Every shift to a new platform followed discussions. And hopefully, with every next shift there will be debates as well..

Only then the news publisher can be turned to a fully operating media company. The platforms of distribution are for Al Ahram outlets only: print, online, radio/tv, mobile, and e-readers. Different outlets with different readers, different generations. Those who read newspapers in the morning are not necessarily the same as the ones who read all the news online. 94% of Al Ahram media consumption is between 9 and 12AM.

Since September 29 to October 1 they will discuss the future of print, internet and mobile media as well as share their experience in how social, technological and market developments affect consumers and advertisers, and how to meet their expectations.

Among keynote speakers will be CEO of the publishing group Mecom David Montgomery (UK), publisher of the most-read newspaper in the world Dainik Jagran - Shailesh Gupta (India), vice-president of Gannett Digital Media Josh Resnik (USA), vice-president of Google for Southern & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa Carlo d’Asaro Biondo (USA), international content director of Microsoft Peter Bale (UK). Editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik will give opening remarks.

During this three-day meeting speeches will be given also by: representatives of The New York Times of the US, El Pais of Spain, Corriere della Sera of Italy, Segodnya of Ukraine, Aftonbladet of Sweden, L’Equipe of France, Independent of the South Africa, Montreal Gazette of Canada and news agency RIA Novosti of Russia.

Polish and Krakow media executives and reporters will attend as well. In addition to Adam Michnik their experience will share the editor of “Dziennik Polski” Piotr Legutko, vice-president of Polskapresse – publisher of “Polska Gazeta Krakowska” Grzegorz Haftarczyk, directors Artur Karda and Tomasz Krawczyk from Media Regionalne (the owner of mmkrakow.pl local news portal) and Jakub Krzych of Krakow, founder of an innovative internet ad network AdTaily.com, which is storming the UK market.

In total conference participants will present more than 100 different newspapers, websites, information services and media companies. They come from almost every country of Europe, as well as from Australia, South Africa, the United States, Canada, India and even Nepal.

Participating in the event will provide an opportunity to get to know Krakow, Malopolska region and Poland. Many of media executives will spend the weekend here after the conference.

Mayor of Krakow Jacek Majchrowski will host the welcome party at the Wielopolski Palace. Then participants will be able to visit the newest Krakow museum – built under the city’s mediaeval Market Square listed by UNESCO as the World Heritage Place.

Marek Nawara, Marshal of Malopolska region, will host the gala dinner in the Salt Mine of Wieliczka, the second oldest mine in the world and the second of the eight sites in Malopolska listed in the UNESCO registry.

Town Hall, the Marshal’s Office and Krakow media editors from „Dziennik Polski”, „Gazeta Krakowska”, „Gazeta Wyborcza Kraków”, Interia.pl and RMF FM jointly encouraged international media to arrive to Cracow and Malopolska. As a result INMA and OPA Europe for the first time organized its annual conference not in the West, but in the new European Union member state.

The cooperation with INMA brought international association as a partner of the recent museum’s conference in Cracow.

In order to create positive perception around the world during the conference breaks addtional information about the city and the region will be available at Town Hall and the Marshal’s Office’s stand at Park Inn Hotel. Companies like DTI, MatchWork, PaperView, Planeta Marketing will also present their technologies and merchandise.

Industry organizations – Polish Audit Bureau of Circulations (Zwi?zek Kontroli Dystrybucji Prasy) and Polish Readership Survey (Polskie Badania Czytelnictwa) – will present the Polish press. Along with Atex they are partners of the competition for innovative advertising campaigns in press. Winners will be announced during the conference.

Partner of the local media seminar – Media Regionalne – will establish multimedia newsroom, where journalists will cover the conference live in blogs, tweets and interviews on video.

U.S. Embassy in Warsaw also supports the conference.

Information about the organizers:

Newsmedia Marketing Association International – INMA was founded in 1930. This non-profit association promotes good practices and ideas among the news media publishers. World organization brings together over 5,000 members from over 80 countries. INMA headquarters located in Dallas (USA). The Association also has offices in Antwerp (Belgium) and New Delhi (India).

Online Publishers Association – OPA Europe was founded in 2003 and represents the interests of the leading web publishers across Europe. OPA’s headquarters is in Paris (France).

Two years ago in Vienna, Bernard Asselin spoke about the case of “Words Matter” marketing campaign which reached its goal by changing the perception of the newspaper. After this campaign, “The Gazette” was perceived as being more innovative, and less conservative (read more about this campaign).

This year in Kraków, Bernard Asselin will participate in the discussion about how to attract and quantify total audience across platforms. Before that, he answered some of our questions:

Forum4Editors: How does the editorial office of “The Gazette” cooperate with its advertising department?

Bernard Asselin: In the past years we have eliminated the silos not only between advertising and Editorial but also between Advertising, Editorial and Marketing. Every important project is now driven by a joint team composed of representatives of these departments. As long as everyone respects each other and understands the limitations, we have had tremendous success with different projects. And it’s more fun!

Would you give any advice to the marketeers about what they should or should not do in order to cooperate fully with the editorial office?

Bernard Asselin: Marketing should be able to show Editorial how they can benefit from their expertise because at the end of the day, the goals are the same: More readers, More revenues.
One of the most successful initiatives I have done at The Gazette was to meet every section Editors and ask them simple questions like:
1. You often have to take Editorial decisions, what would you like to know about your readers habits?
2. How do you think you can improve your sections?
3. What keeps you awake at night?
With all their concerns and ideas, we created a questionnaire and asked our 2,000 online panelists and in some cases we held Focus groups with readers and invited journalists to listen to the comments behind the one-way mirror! It worked so well that now consumer research is part of our culture!
Secondly, to have the Editorial people involved in the creative process of campaigns helps them understanding marketing and appreciating the effort made to support in most cases… their work!

The Gazette is well known for very creative campaigns and ideas of promoting the paper and its content. What’s next, what do you have in stock for the next couple of months?

Bernard Asselin: It’s a secret but I will tell you that we are finalizing a 2nd generation of our Words matters campaign. The ultimate convergence of the brand, words and content. More to come…

What is the future of advertising in print and online? Can the drop in print circulation be replaced by the rise in price of print advertising? Will the inefficient advertising online be replaced by advertising on tablets?

Bernard Asselin: The future of advertising is linked to the media consumers’ habits. Our challenge is to deliver the most efficient campaigns that will create results to our advertisers and we need to have all these tools in our toolbox for our clients to keep the maximum share of their ad budget. Print and online are only two platforms because we must be ready to become advertising solutions experts on the iPad, mobile, SMS, database and whatever new technology we’ll see. Revenue is a challenge but with the increased competition, keeping the relationship with the clients is even more challenging. At The Gazette, we already switched our focus from selling ad space to selling solutions and our sales force is already been selling multiple platforms for more than two years.

Thank you very much

Bernard Asselin will be one of the guest of this year’s INMA/OPA European conference in Kraków. Make sure you read the conference programme.

Let’s take a closer look at the programme. This September, Kraków will host  executives from big newsmedia companies such as: Mecom Group, Johnston Press, Agora, Schibsted, De Persgroep, and many many others. David Montgomery (Mecom) together with Kalle Jungkvist (Schibsted) and Shailesh Gupta (Dainik Jagran, one of the largest dailies in India – 2,2 million paid circulation, 55,7 million readers daily reach) will speak about marketing solutions to grow audience and advertising revenue in newsmedia companies. Bernard Asselin (“The Gazette”, Canada), Griet Ducatteeuw (Corelio, Belgium), and Wanja Oberhof (Niiu, Germany) will participate in a session dedicated to ideas of how to attract and quantify total audience across different platforms. Also advertising strategists will find inspiring ideas for their everyday work. Latest trends concerning tablets, e-readers, kindles, iPads will also be analyzed – are they a new hype or a great opportunity for newsmedia companies? This, plus quick overview of greatest hypes from the past 7 years will surely gain a lot of interest.

Not only great discussion topics and lectures make INMA Outlook 2011 worth attending. During the three day conference additional events are planned as well. One of them will be the gala dinner at the Salt Mines of Wieliczka — 125 meters below ground.

In case all of the above does not convince you yet to sign up for this conference, take a look at the presentation embedded below, and check back the programme of the conference which surely will be extended with the names of the special guests. Make sure you sign up for the INMA/OPA Europe Conference, and see you in Kraków!