Ifra’s international know-how transfer

The first tour included stopovers in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The second tour, organised in cooperation with the German Newspaper Publishers’ Association (BDZV), visited colleagues on the West and East Coasts of the US.

Asia sees future in interactivity

“Publishing-Strategies Made in Asia” was the topic of the sold out Ifra Asia tour, 1 – 10 March 2007. The participants from Europe and India had the opportunity to inspect one of the highest-circulation Japanese newspapers, Asahi Shimbun, the South Korean citizen journalism portal OhmyNews, the electronics corporation Samsung, and The Star Publications in Malaysia, as well as the Asian Wall Street Journal and Singapore Press Holdings.

Next to the keys to their home, residents in Asia rank the mobile phone as the most important object of daily life: besides making calls, they use it to surf the Internet, pay, read, as a city guide, etc. The technical possibilities offer a new potential, especially for publishers. The tour group was particularly impressed by how mobile phone manufacturers and newspaper houses seek contact with customers, either personally or online. The visited companies unanimously agreed that the future lies in interactivity.

“Publishing houses worldwide are in a similar situation,” said Stanislaw Turnau, publisher of the Polish Agora group, after the Asian tour. He expressed his firm conviction that first class new ideas would result from the many impulses given by this study tour.

“Online first!” in the US

The Ifra study tour to the US, 18 – 24 March, was organised under the motto “Online Publishing – Strategies, Best Practice and Business Models”. It took the German group from California, where they visited highly dynamic newspapers such as Bakersfield Californian, Orange County Register and San Diego Union Tribune, taking in Morris Digital Works in Arizona to the East Coast and Washington Post.

In the US, online today generates up to 10% of the total turnover of newspaper houses. Newspapers there are determined to offset, if not surpass, the drop in revenue and loss of reach in the print area by increasing turnovers in the online-sector. The so-called “community activities” are the fastest-growing area in this segment. US. newspapers aim to use their competence at “local level” to confront the competition from news agencies and online services.

“Instead of thinking about it too long, just act,” said VP interactive media Logan Molan of Bakersfield Californian. The newspaper at present has a daily circulation of 67 000 copies, but offers the public a lot more with 10 different web portals. All media are currently focusing on the topic of “citizen journalism” and interaction with the user.

Learning by travelling

Each day of travel brought the participants new knowledge, promising impulses and interesting contacts. By the time they returned, the participants had noted numerous highlights and ideas. All were convinced that, with the technical possibilities, publishing houses can bring very many more products to the market than just the traditional printed newspaper. They have developed to become communication operations in the broadest sense.

The hosts also found the visits valuable. The meetings were used for first discussions about cooperation at international level. “We also learned a lot from the exchange of information and experience, you can believe it,” said Linda Ngiam, deputy group GM of Star Publications (Malaysia). “From the first welcome up to the farewell in the evening, the time was put to good use.”

Other 2007 Study Tours

Ifra had already organised several study tours to the US in the past. The “multimedia” Asia-Tour was offered for the first time. Major contributing factors to its success were Ifra’s regional competence through its subsidiary in South East Asia, as well as the specialists of its own in-house experts. Ifra will continue to share this exclusive know-how with the participants in its Study Tours in the future.

Ifra offers additional Study Tours this year for all those wishing to advance their business with new ideas:

• “Voyage d’étude aux USA”: 20 – 26 May, to the US (Columbia, Atlanta and Miami – in the French language).
  
• “The New Publishing World in North America”: 24 – 30 June, to Canada and the USA. (in the English language).
  
• “Multimedia Newsrooms in Europe”: (leading up to IfraExpo 2007 in Vienna), 30 September – 6 October 2007, in Sweden, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (in the English language).

Also planned is a Study Tour through South East Europe, leading up to the Ifra South-East Europe Conference that will be held 19 – 21 September 2007 in Belgrade.

In addition, Ifra offers individual Study Tours tailored to the wishes of the travel group concerned.

For further information about the Study Tours, go to www.ifra.com/studytours.