We'll be mingling with the crowds, interviewing delegates and chatting with speakers to find out how they're transforming their own newsrooms and what they're learning from our conference. Then, we'll edit text, audio and video to post on the Web and play in the Forum hall so that everyone can see the reactions. Editors will also be able to watch us in action and be able to play around with our digital toys themselves.

They will see first-hand just how much citizen journalists can do with the amateur and relatively cheap digital image capturing devices that you see everywhere everyday.

If you've surfed the Net, you may have noticed that amateurs are doing some very interesting things with these devices, some that are rivaling mainstream organizations. We want to break the ice for editors, allaying any fears they may have of implementing these easy-to-use technologies into their newsrooms.

I'll say it right now, this is an experiment. We're still working out how it's going to work and not sure how it will be received. But we feel that if we don't start experimenting, we, and the global newspaper industry, will have missed the boat for the biggest revolution in media since Gutenberg.

Here's the Moscow Forum site.

Here's the link to the vlog Robb has set up (still under construction). Let us know if you have any suggestions for how we can make it more fun and educational!  

And here's the press release. Stay tuned...   

 

New Initiative at World Editors Forum: Editors Weblog Workshop

Newspaper editors attending the upcoming World Editors Forum will have an
opportunity to use new media tools in a unique "Editors Weblog Workshop"
that will run throughout the conference, to be held from 4 to 7 June in
Moscow, Russia.

The workshop, designed to show editors how new media can enhance their
newspaper work, will provide blogging, podcasting and video-blogging
opportunities for participants. The workshop will be provided by the Editors
Weblog,  the Forum's "virtual meeting hall" for editors from around the
world (http://www.editorsweblog.org ).

The workshop will be run by Robb Montgomery, the founder and CEO of US-based
Visual Editors.com and a renowned consultant on multimedia integration,
newspaper design and new media, and by John Burke, a media commentator and
editor of the Editors Weblog.

They will be leading a team of weblog journalists who will be blogging,
podcasting and "vlogging" the events. The team will demonstrate their work
to participants, discuss how it can be incorporated into daily newsroom
work, and encourage delegates to try the new media themselves.

"I'm convinced that many editors don't realize how easy these things are to
use, and how much value they add to electronic newspapers," said Mr Burke. A
demonstration of the video blog can be found at
http://www.visualeditors.com/moscow/

The World Editors Forum will run concurrently with the World Newspaper
Congress and Info Services Expo 2006. The meetings, organized by the World
Association of Newspapers, will be the biggest in the 59-year history of the
events, with more than 1,500 publishers, chief editors, CEOs, managing
directors and other senior newspaper executives registered to attend.

There is still time for last-minute registrations: full details can be found
at http://www.moscow2006.com

World Editors Forum sessions include;

- "Should newspapers welcome citizen journalists?", featuring Jimmy Wales,
Director and Founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Steve Herrmann,
Editor-in-Chief of BBC News Interactive, and Steve Yelvington, Vice
President of Content and Strategy for Morris Digital Works in the United
States.

- "Convergence II: multimedia is now ready for print", featuring Jim Brady,
Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, Chrystia Freeland, US Edition Editor
of the Financial Times, Sanjay Trehan, Head of Broadband and Content for
Indiatimes, the electronic operations of The Times of India, and other
speakers to be announced.

- "Weekend winners: Saturday/Sunday editions and supplements", featuring
George Brock, Saturday Editor of The London Times, Hans Engell,
Editor-in-Chief of Denmark's Ekstra Blagdet, and Berna Gonzalez, director of
El Pais Semanal in Spain.

- "Web portals and news agencies: new threats to newspapers?",  in which
Nathan Stoll of Google and Neil Budde of Yahoo! will be joined by Pierre
Louette, CEO of Agence France-Presse, and Dean Wright, Senior Vice President
and Managing Editor for Consumer Services at Reuters, to discuss the impact
of ,new media competitors on newspapers.

- "Lessons learned from the Mohammed cartoon clash", with Ibrahim Essa,
Editor of Al-Dustour, Egypt, Eric Le Boucher, Editor of France's Le Monde,
Imtiaz Alam, General Secretary of the South Asian Free Media Association,
Hakeem Bello, Executive Editor of The National Interest in Nigeria, Ed
Greenspoon, Editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada, and Andrei Richter,
Director of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute. The session will be
chaired by Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director General for Communication
and Information, UNESCO.

- and many others, including special breakfasts for editors with leading
political and newspaper figures, joint sessions with the World Newspaper
Congress, an array of social events, and much more. Full details at
http://www.moscow2006.com

The Paris-based WEF is the organisation of the World Association of
Newspapers that represents senior news executives. WAN, the global
organisation for the newspaper industry, represents 18,000 newspapers; its
membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, newspapers and
newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional
and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy
St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49
48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr