‘Growing big in digital’ – Theme of Digital Media India 2020 conference

South Asian Digital Media Awards 2019 to be presented at the conference

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WAN IFRA Digital Media India 2020
WAN IFRA Digital Media India 2020

Is the business of digital journalism a viable reality, or, is it a bubble waiting to burst? Will our readers ever be ready to pay for journalism? Is digital journalism limited to established players? How does one sustain digital journalism in a region that is at constant tussle with misinformation? What are the alternate streams of revenue? These questions and more will be addressed during WAN-IFRA’s Digital Media India 2020 Conference. Now in its ninth year, the conference will host more than 150 senior news publishing executives for discussions around growth in digital revenue and technology.

The conference, which will see a smorgasbord of business, digital and editorial topics, will be held at Holiday Inn, Delhi Aerocity on 18-19 February 2020. The tone of the conference will be set in motion with a keynote address on ‘Business out of digital journalism and the experience of digital transformation’, followed by an interactive question and answer session.

The first day of the two-day conference will involve discussions and debate around revenue trends in the industry. Interactive sessions will involve questioning the very essence of digital and programmatic advertising and how one can bridge the gap between expectations of the advertiser and publisher.

The day will also mull over alternate revenue sources for the news media business, discussing, in-depth, how a publisher can drive their business to profitability. Gone are the days when the biggest revenue source of a media house was advertising revenue. Partnerships and alliances between publishers are the new normal; as is content syndication, e-commerce, podcasts, sponsorship and events.

South Asian Digital Media Awards 2019

The first day of the conference will close with the South Asian Digital Media Awards 2019, which saw more than 70 entries from over 20 media companies. An international jury comprising high ranked professionals from the media industry chose 34 winners for the fifth edition of the awards.

The second day of the conference will cover the over-the-top (OTT) scenario in South Asia. What are the threats, challenges and opportunities that accompany online streaming in region? The Indian media market currently hosts more than 30 over-the-top (OTT) players. The country is expected to overtake South Korea in the next five years to become the world’s eighth biggest OTT player.

Other topics to be presented at the conference include a discussion on newsroom culture, video strategies, technology for enabling high revenue and high performance organization. The conference will close with a panel discussion on future of news media business and the opportunities in South Asia by chief executive officers of leading news media organizations.

The event includes a mini info-table expo, and leading suppliers will display their products and services for the news publishing industry. The event is supported by Quintype, protecmedia, CCI and PPI.

Complete details of the program and the list of speakers are available here.

More information from the conference can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wanifraindiaconference and on Twitter with the hashtag #DMI2020.

For a calendar of upcoming WAN-IFRA events, please visit events.wan-ifra.org

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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