The Digital Media India 2015 conference organized by WanIfra India, which will be held in New Delhi on 10 and 11 February 2015, is expected to be attended by more than 100 delegates from across India and its neighbouring countries. The opening keynote at the event will be delivered by Raghav Bahl, founder and former MD, Network 18. The conference will contain sessions on the content and tools to reach digital audiences; retooling the traditional newsroom for digital news delivery; deciphering audience data for better editorial products and business; and, digital revenue models. Kalle Jungkvist, senior advisor to the CEO of Schibsted Media, one of the most successful media companies in Europe, will deliver the keynote address on the second day of the conference. Jungkvist was the former editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, a 180-year-old media company based out of Sweden.
Social media platforms
Trushar Barot, the Apps Editor for BBC World Service, will share findings of some of the editorial experiments carried out by BBC News during the last Indian general election. The rise in chat apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat and Line over the past year has lead to a revolution in the way people are communicating with each other and sharing news. While the use of traditional social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is well established in the industry, there are opportunities and challenges in reaching potentially millions of new readers and audiences through these mobile-first platforms. Barot says, “These instant messaging platforms give us an additional distribution method to potentially penetrate markets that we may not be able to do through more conventional means.”
New media and changing digital space
IndianExpress.com was redesigned and relaunched in early 2014. Around the same time, Indian Express also shifted its gears on social networking to package its serious content for the perhaps ‘not-as-serious’ audience. It was an amazing experience and the response to the new tools and formats that helped package content specifically for social media. Nandagopal Rajan, new media editor at Indian Express will sum this up in his presentation ‘Tapping social for IndianExpress.com.’
Matt Lindsay, an economist specializing in revenue analysis and pricing strategies will share his approach to revenue maximization from digital publishing and present examples of how publishers should analyze their data when determining an optimal meter level. Divya Bollareddy, president IT and Digital, will share the continuously evolving strategies that are keeping Sakshi, the Telugu language daily, at the helm of the fast-moving and ever-changing digital space. Nathalie Malinarich, editor, Mobile and New Formats at BBC News Online will share her experiences about how the explosive growth of mobile is changing the way video is produced and consumed. Ben Shaw, director of Global Consulting at Wan-Ifra will chair the panel discussion on ‘Should news publishers be selective in choosing their digital advertising partners?’
Pre-conference workshops
On 9 February, two pre-conference workshops are being organized at the same venue. The first workshop, Digital Content Strategy, will be led by Kalle Jungkvist of Schibsted. The second workshop, Pricing Strategy for digital news publishers, which is for business and revenue executives, will be led by USA-based economist Matt Lindsay.
