Publishing and Content Expos underscore their importance for the industry

Attendance was slightly higher than last year and once again very international (56 countries). The same was true of the number of exhibitors (from 23 countries). On four stages, experts from around the world talked about the opportunities and challenges currently facing publishers, as well as the strategies and solutions needed to thrive in today’s media landscape – from content production, newsroom organisation, leveraging smart data, workflow efficiencies, and monetising content, to optimising production, and embracing new business models for print and digital.

New partnerships with different publishing and content associations strengthened the still young DCX Digital Content Expo, which drew more than 100 exhibitors in its second edition, including 24 start-ups.

Joining forces

In particular, exhibitors were very satisfied with the high quality of visitors and the diverse geographical markets they represent. Visitors emphasised the importance of the event as a global platform to exchange ideas with like-minded people and to join forces in difficult times for news publishers. “Gatherings like this are of critical importance because we have people on the stage who are delivering exciting information about innovative approaches to storytelling, to analysis, to developing the audience. In the display area, there are plenty of vendors who are showing tools that accomplish the states,” says Michael Golden, President of WAN-IFRA, the World Association of Newspapers and News Media. 

“IFRA and DCX 2018, and the recent market trend reports published by WAN-IFRA, attest that the news publishing industry is moving decisively from an economy of product to an economy of experience. Developing high value-added services is more critical than ever in the global digital competition, and publishers have an important role in building and deploying new technologies to shape this new economy. With IFRA and DCX, WAN-IFRA is proud to offer an unrivalled marketplace and networking opportunity to get a grip on these major technical trends,” adds Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA.

Celebrating print and innovation

At an evening event after the first exhibition day, WAN-IFRA honoured 13 new members of the International Color Quality Club 2018–2020 (ICQC). In addition, the finalists for the new Print Innovation Awards in various categories were awarded in Gold, Silver and Bronze. Photo gallery of award winners.

Further coverage can be found at the Expo website, the WAN-IFRA Blog and the Expo YouTube Channel. The photo gallery of the Expo can be found here.

Next year’s IFRA World Publishing Expo and DCX Digital Content Expo will again be held at the Messe Berlin fairground, from 8 to 10 October 2019.

Comments from participants:

“More than anything else it is the networking, to meet the people, to share ideas and talk about experiences. Here I found a platform where at least once over the year you meet publishers from all over the world. We talk to each other and understand our problems and solve those.” DD Purkayastha, CEO, ABP

“For me personally, these events are very important to pull you out of your bubble by hearing what the other people are doing and the progress that they are making. You meet allies that keep you going and fighting a good fight.” Fiona Campbell, Director of Digital, BBC News

“Events like this are great and very important for publishers to come together and exchange ideas. People really take a step back and look at what is working, what isn't working. There is a lot of hype out there. What is the reality behind the hype, what I should be investing in and looking out for? It is important to have these events to really bring about that common purpose and willingness to change the industry from within.” Juan Señor, Innovation Group

Comments from exhibitors:

“It is becoming more and more the case that the upper management and decision-makers show up at the Expo. Over the past few years, there have been casual customers and clerks. The quality is right and so we are quite satisfied.” Jens Emmerich, alfa media Partner GmbH

“It has been a very productive show for us. We didn't have too many visitors, but it is not about quantity; it is about quality. So we had very qualified contacts from all over the world. I am very satisfied, A plus! Everything is well organised and the staff is so helpful and friendly.” Berkant Savas, CEO, iMatrics

“Customers are coming from all over the world and especially India is a very important for us – it is our most important customer market. There are the important people, the buyers and the technicians from the printers. We have a good quality here and the expo still has a worldwide importance for newspaper printing. For us it is the best way to meet people and get to know more and new people to sell our machines.” Carola Landhäuser and Stefan Beke-Bramkamp, Krause-Biagosch GmbH

“This year it is very important that we are here, because our merger took place in August. So a lot of publishers are visiting us and asking what's happening. How do I get some advantages out of that deal? This is more a marketplace and a meeting to see the customers and to see how the business is doing.” Manuel Kosok, Vice President Engineering, manroland Goss Group

“We met a lot of interesting people. I really like that it is very international with people from all over the world, Australia, Pakistan, Finland, Ukraine, France. They were all very interested, the talks and the encounters went very well.” Sven Nagel, Co-Founder, Mappa Software

"Overall, we encountered fewer existing customers at this year's IFRA/DCX Expo, but were able to generate a large number of new leads in return. This is still for us the main exhibition we have. There is no other format like this where you have the opportunity to look at so many vendors at the same time. There are a lot of different conferences, but the focus is different. Even if there is a small exhibition area (in the conferences), this is not enough to get an overview of the market. Therefore we think that DCX is one important event in the year." Dr. Hauke Berndt, Managing Director, ppi Media

“DCX - IFRA Expo is the only sectorial event with such an important level of exposure. We think our sector needs an event like this. For us, it has been once more an excellent meeting point with European customers, where we've been able to show the main features of the 7.0 version of Milenium Cross Media. We'd like to highlight the interest of the visitors in solutions for monetizing contents, such as AD Manager integration with AdonLine, or the Smart Data tools of our solutions.” Charlotte Vattier, International Marketing Consultant, Protecmedia

“IFRA World Publishing Expo is very relevant. We have always been here and this year it has even been busier for us than last year which was busier than the year before. I cannot say so much about the whole show, because I have been the whole time in a box behind our stand meeting our customers. This is of course the main point why we are here.” Anu Ahola, Senior Vice President, UPM

About IFRA – DCX

The IFRA World Publishing Expo remains the must-attend annual event for newspaper and news media executives. Exhibitors at IFRA World Publishing Expo include innovative suppliers to the publishing industry who present solutions and products that help boost efficiency, lower costs and increase margins. At Expo, there will be presentations on key trends and experts discussing the hottest topics in news publishing. The DCX Digital Content Expo, held concurrently with IFRA World Publishing Expo, presents ideas and solutions for content creation and distribution over mobile, social, online and new emerging digital platforms. The combination of an international marketplace and a high-quality conference programme makes IFRA and DCX the place to be for media companies and digital publishers.

About the organisers

WAN-IFRA is the World Association of Newspapers and News Media. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites as well as more than 3,000 news publishing companies in 120 countries. WAN-IFRA's mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity, and help independent news publishing companies to succeed in their transformation process, increase their business, and perform their crucial role in open societies. WAN-IFRA offers its members a broad spectrum of specialised events, publications and research reports. It is also the worldwide platform for ideas, information and experience. As a joint venture of WAN-IFRA and børding Holding GmbH (børding messe), Publishing Exhibition GmbH & Co. KG is responsible for the organisation and the fair development of IFRA and DCX.