Summary

This report features the crucial takeaways from WAN-IFRA's World Media Leaders eSummit, all focused around how publishers are responding to 9 strategic challenges posed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Unprecedented times calls for unprecedented support for our members. That is why we quickly shifted to the World Media Leaders eSummit after postponing our annual Congress due to the ongoing pandemic.

With four days of focused sessions, all addressing what we thought are the most critical challenges coming out of the crisis, the eSummit provided an array of expert insights, inspiration and innovation. And we have boiled down from the 13 sessions what we think are the major takeaways for each of the nine strategic challenges... into this easy-to-digest slide deck.

Here are the 9 challenges we addressed:

• Challenge 1: How long to get revenues back on track?
• Challenge 2: Who was best prepared for the crisis?
• Challenge 3: How can publishers get advertisers back?
• Challenge 4: Is the not-for-profit model the way to secure the future of local and public-service journalism?
• Challenge 5: Reader Revenue – How to onboard and keep paying subscribers?
• Challenge 6: COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transition – how to keep that momentum going?
• Challenge 7: What we learned from stumbling into the remote newsroom?
• Challenge 8: How to build on the trust gained during the crisis and keep the boosted audience?
• Challenge 9: Are publishers prepared for what's next?

Global insights

The report presents insights and feedback from a spectrum of news media companies, major brands like The Wall Street Journal (USA), The Financial Times (UK), The Globe and Mail (Canada), Schibsted (Scandanavia), Nine (Australia), The Straits Times (Singapore), Le Figaro (France), Sky News (UK), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy, to innovative local publishers and startups, like Nexo Jornal (Brazil), Compassmedia (Cayman Islands), Henneo and ARA (Spain), Salt Lake Tribune (USA), Tortoise Media, and more.

It also features insights and opinion from industry analysts, experts and researchers, such as Rasmus Nielsen and Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute, Dame Frances Cairncross, Victor Pickard of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, USA, Patrice Schneider from the Media Development Investment Fund in Switzerland, Ken Doctor, leading US media analyst, and others.