Launching a daily, paid-for general interest newspaper in the midst of Greece’s economic meltdown is not for the faint hearted. At the World Newspaper Congress in Kiev next month, publisher John Filippakis tells how he is doing just that with up-and-coming daily newspaper ‘Dimokratia’.
Filippakis, who brought 20 years of publishing experience to the new paper, shares its success story during a session on leadership for news organisations. His experience is likely to provide useful lessons for any publisher facing the challenge of difficult economic markets.
The Congress is being held with the 19th World Editors Forum in Kiev, Ukraine, from September 2-5 September.
Other participants include Anna Kirah, Senior Design and Innovation Anthropologist with Steria in Norway, Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director and CEO of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA), Bill McDonald, President and Publisher of Metro English in Canada, and Rod Banner, founder of the advertising agency Banner Corporation.
More than 1000 newspaper publishers, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the events organised by WAN-Ifra.
After hitting the streets in Athens in 2010, ‘Dimokratia’ quickly established itself as a dynamic conservative editorial voice in the country, relying heavily on newsstand sales (85 per cent) and little on advertising (15 per cent). It now features a Sunday edition, as well as an edition for northern Greece.
Filippakis says connecting to a like-minded market paved the way for the paper’s future: “Contrary to some brands that are a product of extensive market research, and tone down their agenda and values so as not to alienate any potential readers, ‘Dimokratia’ was born on the assumption that there was a distinct psychographic and demographic target group that held the same value set as our paper's founding team,” he says. In this case, he said that meant males who are 40-plus years old, middle class and, crucially, are also heavy readers of newspapers in print.
Other Congress sessions include:
• Winners shaping the future, a look at some of the more successful new business models, technology and forms of journalism emerging today, featuring Michael Golden, Vice Chairman of the New York Times Company; Greg Hywood, Chief Executive Officer of Australia-based Fairfax Media; Gwen Lister, founder and Executive Director of The Namibian; and Tor Halvorsen and Vidar Herre, News Editor and photojournalist, respectively, with Avisa Hordaland in Norway.
• Around the world in 60 minutes, a tour of the latest media trends emerging world-wide, featuring Tomas Brunegård, CEO of Stampen Group in Sweden; Carlos Fernando Lindenberg Neto, CEO of Rede Gazeta in Brazil, Caroline Little, President and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America; Mohamad Alayyan, Publishers and Chairman, United Jordan Press; Pichai Chuensuksawadi, Editor in Chief of The Bangkok Post in Thailand; Trevor Ncube, Deputy Executive Chairman of South Africa’s Mail & Guardian; and Maxim Melnikov, CEO, Media3, Russia.
• New revenue strategies, which will examine new – and more importantly, sustainable – growth strategies, featuring Jacob Møller, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for Schibsted in Sweden; Florian Bauer, Board member of Vocatus in Germany; Leonyd Bershidsky, Editor-in-Chief, of Forbes magazine in Ukraine; and other speakers to be announced.
• Digital compass: Where are we going, who is leading the way?, which will examine the latest developments in paid content, tablet, mobile and video and the industry’s best paid-for apps, featuring Annelies van den Belt, CEO, SUP, Russia; Christoph Keese, Head of Public Relations, Axel Springer, Germany; Simon Regan-Edwards, Head of Technology for The Times and Sunday Times in the UK; Tor Jacobsen, Managing Director of Verdens Gang in Norway; Mikael Pentikainen, Publisher and Senior Editor-in-chief, Sanoma, Finland; Marc Challinor, Head of Mobile, The Daily Telegraph, UK; Morten Henriksen, CIO Berner Gruppen, Norway; and Dietmar Schantin, Founder of the Institute of Media Strategies, Austria.
• Reeling in readers and advertisers, a session dedicated to audience development featuring John Cruickshank, Publisher of the Toronto Star in Canada; Laura Evans, Head of Audience Insight & Analytics at Dow Jones in the United States; Cathy Ma, head of Social Media for Time Inc.’s IPC Media; Thibaut Potdevin, Commercial manager, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Ukraine; and Viktoria Mizerna, Editor of Mass Media Development for The Day in Ukraine.
• Print plus, which examines innovations in print, the primary source of revenue for newspaper publishers, featuring Rainer Esser, CEO of Die Zeit in Germany; Amandeep Singh Khurana, Chief Operating Officer of Madison Media Plus in India; and Johan Malmsten, Co-founder and CEO of Netherlands-based European Daily.
• Lessons from emerging markets, where digital media in particular is developing rapidly, featuring Anne Nelson, Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in the United States; William Pike, CEO of Star Publications in Kenya; Vladimir Sungorkin, Editor-In-Chief and General Director, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia; and other speakers to be announced.
• 30 ideas in 30 minutes, which will present winning strategies for attracting the young, featuring Aralynn McMane, Executive Director of Young Reader Development at WAN-Ifra; Gregory Kunis, Managing Director of Moi Rayon in Russia, and other speakers to announced.
• Innovations in Newspapers 2012, the annual Congress and Editors Forum session on the most interesting developments in the newspaper industry, by the Innovations International Media Consulting Group and presented by Innovations Partner Juan Señor.
• World Press Trends, the annual “State of the Industry” presentation, with a look at global and regional figures on trends in circulation, readership, revenue and advertising, in both digital and print, presented by Larry Kilman, Deputy CEO of WAN-Ifra.
Full details and registration information can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012
As always, the events are accompanied by a variety of social events, gala dinners and lunches and are one of the best opportunities to meet colleagues from around the world.