Developments
World News Future & Change Study, VG relying on Facebook, New newsroom training centre

Readership Conference
Readers know best; World Young Reader Prize Winners

Bottom of the class – Eritrea’s silent shame
Aspiring independent journalists in any war-ravaged, povertystricken country face a daunting task. If you add famine, military dictatorship, and the fact that the particular country in question is Eritrea, this task becomes nigh on impossible. In such a context the achievements of Dawit Isaak, co-founder of the country’s first independent newspaper and laureate of the 2011 WAN-IFRA Golden Pen of Freedom, are all the more remarkable.

A free press higher on the African agenda
An arsenal of pernicious legislation is at the disposal of governments the world over when it comes to suppressing independent media, but the toolbox of legal devices is seldom more complete or readily deployed than on the African continent.

Business Report 2010

Gloom in the West, boom in the East
Drawing up a balance sheet for 2010 boils down to choosing between a glass that is half empty and a glass that is half full. On the one hand, there are the booming economies in South-East Asia, most South American countries, and parts of Africa and Australia. On the other hand there are the difficulties in Europe, North America and Japan. The point of convergence continues to be the growing complexity of the digital sector that is proving so hard to translate into revenues for the traditional media.

Decision-Makers' Guide 2011

Publishers target new business
The responses from the annual World News Future & Change Study, conducted by the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project of WAN-IFRA, in partnership with the University of Central Lancashire and the Norwegian School of Management, indicate one clear point: Publishers are bullish about creating new business to help offset diminishing traditional revenues.

• Paid content: Persuasive advocates
• Mobile business: Advertising, revenues showing signs of life
• Newsroom strategy: Benchmark convergence with ‘newsroom check-up’
• Cost savings: Identify potentials
• Ideas for print: Innovations for the print newspaper
• Try something new, give free rein to creativity
  
• Classified advertising: ‘It’s not too late...’

Times of India’s constant quest for quality
How does The Times of India (TOI) manage 21 printing plants turning out 72 billion pages and yet adhere to a single rigorous set of quality standards across the board? The answer appears to be a mixture of modern manufacturing practice and bottom-up empowerment that maximises quality while minimising cost.

Not just newspapers!
On 25 October 2010, Germany’s Mediengruppe Rheinische Post officially inaugurated the extension to its newspaper printing plant in Düsseldorf-Heerdt in the presence of about 500 invited guests. Some 42 million euros have been invested in the extension of the Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei (RBD), the main feature of which is the Cortina press line. This marks, as CEO Matthias Tietz put it, “RBD’s entry into 21st century newspaper printing.”

Industry updates
iPad applications, Advertising solutions worldwide, Press & mailroom orders

WAN-IFRA Bulletin
Digital Media Asia 2010, The Newspaper Factory, New Members, WAN-IFRA América Latina preview