Day 1: Highlights from the 2008 World Digital Publishing Conference

Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 15, 2008 at 8:41 PM

Success of the Web? Try Newspaper Values With a New Twist
Caroline Little, Adviser to Guardian News & Media and former CEO and publisher of Washington Post/Newsweek Interactives, United States:

"Keep one foot rooted in the core journalism values of the core product, and one that happens to be delivering the most revenue, and with the other, stretch as far as possible to try new things in this new medium."

"The news websites share the same journalistic values as the newspapers, but the web folks also are working in a medium that's indisputably different, one that requires trying new things and sometimes going down in flames," she said. "Fear of failure can be debilitating. All we have to lose by being too conservative is everything."

Be Flexible For the Fast-Changing Digital World
José Antonio Ferris, Head of Strategy, Prisacom, Spain:

When defining your strategy for digital platforms, it is important to remember that it may change tomorrow.

Making Users Central to Your Editorial Offering
Matthew Buckland, General Manager, Publishing and Social Media, Media 24.com:

"I don't think that publishers have gone far enough to include users in the editorial and publishing processes," says Mr Buckland. "We allow them to comment below articles. We allow them to blog. But I don't think that we've got the model completely right."

Mr Buckland said a key element of the platform is that, unlike most blogs, all content is professionally vetted.

Digital Press Trends
Martha Stone, Director, WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project:

Stone focused on four major trends: Online and mobile advertising growth; video; citizen journalism; and driving traffic/seach engine optimisation.

E-Readers: Challenges and Opportunity for Publishers
Stijn Bus, Manager for Business Development and Sales, Irex Technologies, The Netherlands:

Mr Bus, whose company is one of several manufacturers of such devices, points to the examples of Les Echos in France and NRC Handelsblad in Germany, which already offer both the devices and an e-reader daily edition to their customers.

Though today's devices have drawbacks, Mr Bus made a case for starting now to gain a strategic advantage with a delivery system that some say will improve quickly and radically change newspaper delivery in the future.

Telling stories without text
Eric Scherer, Director of Strategic Planning & Partnerships, Agence France-Presse:

"Pictures, videos and animated graphics will get the traffic, he said. "To reach a global audience, you will have to be more and more visual."

Will Facebook Become Google?`
Hans Peter Brondmo, CEO and Founder, Plum Software, USA, and Stephanie Stutz, Web and Mobile Product Manager, ViaMichelin, France:

"I think that Facebook, the potential of that application, is not yet understood," says Mr Brondmo. "I think Facebook has the potential to be the next Google in terms of revenue potential."

Clearly a bold statement, but Mr Brondmo believes that social networking and social sharing have fundamentally changed the web, and how people access and share information.

The future is here for mobile revenues
Fredrik Oscarson, Founder and Vice President, New Business Director, Mobiento, Sweden:

Mobile marketing brought in a relatively small 1.8 billion dollars worldwide last year, so "do we really have to care about this?" asks Mr Oscarson.

If you believe the forecasters, yes; anaysts predict it will grow to 15 billion dollars by 2011 and 24 billion two years later.

"The reality is, in many countries it is the fastest growing channel," says Mr Oscarson, whose company engages in mobile marketing.

"Reality" for Mobile Telephones
Jorma Härkönen, Senior Vice President and President of Internet & Consumer Business, MTV Media, Finland:

Reality is big in the Finnish mobile telephone business - reality television shows, that is.

Mr Härkönen described how MTV Media, with interests in television, radio and internet, brings mobile telephones into its cross-media offerings of such reality shows as "Big Brother" and "Idol" (the Finnish version of the British Pop Idol show). The shows can be streamed on mobile devices and fans can vote, buy merchandise and have access to other services linked to the shows.