WAN-Ifra’s rolling series of global digital media events comes to Kuala Lumpur next month.

Digital Media Asia (November 12-14, Shangri-La hotel) will bring publishers and editors together with hackers, designers, producers and other new media professionals to explore the latest trends in social media, content monetisation, mobile and tablet publishing.

With sister conferences in Europe, India and Latin America, Digital Media Asia features leading digital experts and showcases how cutting edge media organisations are using advanced digital platforms to attract large audiences for newspaper, magazine, video or book content and to generate significant revenue.

Among other things, the event illustrates how the skills needed in news media have radically changed in the digital era: Just look at the job titles in today’s news media companies, including director of video transformation, engineering manager, and head of audience. And the work has changed radically as well: DMA13 will feature the winners of the inaugural Open News Hack Asia 2013.

Digital Media Asia brings these new positions and skills together with more the more familiar roles of publishers, CEO, managing directors, chief editors, advertising directors and marketers… the traditional news media roles that serve as the glue to hold it all together.



More names have been added to the list of speakers which includes:



- Anjali Kapoor, Director, Digital News Strategy, The Globe and Mail, Canada, where she is responsible for the editorial strategic direction of the digital sites while also helping to shift the traditional newsroom into a digital culture.



- Audra Martin, Vice President, Advertising and Operations, Economist Digital, is responsible for digital advertising, content marketing solutions, and publishing operations.



- Christina Lo Man Ki, Deputy Editor-in-chief, Apple Daily, Hong Kong, the most popular media platform in Hong Kong. Christina develops strategies across digital platforms in close cooperation with IT, operations, and sales and marketing.



- Alan Soon, Head of Audience & Managing Editor, Southeast Asia, Yahoo!,  who is  a seasoned senior newsroom manager and journalist with almost 20 years of experience in the news industry in Asia, across different media -- radio, TV, newswires and online.



- Dan Sloan, Editor-in-chief, Nissan Global Media Center, Nissan Motor Company, Japan, who oversees a global team producing multi-media digital content about the automaker and its brands, a process known at Nissan as “koto-zukuri”, or story-telling. The growth of such content marketing offers many lessons and opportunities for traditional media companies.



- Kien M. Lee, Founder and Managing Director, SENATUS.NET, Singapore, an online and lifestyle publication and private social network for “influencers.” Mr Lee formerly spent 10 years on Wall Street as a mergers & acquisitions banker at Merrill Lynch, and later as the Strategy Advisor to the Deutsche Bank Americas CEO.



- Graham Hinchly, Engineering Manager at FT Labs, the development arm of the Financial Times, where he managed the redesign of the FT web app. Mobile devices generate more than half of all FT.com subscriber consumption.



- Naoki Onodera, Manager, Digital Publishing Office, Publishing Division, The Mainichi Newspapers, Japan, who is chiefly in charge of managing the development of apps, e-books and e-magazines and for the Mainichi Newspapers Digital strategy.



- Sue Brooks, Director of Video Transformation, Associated Press, who heads a team responsible for revolutionising the way AP distributes video to customers around the globe. She conceived and created AP Video Hub, the video delivery platform designed for websites and portals that want access to AP’s broadcast video. 



- Joachim Schmaltz, Vice President Asia, Reuters Media, who is responsible for the Reuters News agency Business in Asia – working with broadcasters, publishers and new media companies in the region. He is the former managing director of Handelsblatt’s digital operations in Germany.



- Todd Forest, Executive Producer Asia Pacific, Microsoft Online Media and Publishing, Singapore, who brings more than 15 years of online experience with global brands to the conference. Before joining Microsoft, he helped devise Nike’s strategy for its initial foray into online commerce, and worked in executive roles at AOL Time Warner during the internet boom years.

The full speaker line-up can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/digital-media-asia-2013?view=speakers



Digital Media Asia will also feature the winning apps produced in the first OpenNews.Hack Asia 2013, organised by Newsplex Asia, a joint training venture by WAN-Ifra and the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information on the campus of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. More about the hackathon, which drew teams of developers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs and tertiary-level students, at http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/91958



Digital Media Asia is being organised with the support of alfamedia, Atex, CCI, NewspaperDirect, Reuters, redweb, and Woodwing. Media partners include GXdigital (digital.gxpress.net), The International New York Times, Malaysian Reserve, and Media Partners Asia.