The global economic crisis has magnified the challenges facing newspapers everywhere, but some companies are better positioned than others to rebound once the crisis ends. They will be sharing their approaches at the “Managing the Crisis” global conference, to be held at the Frontline Media Club in London on 28 and 29 September next.
Among the speakers will be Andreas Wiele, Head of BILD Division and Magazines and an Executive Board Member of Axel Springer, Europe’s largest newspaper publisher, which posted record profits last year despite the crisis.
Full details of the conference, one of the first to be conducted under the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, can be found here. WAN and IFRA have come together to create the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
“Newspaper publishers face an increasingly complex world in which continual and rapid change is the norm. In a period of uncertainty, asking questions and framing scenarios will give confidence to leaders in this industry to go forward, and that’s what this conference is all about,” said Dietmar Schantin, Group Director for Editorial, Advertising and General Management for WAN-IFRA.
“Those who act now will be in prime position to nurture and create products and services in the future. That’s the upside of a recession – it does indeed force a different way of thinking and is a catalyst for change,” he said.
Also among the speakers are Anna Kirah, a design anthropologist and psychologist with CPH Design 123 in Norway; Vasily Gatov, Strategy Director of MEDIA3 in Russia: Richard Wellins, a Senior Vice President for Development Dimensions International, a global personnel management consultancy: Moritz Wuttke, the CEO of Publicitas’ Chinese operations; Theo Blanco, Senior Sales and Marketing Director for Upsala Nya Tidning in Sweden; Terry Maguire, Principal with International Media Development & Counsel and Advisor of the Monaco Media Forum; and others to be announced.
The conference will focus on how to deal with permanent upheaval by becoming more flexible and by encouraging a culture in which innovation and the ability to rapidly adapt are rewarded and benefit from the experiences of Russian media, which is hard-hit by the current crisis but is benefitting from the lessons learned in the 1998-1999 state debt default crisis. Russian TV, radio, newspapers and magazines are suffering ad revenue declines but survive and are planning for the future.