th IFRA Digital Media Conference Where: Budapest, Hungary When: 20-21 November Participants : 220 Multiblog : www.iframagazine.com/Beyond_08 The eagerly awaited presentation of Kjell Aamot, CEO of Schibsted, did not disappoint. It is one of the presentations that is still available on the conference multiblog (www.iframagazine.com/beyond_08). In what resembled a strategy master class, the head of the group that makes a lot of money on the Internet explained how his company is preparing for the future. It is worth noting how strongly he emphasised: “Growing the traffic on your website is the key to new revenues. At the same time, do not fear cannibalisation and accept competition between your own brands. Whereas it is vital to maximise the links between your sites, you should also use Google and your print newspapers to steer the audience towards the web.” Aamot also confirmed his belief in free newspapers and explained how 20 Minutes in France had successfully set up the e24 business website (a new Schibsted brand) at the time of its launch.

The conference focused on how to grow revenues on the Internet. One of the key approaches to this is to fundamentally overhaul marketing methods. Théo Blanco (marketing manager of Upsala Nya Tidning in Sweden) gave a detailed description of the success of his new organisation. Combining editorial creativity and advertising is a must, according to Jan Helin (chief editor of Aftonbladet in Sweden) and Andy Phelan (chief editor of Herald Express, U.K.). The iPhone, social networks, video, latest trends (with surprises) in the use of new media, and an in-depth presentation of senior citizen Internet users by the specialists from Bayard Presse provided the conference participants with other, fresh ideas.

Focus on senior citizen surfers at the conference: Internet users who spend more online, said Hervé Sauzay (above photo) of the Bayard Presse group.

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Calendar of IFRA events January 15-16

IFRA Magazine is published monthly in English, French, German, Russian and Spanish Chief Executive Officer: Reiner Mittelbach Director of Publications: Kerry J. Northrup Editor in Chief: Dean Roper Deputy Editor (French): Valérie Arnould Deputy Editor (Spanish): Mari Pascual Senior Editors: Charlotte Janischewski (German) and Brian Veseling (English) Editor / Analyst: Michael Kaczmarek Correspondents: Steve Shipside, Oliver Northrup (photos), Christian Pradel (graphics), Sandra Hess and Esimee Estelle Sutantyo (cover art) Translation Services Manager: Birgit Becker Translation Editors: Irene Martinez, Sylvie Bier, Paul Callaghan, Solange Domisse, Regina Hansen, Delphine Theophanides, Petra Warmuth Art Director: Gordon Steiger Print Publishing Manager: Stephan Leiß Digital Publishing Manager: Anton Jolkovski Sales: Bettina Falk, Nicole Leiß, Horst Schmidt Subscriptions: Renate Hempel, Iris von der Marwitz E-mail news: editor@ifra.com Telephone: +49.6151.7336

Intro to media convergent journalism (IFRA training / English) Bucharest, Romania

January 20-22

Paper and ink in printing process (IFRA training / English) Chennai, India

January 27-28

DagsVara 2009 (IFRA conference / Swedish) Stockholm, Sweden

February 2-3

Multimedia storytelling (IFRA training / English) Darmstadt, Germany

February 12-13

8th International Newsroom Summit (IFRA conference / English), Prague, Czech Republic

October 12-15

IFRA Expo 2009 (IFRA exhibition and conferences) Vienna, Austria Multiblog: iframagazine.com/ifraexpo_09

For more events and details, visit www.ifra.com/events, or contact: IFRA, Events Department, Washingtonplatz, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany, tel.: +49.6151.733-6, e-mail: events@ifra.com

Advertisements in IFRA Magazine January 2009 Baldwin Technology Company

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Tera Digital Publishing

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WoodWing Software BV

Copyright 2009 IFRA, Washingtonplatz 1, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany All rights reserved. Republication or duplication of any article, picture or graphic contained in the print issue or of any material posted on www.iframagazine.com is prohibited without permission. Contact Dean Roper (roper@ifra.com).

No responsibility can be assumed for unsolicited manuscripts. Signed contributions do not necessarily express the opinion of the editor.

For reprints contact Bettina Falk (falk@ifra.com).

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Subscription-Service Renate Hempel & Iris von der Marwitz, Subscriptions, Customer Services Tel.: +49.6151.733-791; Fax: +49.6151.733-800; E-mail: subscriptions@ifra.com

Advertising IFRA Magazine offers a variety of ad possibilities and exposure to an international audience.

Bettina Falk, Advertising and Circulation Manager, Tel.: +49.6151.733-783; E-mail: falk@ifra.com Nicole Leiß, Advertising Executive, Tel.: +49.6151.733-785; E-mail: leiss@ifra.com Advertising rates and general terms and conditions published in Media Information 2009 are applicable.

Please check for details on www.iframagazine.com/mediainfo.

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Technology support for IFRA Magazine is provided by and compensation paid to: Adobe, NewPress, WoodWing and A&F Computersysteme.

Empowering the News Publishing Industry

CONFERENCE 12 – 13 February 2009 Prague, Czech Republic

8th International Newsroom Summit Efficient measures for tough times ■ Syndication, standardisation and outsourcing ■ The changing newsroom: multiplatform workflow and integration ■ Talent performance and organizational resilience ■ Will newspapers evolve to “news brands” New technologies for tomorrow‘s readers and newsrooms

IFRA Events Team Phone: +49.6151.733-6 events@ifra.com www.ifra.com/newsroomsummit

Empowering the News Publishing Industry

CO NF ERENCE 27 – 28 januari 2009 Hotell Foresta, Lidingö (Stockholm)

STUDY TOUR 15 – 21 February 2009 Sweden, U.K., Austria, Switzerland

DagsVara 2009 Innovative Concepts Årets mötesplats för mediehus in Advertising och leverantörer i Sverige Utdrag ur programmet: Nya annonsformat och annonsflöden med ny teknik IT-kostnader, outsourcing på gott och ont, samt Open Source som ett alternativ Framtidens mediekonsumtion och arbetssätt Hur används digitala sociala medier Bild och foto – möjligheter och dagliga utmaningar Etiska och juridiska aspekter på nya tekniska möjligheter

Meet market competition and change …

Meet customer needs!

During the trip you will learn and discuss various best practices that will help you to enhance your business: ■ ■ ■ ■

Innovative ad formats offline and online New pricing concepts How Advertising and Editorial could work together How to create value for users and advertisers

Pris: 6400 SEK för IFRA-medlemmar 9400 SEK för icke medlemmar Webbinfo: Fullständigt program och anmälan på www.ifra.com/dagsvara

Sponsorer

buildpix get more out of FotoWare

IFRA Study Tours Team Christiane Schmidt Phone: +49.6151.733-771 studytours@ifra.com www.ifra.com/studytours