Los Angeles World Congress Web site now open
21 November 2011
The Web site for the 82nd Annual INMA World Congress May 6-8 in Los Angeles is now open at www.inma.org/worldcongress.
Under the theme of “New Oxygen, New Growth,” the conference will be held at the 2-year-old J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live in the heart of Los Angeles’ newest, hottest entertainment district.
The conference will feature keynote presentations and case studies looking at transforming traditional print publishers into multi-media companies seeking new ways of growing audience, advertising, brand, and profitability across platforms.
More than 400 executives from the top newsmedia companies worldwide are expected to converge on Los Angeles for the INMA World Congress.
The new Web site features preliminary information on the conference and will soon be populated with programming information. Registration is now open and available.
...[more]INMA selects Los Angeles for 2012 World Congress
11 August 2011
INMA will hold its 82nd Annual World Congress May 6-8, 2012, at the J.W. Marriott/L.A. Live in Los Angeles.
A volunteer committee of top news industry executives will put together a theme and key subjects for the conference that focuses on growing revenue, audience, and brand from top publishers worldwide and from various media industries.
“The INMA World Congress aims to be the news industry's premier stage for breakthrough revenue ideas and change-oriented programming on a global scale,” said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. “We are pleased to bring this important stage to the newest, hottest development in California, L.A. Live.”
The J.W. Marriott/L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles opened in 2010 with state-of-the-art meeting facilities, deluxe sleeping rooms, and a front-row seat to the L.A. Live entertainment complex containing the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre, and other big-brand venues.
Complete information on the Los Angeles World Congress will soon be posted to www.INMA.org.
...[more]“Fusion journalism” creates heat for worldwide social media conversation
01 June 2011
Even as participants at this year’s World Congress were debating the merits of social networks, INMA itself was experiencing a major boost in online influence through a professionally run editorial operation leveraging just such social media.
The technique is called “fusion journalism,” and at World Congress the effort was spearheaded by Western iMedia, a multi-platform editorial startup operated out of Western Kentucky University.
Kerry Northrup, director of Western iMedia and leader of the team of nine multi-platform journalists who covered the event, says it’s a new vision of journalism, applied in a real-time situation.
He describes his team as “entrepreneurial journalists” who not only are re-invigorating traditional mainstream media, but also helping to shape what ultimately will become the new mainstream media. In this new model, Northrup said, it’s first about the story, and then about the medium – or rather, the media, plural.
“We integrate multiple formats and platforms to produce the most effective story, connected to the most significant audience,” he said. “We don’t just tell stories, though. We also produce the environments in which people engage those stories across multiple media and technologies.”
During the event, Northrup said, it was important never to lose sight of the main objective: “Our job is to inform. Our goal is journalism that gets noticed, because if it doesn’t, then what’s the point?”
INMA Executive Director/CEO Earl Wilkinson characterized the effort as an “echo chamber,” an idea that apparently resonated with the audience. Western iMedia’s editorial team produced 58 blog posts, 26 videos and 236 tweets during 78 hours of event coverage.
On-site participants and global followers amplified that with thousands of additional contributions and re-tweets using the promoted #inmawc hashtag. Some of those commenters were in turn connected to networks of sometimes more than 15,000 more followers, and often continuing beyond that for several levels.
...[more]His own words: Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the New York Times and the digital frontier
31 May 2011
In a question-and-answer session, INMA World Congress moderator Juan Señor sat with Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, to hear his views on the newspaper’s present and future. Among many topics, Sulzberger talked about the newspaper's paid-content model for online, its plans to go even deeper into social media, and the value of the print newspaper in an age of multi-platform content.
...[more]Executives from Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones explain transformational path
18 May 2011
The final day of 2011 INMA World Congress consisted of an executive briefing from The Wall Street Journal and its corporate parent, Dow Jones. Six executives from the two companies came together to provide insight to attendees about the transformation to multi-media with new energy in print platform, paid content, the iPad and more.
Lynne Brennen, senior vice president of circulation for Dow Jones, opened the presentation with an overview of the company and its attention on credible, unique content.
She observed that there is a crossroads between content and technology, and Dow Jones understands the need to build its business at that intersection.
...[more]Twitter Take: consumer marketing department
18 May 2011http://twitter.com/#!/agomeara/statuses/70870946017325056
...[more]Twitter Take: “agile water”
18 May 2011http://twitter.com/#!/agomeara/statuses/70857418665504768
...[more]Times/Jang campaign a game-changer in India-Pakistan relations
18 May 2011
India and Pakistan have been at war — officially or philosophically — for more than six decades.
But in the past year, two publishing powerhouses in the troubled region have led a peace movement and curated the conversation around what the countries have in common instead of their differences. And Tuesday night, at INMA’s 81st Annual World Congress in New York City, those two newsmedia companies received INMA’s highest award for their groundbreaking efforts.
Ravi Dhariwal, the newly elected president of INMA and top executive of The Times of India, accepted INMA’s Best in Show award alongside Shahrukh Hasan, executive of The Jang Group in Pakistan. Out of hundreds of entries, judges chose the joint campaign because it prompted activity, created relevance and produced results. It also successfully demonstrated their brands through creativity and impact, which serves as an inspiration to the industry worldwide.
See the winning campaign video Watch the awards ceremony overview video
Photos of 2011 World Congress available on Flickr, Facebook
18 May 2011Hundreds of photos have been uploaded to the Flickr photosharing service from the 2011 INMA World Congress in New York. Selected photos are also available on INMA's Facebook page.
...[more]
Tuesday sessions at World Congress focus on digital
17 May 2011
The second full day of the 81st INMA World Congress focused its more than 300 participants on the digital content frontier.
Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of Interactive Advertising Bureau, told delegates that to pull out of the “commodity spiral,” they must work on providing marketers with exactly what they want: brand awareness, favourability and purchase intent. To do that, he said, media companies need to stop sacrificing premium ad space to low-price advertisers and start developing creative marketing strategies.
Scott Brown, a senior vice president for Global Communications, Media Practice, Consumer Insights and Strategic Relations at The Nielsen Company, emphasised keeping an eye out for the “second-generation tablet buyers,” those buyers who buy used tablets from others who are upgrading to newer models. Brown also noted that there currently isn't an app for the tablet where users can watch television outside of the home. He suspects that if the ability to watch TV became available to the users, tablet use would increase.
Clearly the most anticipated moment of the day came in the late-morning question and answer session between moderator Juan Senor New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who walked the audience through his views on present and future of his bellwether newspaper.
Watch the Tuesday video overview See video of closing remarks
