The Digital Media India conference from Wan-Ifra, the World Association of News Publishers, is slated for 2-4 March 2021. In its 10th edition this year, the event will be organized virtually for the first time. It will discuss digital revenue and technology challenges for news publishers and provide strategic direction for driving the business this year.
While the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted almost every business, it also brought about a positive change in the reading habits of people. The consumption of content on digital platforms has increased and has lead to an increase in digital subscription and advertising revenues for many publishers worldwide. Digital Media India 2021 will bring in case studies of successful publishers from across the world who are sustaining this ‘Corona-bump’ business opportunity and will highlight the top trends for the year.
Some of the topics of the conference include:
Digital innovation: What makes the difference and how to pivot to be a digital-friendly news organization
Digital revenue: Managing the subscription and advertising revenues, finding the right mix
Product strategy: How a product lead strategy helps better retention of subscribers
Revenue ideas: Going beyond advertising, other ideas including content to commerce that help to ramp up revenue
Technology: Using data to develop user experiences, best practices
Technology: Cookies and privacy, how to maneuver the conundrum
Digital transformation: Case studies of the successful transformation of the business for digital growth
The conference timing will be 10 am – 12 pm and 3 pm – 5 pm on all the three days.
South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020
The conference will also honor the winners of South Asian Digital Media Awards 2020 on 3 March afternoon. South Asian Digital Media Awards is a competition recognizing outstanding work done by news publishers in digital media. Twenty judges from across the globe have evaluated the entries in the ten categories of the competition and selected the winners.
The event includes deep dive sessions and various sponsorship opportunities for suppliers to showcase their products and services to the news publishing industry.
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.
