Cautious start to Wan-Ifra show in Mumbai

Mumbai is hosting the show after a gap of 12 years.

 

“While cost control and sustainability was the main topic of the last edition of the Wan-Ifra conference held in New Delhi, growth and innovation are the key topics for this edition,” said Magdoom Mohamed, managing director, Wan-Ifra South Asia, India, during the inauguration.

 

More than 600 delegates have registered for the conference, while more than 65 exhibitors from India and abroad are showcasing their production and services, including printing presses, pre-press equipment, editorial systems, archiving systems, digital media management and mobile app developments. Entry to the expo is free for business visitors and is expected to attract more than 1500 visitors over three days.

 

The conference is divided into three segments – newsroom summit, printing summit and cross media advertising summit.

 

Following Mohamed’s opening speech, K Balaji, chairman, Wan-Ifra South Asia Committee, and director, Kasturi & Sons, reiterated that India is the healthiest newspaper market across the globe and Mumbai is the perfect venue for the event. “In India, we have more opportunities as compared to other countries,” he said.

 

During the inaugural session of the conference, the Wan-Ifra World Young Reader News Publisher of the Year award was presented to Indonesia’s Kompas Daily, for its multimedia approach to reaching a young audience and helping them become more active in society.

 

 

The newspaper “has had a major role in creating new citizens capable of sustaining their own freedom of expression and peaceful change of government, two basic elements for any democracy,” said Jacob Mathew, past president of Wan-Ifra and executive editor of Malayala Manorama, who presented the award.

 

Jakob Oetama, president commissioner, Kompas Gramedia, the largest media conglomerate in Indonesia, said, “We have always tried to get better and better and to keep up with what we consider is the best. We have also tried to maintain the same philosophy in our journalism, and I think it is one of the reasons why we have succeeded so far.”

 

While South Asian publishers continue to increase their print business, they are also undergoing a digital revolution. The importance of print and digital together was addressed in the keynote address by Patrick Daniel, editor-in-chief of the English, Malay and Tamil Media Group of Singapore Press Holdings, who spoke about the importance of remaining relevant for a technology savvy population while keeping print alive and kicking.

 

“The revenue of newspaper publication houses is falling and it will happen in India as well. It may take three to five years. Mobile/social media/ analytics are the major forces and are eating our lunch. In Singapore, only mobile is growing, the rest of the mediums are going down. Yet, mainstream media is still the most effective source of news,” he said.

 

During his speech, Daniel, who has three decades of experience in newspaper production, said there are four things that the industry must do to meet future demands and challenges. “We will have to transform newsrooms into an integrated print/digital solution. We will have to diversify sources of revenue. We will have to cut cost, and we will have to rethink the way we operate. Amidst all this, we will also have to maintain high journalistic standards. Basically, we will have to centralise the operations,” he said.

 

Understanding the 24/7 relationship with the audience and knowing, reaching, connecting and engaging them will help transform our industry, he concluded.