Internet Good for Newspaper Business?
Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany
3 November 2009
John Paton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
impreMedia LLC, the number one Hispanic news and information
company in the United States, believes digital news
distribution ³is the single best thing that has happened to
our business in the last quarter century.²
It's
certainly been good for his company: ³Even in this
disastrous economy, we are now projecting for every one of
our divisions a higher profit for
2009 over last year,² says Mr Paton. ³Some will have their highest profits ever. We fully expect 25 percent of our profits to be non-print by 2011 and half by the following year.²
Mr Paton will
explain how impreMedia is achieving such impressive results
at the World Newspaper Congress, the global summit meeting
of the world's press, to be held in Hyderabad, India from 1
to 3 December next.
³I hope what we are doing here at
impreMedia is instructive for others,³ he says. ³I truly
believe we have crafted a process that grows our brands,
embraces platform change, protects and enhances journalism
and services our communities.²
ImpreMedia had only
nine products on two platforms three years ago; today it has
97 products on seven platforms - web, mobile, TV/video,
social media, widgets, audio and print.
³And, I might
add, we do all that with 40 percent fewer people, which is
the other strength of digital innovation which lets all
companies - those that choose to invest in the technology
and the right people - do much more, much more cost
effectively,² says Mr Paton.
Full details of the 62nd
World Newspaper Congress, 16th World Editors Forum and Info
Services Expo 2009, the global meetings of the world's press
organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News
Publishers (WAN-IFRA), can be found at http://www.wanindia2009.com
There
is still time to register! Special measures have been taken
by Indian authorities to facilitate the processing of visas
for Congress and Forum participants and Hyderabad is linked
by direct flights to major cities in Europe, Asia and the
Middle East.
Mr Paton's strategy for digital
innovation at lower cost is built around three key
beliefs:
- Content creation takes a ³brands first and
digital first² approach.
- A business model built
around news content creation and consumption patterns -
breaking news to mobile first, then to the web, then social
media, with all content enhanced by audio, video and photos.
Repetition and updates continue throughout the day, adding
value for the customer. Then print, acknowledging what has
already been said, shown and heard.
- All content
delivered not only to impreMedia's own platforms, but to
others as well. ³We have declared that our company must let
the outside in and we must go where the audience is,² says
Mr Paton.
In addition to being Chairman and CEO, Mr
Paton is a member of the board of impreMedia, whose titles
include the portal http://www.impre.com and its McClatchy partners, and
the leading Hispanic publications in 16 markets, including
La Opinión in Los Angeles and El Diario La Prensa in New
York.
The US Hispanic population is the fastest
growing demographic in the country, accounting for more than
15 percent of the population and totaling
47 million people. It is expected that nearly 50 percent of all U.S.
population growth in the next 15 years will come from the Hispanic demographic alone. U.S. Hispanics make up the third largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Spain and Mexico.
Mr Paton, who is Canadian, arrived
in the United States in 2003 and has quickly built a
reputation as a leading media executive. He has been named a
³Media All-Star² by AdWeek magazine's Marketing y Medios,
Hispanic Media Executive of the Year by HispanicAd.com, a
finalist in Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
programme, and Publisher of the Year by Editor & Publisher
magazine. He is a member of the board of directors of the
Journal Register Company, which operates more than 280 print
and online products.
Other Congress and Forum speakers
include:
- David Drummond, Senior Vice President and
Chief Legal Officer, Google, USA;
- Andreas Wiele,
Member of the Board /President BILD Division and Magazines,
Axel Springer AG, Germany;
- Olivier Fleurot, CEO,
Public Relations, Corporate and Financial Communications,
Events Management for Publicis Groupe;
- Mahendra
Mohan Gupta, Chairman/Managing Director and Managing Editor,
Jagran Prakashan Ltd, India;
- Ravi Dhariwal, CEO
Publishing, Bennett, Coleman & Co. (Times Group),
India;
- Martim Figueiredo, Publisher &
Editor-in-Chief, 'i' daily newspaper, Portugal;
- Gerd
Finkbeiner, Chairman of the Executive Board, manroland AG,
Germany;
- Jaideep Bose, Editor-in-chief, Times of
India;
- James Orr, Online News Editor, The Christian
Science Monitor, USA;
- Paul Johnson, Deputy
Editor-in-chief, The Guardian, UK;
- Steve Engelberg,
Managing Editor, Propublica.org, USA;
- Harinder
Baweja, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tehelka, India;
- Martin
Moore, Project Manager, Transparent Journalism (Knight News
Challenge winner in 2008), UK;
- And many
more!
The conferences will be opened by Pratibha Patil
the President of India.
Full details at http://www.wanindia2009.com
Added
value: ³The Future of Cost Cutting and Business
Efficiencies,² an outsourcing study tour, will be conducted
following at Congress and Forum.
For full details of the 4 to 7 December tour, which will take participants to Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore, can be found at
http://www.wan-press.org/indiatour2009
WAN-IFRA,
based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with
subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden,
is the global organisation of the world's newspapers and
news publishers. It represents more than 18,000
publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies
in more than 120 countries. The organisation was created by
the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA,
the research and service organisation for the news
publishing
industry.
ENDS