WAN-IFRA India 2017 on 12-14 September in Chennai will discuss the trend in the news media industry and how the future is unfolding and will try to offer a balanced view of these issues. The event will be back to Chennai after six years.
Technology has helped in increasing the consumption volume of news through print or digital. While publishers attempt to harness the advantage of platform publishing, it has also posed the challenges of credibility of news, quality of journalism, etc. Fact checking and rechecking that was part of classic journalism has taken a back seat. News publishers are now responding to this challenge with initiatives to protect the credibility of the news they present.
WAN-IFRA India 2017 will have for the first time World Editors Forum (WEF) South Asia Summit. There will be two parallel conference tracks: a) World Editors Forum South Asia Summit for editors and publishers and b) World Printers Forum Conference for newspaper production managers. The event will also feature learning workshops on investigative journalism and business models for print production on 12 September. Google Newslab session, breakfast session sponsored by CCI and breakout session sponsored by Facebook will attempt to add more value to the program and are available for publishers on pre-registration basis.
World Editors Forum track
The first day of the conference, 13 September, the World Editors Forum track, will see keynote address on the topic ‘News media organisations and the sustainable future’ by David Callaway, chief executive officer, The Street Inc., USA. A panel discussion on ‘Future of news media business’ will follow Callaway’s address.
After the opening session, in the first session, Mukund Padmanabhan, editor, The Hindu will talk about how The Hindu increased the cover price of the newspaper in Chennai and still maintain its hold over readers.
Raj Chengappa, group editorial director, India Today Group, will speak on the topic ‘Reimagining India’s No. 1 news magazine’ while Sitaram Shankar, managing editor, Network 18 will argue that the classic journalism in the digital world is not dead. A breakout session sponsored by Facebook will close the first session.
In the second session, Shadi Rahimi of Al Jazeera will speak on social media reach and fake news; Michael Schmidt, media consultant, South Africa will highlight the importance of field reporting and archival research; and Unni Balakrishnan, chief of news, Mathrubhumi TV will explore the topic of news credibility in the digital age.
