Two European industry leaders opened the debate at the World Publishing Expo in Berlin today.
During the official opening, Axel Springer chief executive Mathias Döpfner – joined by his Guardian opposite number Andrew Miller – asked “is publishing a sustainable business model”.
“If we define publishing as a print business, then no,” he says. “If we define it as branded content on all available distribution channels – then perhaps.”
Miller emphasized that “the future is absolutely here now.
“Readers of our titles are consuming them in many ways. This is not something that will happen in the future. It’s happening now, and it’s about investing ahead of what’s happening and following the consumers.”
And he warned, “too many media companies are waiting for things to land, rather than chasing them now”.
About 7000 visitors are expected to visit nearly 300 exhibitors over the three-day World Publishing Expo, the WAN-Ifra organized trade exhibition for the news publishing and media industry.
Döpfner and Miller were the first of nearly 200 speakers who are sharing experiences and discussing the future of publishing during the Expo.
A first ‘MediaHackDay’ has already drawn 74 participants from ten countries and resulted in the development of 12 projects that make new and better uses of newspaper content archives. It was supported by Axel Springer, Storyful and CCI Europe. Winning projects came from Robert Mielnik, Lukasz Milewski and Mike Skrabacz (PhotoStories); Kate McCurdy, Florian Winter, Jonas Markussen and Martin Halvorsen (Can I quote you on that?) and Buyan Olcay and Ürük Bülend (Uzine).
The World Publishing Expo continues until Wednesday.