The world’s foremost conference of news media executives this week confronted the headwinds of transformation from print to multi-media with a stellar program in New York before a record 500 attendees from 45 countries.
Brought together more than 60 speakers across a world-class plenary program at The TimesCenter and a pre-Congress seminar of international case studies and a “media disruption tour” of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Presented 30 prizes for outstanding achievement in revenue, audience, and brand development. Medellín-based El Colombiano won “Best in Show.”
Rewarded 7 companies for investments in the process of innovation with the Global Innovation Awards, presented by Newscycle Solutions. Storyful was the worldwide winner.
“It was a world-class conference in world-class venues that told the story of news media companies winning the transformation battle,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “Across four locations in Manhattan, the INMA conversation and experience played out on a world stage.”
INMA revealed the results of a World Congress delegate survey by RAM (Research and Analysis of Media) which showed a stark focus on digital transformation yet with rising emphasis on mobile and data analytics and declining emphasis on consumer paid content and paywalls.
The RAM survey of World Congress delegates showed:
69% said mobile revenue streams were “absolutely crucial,” compared with 48% in 2013.
58% reported data analytics as “absolutely crucial” vs. 41% two years ago.
46% believed consumer paid content and 27% believed paywall development were “absolutely crucial” in 2015, compared with 59% and 48%, respectively, two years ago.
Despite shifts inside the bigger digital picture, the RAM survey of INMA World Congress delegates paints a clear picture of a news media industry coming to grips with a shift in consumer and advertiser attitudes about print vs. digital.
The INMA World Congress focused on broad themes such as transformation, reinvention, and innovation among the top media companies. Yet the metaphor that hung over the conference was “two ends of a rope, burning toward each other” – coined by Wilkinson to describe how legacy and digital media companies are rapidly becoming like each other.
Key conference sessions included:
The author of the “Newspaper Extinction Timeline,” Ross Dawson, charting a future of news that is positive for media companies yet different from the past. Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and news discovery in social channels were key themes.
Boston Consulting Group partner Neal Zuckerman laid out a road map for media companies that included new research on the future of branded content.
Washington Post President Steve Hills discussed the role of innovation and experimentation under new owner Jeff Bezos.
Meanwhile, panel discussions looked at where advertising and marketing are heading next in the minds of key players on Madison Avenue and how the leading news publishers are responding with time-based advertising, print + digital research, native advertising, and more.
The unusual pairing of key executives from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and The New Yorker uncovered new insights into paid content – a subject whose success has eluded many in the legacy news business on a local and regional basis.
Panels dedicated to Big Data 2.0 and programmatic buying revealed the different speeds at which news publishers are pursuing analytics-based audience and revenue opportunities.
Meanwhile, leading publishers on both ends of the “burning rope” shared best practices in innovation, mobile, and rapid product development, while a session on a re-imagined newsroom showed new ways of integrating print, digital, TV, and more.
The conference program was populated with leading executives from Dow Jones, Russmedia, Axel Springer, Time Inc., Gannett, The New York Times, Quartz, Fairfax Media, Schibsted, Aller Media, MittMedia, El Colombiano, DMN Media, Scripps Networks Interactive, Refinery29, The Global and Mail, The Newspaper Works, Microsoft, Droga5, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia, and VivaKi Exchange Global, among others.
The INMA Media Disruption Tour took key executives to Bloomberg, Food52, Complex Media, Vice Media, The New York Times R&D Lab, and Business Insider. The tour also heard briefings from Skift, Gothamist, Longform, Atavist, Roads & Kingdoms, and Upworthy.
INMA elected new officers and directors at the New York World Congress. The new president is Mark Challinor, a long-time London and Liverpool media executive who today is managing director of United Kingdom-based Media Futures Ltd. The new vice president is Eduardo Garces, general manager of Colombia-based El Espectador. New Board members include Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, president/international, New York Times Company; Susie Ellwood, publisher, Austin American-Statesman, United States; Laura Evans, vice president of audience development and data science, Scripps Networks Interactive, United States; Greg Hywood, CEO and managing director, Fairfax Media, Australia; and Thomas Peterssohn, CEO, MittMedia, Sweden. Re-elected to terms are Olivier Bonsart, managing director of 20 Minutes France; Ross McPherson, managing director, McPherson Media Group, Australia, as treasurer; Grzegorz Piechota, head of innovations labor, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland; and Monica Ray, executive vice president, consumer marketing, Condé Nast, United States. Board members elected or appointed in the past year, affirmed by the membership in New York, include Santiago Alvarez, general manager of El Tiempo, Colombia; Sanjay Gupta, CEO and editor, Dainik Jagran, India; Sandy Naude, group executive advertising and community newspapers, Independent Newspapers, South Africa; D.D. Purkayastha, managing director and CEO, ABP, India; and Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media, India.
Outgoing Board members Bengt Ottosson of Sweden and Robert Whitehead of Australia were named recipients of the Silver Shovel Award, INMA’s highest individual honor for career achievement and contributions to the association.
INMA launched at the New York conference a members-only app by PressReader designed to bring enhanced strategic reports and conference programs to media executives.
Finally, INMA announced that its 86th annual World Congress would be held May 22-24, 2016, at the Pullman St. Pancras Hotel in London.