10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Juan Señor
President
Innovation Media Consulting
United Kingdom

Welcome to World Congress

What is the growth path for news media as the world emerges from the darkest days of COVID? That is the fundamental question this year's INMA World Congress of News Media aims to answer. INMA plans to attack this from different angles: consumer behaviour, technology, data, subscriptions, advertising, product, Big Tech, and more. All the while, we will aim to distill these profound learnings for participants.

Damian Eales
President, International News Media Association (INMA)
Global Head of Transformation, News Corp
Australia

What Consumer Behaviour Changes Mean In a Post-Pandemic World

COVID broke consumer behaviours and habits unlike any single event in most of our lifetimes. As the world begins to re-assemble, what’s changed? Drawing on her extensive research, podcasts, and books on retailing and disruption, Barbara Kahn will jump into the collective minds of consumers. How have shopping behaviours changed? Which behaviors are likely to be permanent and which will adapt as the world gets back to “normal?” What can we learn from China and their “new retail” and “shoppertainment” models? How has physical retailing, digital platforms, social media, and influencer marketing merged to present a new interface for the consumer? This presentation will set the scene for the INMA World Congress and the growth path ahead as the lights flicker back on.

Barbara Kahn
Executive Director, Marketing Science Institute
Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor of Marketing, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School
United States

Planning For the Future of Subscription Revenue

The pandemic pushed news media companies to the brink — then helped facilitate breakthroughs to creative and innovative business models. But the pandemic also caused inflection points in the broader subscription economy and the technologies that distribute news. In this presentation, we will look at how external forces and trends will change how consumers will interact with technology — and the news. Drawing on the Future Today Institute's annual trend report, this talk will examine the strategic questions publishers should ask to stay ahead of the curve.

Sam Guzik
Contributing Author
Future Today Institute Tech Trends Report
United States

What’s Next With Google News Initiative

The Google News Initiative is a collaboration with the news industry to help journalism thrive in the digital age. In this presentation, learn more about efforts to upgrade news industry capabilities across a range of activities: subscriptions, audience, product, advertising, and more. Find out what’s next in this vital news industry initiative.

Ben Monnie
Director, Global Partnerships
Google News Initiative
United States

Competing In the Age of AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having a profound effect on industries – from value propositions to driving digital scale. As the pandemic has driven digital transformation, research is emerging showing a relationship between data-centricity and AI deployment capabilities and company performance. What are the opportunities behind AI for media companies? What are the strategic implications? How to plan for this inevitability? What new responsibilities does a company deploying AI have? What is the ultimate playbook for AI and over what timeline? Walking attendees through these questions will be the author of books related to innovation and AI and a Harvard Business School specialist in technology management, innovation, digital transformation, and AI.

Karim R. Lakhani
Co-Author, Competing In the Age of AI
Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
United States

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Greg Piechota
Smart Data Initiative Lead
INMA
United Kingdom

Executive Briefing: The State of Data for Media

Every media company acknowledges the value of data, yet virtually no media company is happy with its data strategy. In this executive briefing from INMA Smart Data Initiative Lead Greg Piechota, learn more about the three data priorities for media this year: how a first-party data-focused tech infrastructure is becoming the backbone for digital publishing, tying data to business objectives, and forming data-positive culture through data democratisation.

Navigating a Cookieless Future: Bloomberg Media's First-Party Data Play

As publishers prepare to transition for the end of cookies and tracking user data, Bloomberg Media’s Julia Beizer, chief product officer and global head of digital, will discuss how they can leverage their knowledge of their audience to deepen their connection with their users, grow subscriptions, and drive better advertiser success.

Julia Beizer
Chief Product Officer and Global Head of Digital
Bloomberg Media
United States

How Aller Media Succeeds With Personalization

Aller Media has come a long way when it comes to personalisation and optimisation. The Norwegian media company uses collaborative filters to meet the right users with the right content. Aller also has created an intelligent front page that can handle conflicting KPIs. Learn more about Aller Media’s personalisation effort and where it fits into their overall data strategy.

Camilla Fuglem
Director of Data
Aller Media
Norway

Numbers that Matter and How to Use Them

Get an exclusive look at trends in digital engagement, retention and conversion aggregated from Piano’s benchmark data asset and hear what media companies just like yours are seeing as they evolve their subscription businesses.

Patrick Appel
Director of Research
Piano
United States

What Torstar’s Data Strategy Points To Next

Torstar’s 4-year-old data transformation has become to the talk of the news industry with significant investments changing how the Canadian media company does business. In this presentation, get a bird’s eye view of data for subscriptions, registrations, and advertising. Learn more about locking articles in real time, anonymous to subscription models, social content recognition engine, personalisation, content science, content engagement, driving new audiences for advertisers with first-party data, sales performance and vertical revenue, and monetising data for clients.

John Souleles
Chief Data Officer
Torstar
Canada

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Mark Challinor
Executive Producer – Interactive
INMA Past President
United Kingdom

Executive Briefing: The State of Media Advertising

What do you need to know about the state of media advertising as economies start to come back? In this opening session, focus on the rise of full-suite marketing services operations inside media companies, the shift toward selling digital advertising based on first-party data, and where resources should be shifted to take fullest advantage of the coming rebound.

What To Do With an Empty Cookie Jar: Creating a Value Exchange Beyond Third-Party Programmatic

The pending phaseout of third-party identity capabilities has prompted the need for a reset of the value exchange between publishers and consumers — in the process changing the basis for programmatic advertising. What should media companies do now and in the near future to prepare for this? Putting aside first-party data approaches, what are the practical decisions and actions a publisher can take to leverage the proposals for replacing cookies with audiences?

Kabir Ahuja
Partner, Media & Entertainment and High Tech Practices
McKinsey & Company
United Kingdom

Axel Springer Advertising Bundling Strategy: Stay Strong Together

Axel Springer has bundled all activities close to the advertising market under the umbrella of Axel Springer All Media (ASAM). ASAM’s goal is to combine the trusted environments of journalistic brands with creative ideas and technology to offer solutions to advertising customers. Learn more about this strategy and its best cases.

Julia Wehrle
Managing Director
Media Impact
Germany

Brandformance: How Infoglobo Measures More Than Impacts In Branded Content Strategies

In this presentation, learn practical examples of how branded content strategies are reaching more than impacts at Brazil's Infoglobo. It is possible to delivery “brandformance” (performance in branding) — and prove it — by using real-time measurements, chatbots, brand lift research, link-building, and SEO techniques.

Tiago Afonso
Sales and Digital Development Director
Infoglobo
Brazil

Leveraging a Unified Ad Management System To Capitalise On Advertising Shifts

Join this session to discover how to capitalise on the ongoing shifts in advertising strategies in the newspaper industry. In this presentation, learn how brands such as Philadelphia Inquirer, Farm Journal, and Motortrend leverage a unified ad management system to take on first-party data advertising, complete-services offerings in media companies, and the shift of advertising spend as we emerge from the pandemic.

Jeff Shine
President and Chief Strategy Officer
Naviga
United States

Skyline Studio and the Opportunity of Content Marketing

As publishers prepare for an uptick in advertising, MediaNews Group has created Skyline Studio as a content marketing division for 11 of its Southern California publications. Less than two years old, Skyline Studio today has 160+ clients across an array of categories and has run 558 campaigns and generated more than US$630,000 in incremental revenue. In this presentation, learn more about the initiative that funds journalism through sponsored posts, custom content, branded content, video ads, advertorials, social, and more.

Lindsay Benton
Branded Content Account Executive
Skyline
United States

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Terri-Karelle Reid
TV Host, Digicel Rising Stars
Media Services Specialist
Jamaica


About this module

At the midway point of World Congress, it’s time to get your popcorn ready. INMA’s famous “Brainsnacks” will give you a rapid-fire approach to great ideas to grow audience, revenue, and brand. Come away inspired by these 10-minute, to-the-point presentations by member media companies — and maybe have some fun along the way.

The Rochester Experience: How Gannett Is Building Inclusive Newsrooms

Gannett/USA Today Network is building a playbook for connecting under-served audiences and expanding their subscriber base through the building of diverse news teams and community outreach. In this spotlight presentation, go back to the initiative’s genesis to learn how the “Rochester Experience” tackled issues of race to embrace communities of colour – setting in motion a broader programme that today looks at content targeting, mobile “pop-up” newsrooms in communities, re-thinking crime coverage, and more.

Cynthia Benjamin
Director of Audience Engagement and Trust
Gannett | USA Today Network
United States



Alesha Williams Boyd
Senior Digital Director
Gannett | USA Today Network
United States

Communicating Editorial Strategy Through a Topic Editor Dashboard

Learning that just 40% of its content made up 87% of what its subscribers were reading online was a confronting yet powerful lesson. In the question for answers, Nine’s topic editor dashboard (TED) was born and with it a new way of communicating its editorial strategy to the newsroom. In this presentation, hear what the newsroom learned and how these learnings have been converted to results.

Aimie Rigas
Head of Audience Development
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
Australia

Funke Media’s Data Journalism Breakthrough During Pandemic

In the first days of the pandemic, the interactive team of Funke Media Group launched the Coronavirus Monitor on its news Web sites as a minimal viable product. During the subsequent weeks, the app became one of the main coronavirus information sources in Germany – making Funke’s regional brands known beyond the already existing readership as an excellent and fast source for current news. The number of new users and subscribers grew as a result.

Marie-Louise Timcke
Head of Interactive
Funke Media
Germany

Supercharging Content Creation

Taking advantage of a proper toolset and AI, news companies across the world are bringing more efficiency to the process of storytelling. Plus, they are finding better ways to surface their rich archives and repositories of assets, aiding the work of journalists.

Michael Taylor
Sales Director
Stibo DX
United States

Rebuilding Insider’s Mobile App For Subscribers

With a growing focus on subscriptions, Insider decided to rebuild its mobile app from scratch so it could become the ultimate companion for its subscribers. The Insider team leaned user research and constant usability testing to figure out what to build. Learn the process behind the end product and, of course, the end product itself.

Alla Novick
Principal Product Manager, Mobile
Insider
United States

Hindustan Times Refresh Focused On Millennial Audiences: Integrated Product and Relevant Positioning

Under the impact of the global pandemic, HT Media Group refreshed its flagship brand Hindustan Times and chose to offer its readers and customers a new, positive, relevant perspective: The All-New refreshed and digitally enhanced avatar of Hindustan Times. The fresh included a content revamp aimed at Millennials, product portfolio re-think, new design elements, new positioning, and a new B2C and B2B strategy.

Aparna Bhawal
Vice President, Marketing
Hindustan Times
India

Newsday Live: Virtual Events Bring In New Audiences

The pandemic forced everything virtual – including events. Newsday ventured into virtual events and came away with new audiences, new subscribers, and NPS scores in the 70s. The Long Island news brand is doubling down on this strategy and will provide a road map on how this has helped changed the Newsday image.

Melissa Carfero
Event Strategy and Development
Newsday
United States

GFR Media and the Recipe for a Sustainable Social Media Strategy

Instagram has surpassed Twitter as a source for news, according to the Reuters Institute Digital Report from 2020. But how can we be relevant in new platforms with less resources? In this presentation, learn how GFR Media in Puerto Rico is implementing strategies and tools that might be applied at your company.

Selymar Colón
Director of Strategy
GFR Media
Puerto Rico

Media Solutions at Media 24: Customer and Audience At the Center of All We Do

Print and digital advertising solutions are simply not enough to get our customers’ brands on top again. Reinventing and repositioning the media offering has become more crucial than ever. Pairing advertising customers with their desired audiences means telling their brand stories through integrated, multi-platform, tailored solutions in partnership with Ads24 Media Solutions.

Tasmia Ismail
General Manager Commercial
Media 24
South Africa

Folha de S.Paulo and Enriching Audience Through Digital

How Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo has invested in digital strategies and achievements that have led to audience development, growth, and ideas to keep the brand relevant among news media transformation is the focus of this presentation.

Camila Marques
Digital Editor
Folha de S.Paulo
Brazil

Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Its Mission To “Press On”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently launched a new marketing campaign that features journalists who press on every day: it’s their calling and passion, where facts matter, and real journalism. Along with the Press On campaign, the AJC has implemented a new strategy and cultural shift within the company.

Amy Chown
Vice President/Marketing
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
United States

Dainik Bhaskar and the Climbing Doosra Campaign

In a market where India’s Dainik Bhaskar started with one edition and as the No. 5 player – a market crowded with legacy titles – the brand’s journey to No. 2 in five years has been punctuated with the Official Doosra marketing campaign. In cricketing parlance, the Doosra (means “second”) is the bowler who has the ability to turn the game on its head. Dainik Bhaskar used the extremely popular and highly recognised analogy to position themselves as challenge – an inevitable winner.

Kaacon Sethi
Chief Marketing Officer
Dainik Bhaskar Group
India

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Yasmin Namini
Digital Media Consultant
Past President, INMA
United States

Executive Briefing: The State of Media Subscriptions

INMA has led the news industry on the subject of digital subscriptions through its Readers First Initiative. In this executive briefing, distill the keys to this story: the vitality of habituation, the shift of focus to light-reading subscribers, and opening new doors for casual readers.

Greg Piechota
Lead, Readers First Initiative
INMA
United Kingdom

How the Wall Street Journal Implements Quality Engagement At Scale

The Wall Street Journal is transforming its approach to member engagement, a key driver of subscription growth. In this presentation, hear how the Journal put automation at the center of their engagement strategy, and the steps they’re taking to achieve personalization at scale in a post-Covid world. Learn more about automating use cases, testing paid media channels and changing mindsets.

Belma Kolayli
Engagement Marketing Manager
The Wall Street Journal
United States

The Guardian and Its Subscriber-Contributor Model

It is 200 years since The Guardian was formed to champion reform, progress, and the truth. As The Guardian enters its third century, nothing must change their mission, but the digital revolution changes how they interpret this mission for the modern age. In essence, The Guardian sees itself as a community of journalists and readers, and this is the foundational principle of their bespoke reader revenue model based on subscriptions and voluntary contributions. Readers now contribute far more revenue to The Guardian than advertisers. In this presentation, learn how the 200-years-old news brand reached sustainability thanks to mobilising its community.

Jessica Hayes
Deputy Director, Contributions
The Guardian
United Kingdom

From Follower to Subscriber: Cultivating a Valuable Audience on Facebook

Every day, news publishers around the world are thinking about how to discover new audiences and cultivate them to become loyal and paying subscribers. Learn how Facebook is enabling news publishers to build long-lasting relationships with readers both on and off the platform through an end-to-end, full funnel solution that will allow you to discover and engage new audiences, deepen your relationship with them, convert fans into paying subscribers and retain them as loyal consumers.

John Severinson
Head of Partner Development Europe
Facebook Journalism Project
Sweden

Behind the Rise Of VG+ As a Subscription Product

VG+ has become the biggest subscription product in Norway. In this presentation, learn how this famous brand’s team has worked strategically with the product, a combination of audience development and subscription. VG launched a VG-TV series called “Not allowed to laugh on the cabin” which they put behind the VG+ model and gave access to all episodes at once. For non-subscribers, one episode was launched every week. The series has driven strong sales of VG+. And the audience is young.

Jane Throndsen
Head of Paid Content
VG+
Norway



Beate Koren
Head of Editorial
VG+
Norway

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Nicki Purcell
President
Insite
United States

Executive Briefing: The State of Product at Media Companies

In its inaugural year, INMA’s Product Initiative has helped redefine the role of product at media companies. In this executive briefing, learn where product sits today among media companies and how it the fastest-growing department is evolving toward a cross-functional discipline that champions the customer experience. Learn why product is taking off now at media companies, what it does for journalism, where product teams spend their time, and the ultimate impact on engagement. Finally, take away where product fits in a broader media company’s organisational structure.

Jodie Hopperton
Lead, Product Initiative
INMA
United States

How the FT Aligns Its News Business Around Product to Achieve Growth

How product is aligned, product’s impact on long-term thinking, the connection to North Star metrics, and working with stakeholders at the Financial Times will be the highlights of this presentation. You will learn where product fits in the FT’s organisation, why product and tech are best sitting together, and how to incorporate data. The session will look at how product has reached long-term thinking and how to align the FT’s famous RFV North Star metric across departments, including editorial – and why and how the company is now moving towards LTV as a goal.

Cait O’Riordan
Chief Product and Information Officer
Financial Times
United States

ProductSteerCo: Focused Decision-Making at SPH That Harnesses Ideas From the Whole Organisation

Great ideas can come from all different corners of an organisation. This working model at Singapore Press Holdings harnesses those ideas with a decisive methodology governed by senior stakeholders while giving junior teams members training in thinking through problems and solutions using data, logic, and trade-offs plus the all-important art of influence. The structure helps promote product thinking through the organisation, and everything is brought together in a monthly, highly focused decision-making forum chaired by the deputy CEO.

Gaurav Sachdeva
Chief Product Officer
Singapore Press Holdings
Singapore

Personalisation vs. the Wisdom of the Crowd

Almost every publisher in the world is thinking about personalisation these days. Many think it’s the answer to serving readers exactly what they want. But The Globe and Mail has been building personalised experiences for years and has found that using segmented optimization drives far better results. We’ll share how the Globe’s AI-powered engine, Sophi.io, has driven impressive results that run contrary to popular wisdom.

Gordon Edall
Vice President, Sophi
The Globe and Mail
Canada

Product-Driven Growth at The New York Times

The marriage of ambitious product thinking and high quality journalism is propelling The New York Times' subscrition growth. In this session, learn how two Times initiatives —The Morning newsletter and Live coverage format — are examples of product and editorial working together to achieve growth. The session will discuss the types of talent The Times hires and nurtures internally as well as the ways in which cross-functional teams collaborate on shared missions.

Alex Hardiman
Chief Product Officer
The New York Times
United States

10.00 a.m.-12.30 p.m.
(New York time)

Module moderator

Robert Whitehead
Director
McPherson Media Group
Australia

Few Winners, Many Losers: What It Takes to Thrive In An Unforgiving Digital Media Environment

Drawing on research from the Reuters Institute, what can we say about who the winners are in an incredibly competitive and often unforgiving digital media environment? Clearly the big platforms that dominate advertising and a few well-known titles with run-away subscription success, but who else are succeeding and why?

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Director
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
University of Oxford
United Kingdom

Flywheel In Building Reader Engagement: Personalisation Needs More Content, More Content Gives Fuel to Personalisation

The user's involvement in times of an infinite number of sources and enormous stimuli becomes more and more difficult. One of the possible answers to this challenge is an individualised content offer. Social media has shown how you can do it with an unlimited amount of content. How can personalisation look like in the case of news portals? And will it actually turn into a flywheel of commitment if properly fed with content?

Michal Pietniczka
Director of Partnerships
Onet.pl
Poland

Opportunities Ahead In Media’s Relationship With Big Tech

Through its Digital Platform Initiative, INMA has guided members through the regulatory, legislative, and settlement road map from the European Union to the United Kingdom to Australia and beyond. In this session, Digital Platform Initiative Lead Robert Whitehead talks with the Australian regulator, Rod Sims, who created history this year when his media bargaining code became law, to hear his advice for other countries. “Understanding Ad Tech and Its Challenges For News Publishers” author Damian Geradin synthesises what likely will come next internationally, including the legal battles over ad tech. What does peach between Big Tech and publishers start to look like?

Rod Sims
Chairman
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
Australia



Damien Geradin
Partner
Geradin Partners
Belgium

The News Media Outlook 2022

From the ashes of a pandemic have sprung a new era of optimism for news media. Digital transformations have accelerated. Adoption of data in media cultures have spread wider and deeper. Subscriptions climb even as growth becomes more difficult. “Product” moves from something physical to something philosophical. As media companies gear up for the rise of advertising, publishers are placing new bets on initiatives beyond traditional bull’s eye such as e-commerce, sports betting, and more. All the while, trusted journalism takes a stronger stance on truth and facts as its distribution multiplies. In this keynote from INMA, walk away with the state of news media and a distillation of World Congress learnings.

Earl J. Wilkinson
Executive Director and CEO
International News Media Association (INMA)
United States