This year’s programme also marks an industry first: WIN South Africa will be conducted in partnership with WAN-IFRA member association Print and Digital Media South Africa, representing more than 500 newspaper and magazine titles from the country's leading publishers, and the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), whose members are editors, senior journalists and journalism trainers from all areas of the South African media.

In addition, participants who complete the WIN South Africa programme will receive accreditation from the Department of Witwatersrand University.

Women in News works with newspapers and their high-potential female employees to overcome the gender gap in management and senior editorial positions. More than 60 media professionals from 30 media companies from Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe will participate in comprehensive skills development, career coaching, mentoring and networking in their national markets. The group will come together in Johannesburg, South Africa in August for the regional WIN Summit.

WAN-IFRA will also launch the Alliance for Women in News, a working committee that partners with media houses to collectively help widen the opportunities for management and executive roles for their women employees through education, training and awareness raising.

Studies show that a higher representation of women in decision-making positions in media leads not only to better coverage of women in the news but also to better financial results. Financially and editorially solid media stand a bigger chance of being strong voices in their communities: promoting good governance, transparency and fighting corruption.

WIN goes beyond traditional approaches to media development by incorporating professional development techniques from the corporate world such as career coaching, facilitated networking and peer mentoring into a robust and highly effective capacity building curriculum.

The initiative is conducted under a strategic partnership to advance media development and press freedom worldwide between WAN-IFRA and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). More on WAN-IFRA’s media development initiatives can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/media-development

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore and India, 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. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Deputy CEO and Director of Communications and Public Affairs, WAN-IFRA, 96 bis, rue Beaubourg, 75003 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 07. Fax: +33 1 42 78 92 33. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org