Get your credentials from the Conference Registration Desk before settling into the networking lounge for tea, coffee, and snacks. Meet peers and connect with INMA speakers and news and tech industry solution providers. Schedule meetings with INMA initiative leads
As the news industry stands at a critical inflection point, this conference explores how news media companies can move from recognition to decisive action — surfacing best practices and case studies exemplifying agility, sustainability, and growth amidst the new norm of disruption. Join us as we bring together stakeholders of the news media ecosystem to delve into the key issues facing the news media industry. Participate in putting forward tangible remedies for industry influencers, redefining strategies to ensure relevance, growth, and resilience in a rapidly evolving landscape.
| Head, INMA South Asia Division, and Lead Strategy & Special Projects for APAC |
| CEO, The Hindu Group |
| Conference Moderator, and Executive Editor, The Quint |
This opening keynote explores the shifting strategic priorities of the global news media industry, with a focus on where business model innovation and generative AI fit in. It offers a clear view of the challenges and opportunities ahead, the pace of digital transformation, and what future success looks like. Discover how media leaders are navigating the balance between sustainable journalism and maintaining meaningful societal impact.
| Executive Director and CEO, INMA, United States |
Print advertising continues to play a vital role in building trust and brand credibility, especially within premium, multi-channel strategies. Meanwhile, the broader advertising landscape is being reshaped by privacy-first data practices, AI-driven personalisation, the rise of retail media, immersive formats like video and AR, and a growing focus on sustainability, purpose-driven messaging, and more precise measurement models.
| Partner, Media & Entertainment, EY, India |
Print remains a trusted, high-impact medium, delivering unmatched credibility and focused engagement even as digital grows. In this high-calibre conversation, industry leaders spotlight print’s agility, adaptability, and enduring value. With its brand-safe environment, local relevance, community connect, and ability to command undivided attention, print continues to evolve — amplifying cross-platform strategies and offering a premium, future-ready platform for modern advertisers.
| Contributing Editor, Business Standard |
| Founder, The Bhasin Consulting Group |
| Executive Director, The Indian Express Group |
Meet the exhibitors, connect, and share with the speakers or the INMA initiative leads over tea and coffee in the pre-function area.
The South Asian advertising landscape is evolving rapidly, shaped by changing consumer behaviour and accelerating technological disruption. As advertising strategies adapt—particularly across print and digital—the relationship between publishers and agencies is becoming increasingly strategic and collaborative. Today’s agencies look beyond reach; they seek deeper audience insights, data-led solutions, and creative executions tailored to each platform. In this shifting environment, trust, agility, innovation, and the ability to demonstrate tangible ROI will define the next generation of publisher-agency partnerships. Against this backdrop, how can news publishers effectively position themselves to deliver impactful, multi-format campaigns and communicate their value proposition more compellingly across mediums?
| Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Co. |
| President, International Association of Advertising, India Chapter, and Free Press Journal |
| Group CEO, Madison Media, OOH, Madison World |
In a fragmented and fast-evolving consumer landscape, understanding who you’re speaking to has never been more important - or more complex. This session explores how brands can effectively identify, interpret, and connect with generational cohorts like Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, each with distinct values, behaviours, and media habits. Learn how this impacts creative direction, storytelling, product-market fit, platform choices, media allocation, and ultimately, conversions. Whether you’re building for boomers or crafting for Gen Z, this session will help you understand how brands sharpen focus, spend smarter, and connect deeper.
| Founder, BrandsAbility |
| Former CMO, Lenskart and CEO, Hustlr |
Meet the exhibitors, connect, and share with the speakers or the INMA initiative leads, or just enjoy lunch in pre-function area.
How are publishers relooking at and creating a content and audience strategy to grow audiences and engagement focussing on proximity, interaction, and understanding users to grow and retain audiences. How are consumers developing routines and habits around publishers' products? How to build communities around news products?
| Chief Operating Officer, Jagran New Media |
| Chief Operating Officer, Indian Express Digital |
News publishers are under increasing pressure to grow reader revenue, maintain trust and adopt new technologies, all while responding to shifting audience habits and evolving business models. In this session, FT Strategies will outline a clear set of priorities for publishers looking to build resilient, forward-looking organisations. What should you pay attention to, stop doing and invest in? How can you give your organisation (and staff) the boost it needs to grow and adapt to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving industry? Alongside lessons from FT Strategies’ work with news organisations globally, Sabrina Daryanani will reflect on how these industry insights apply to the Indian market, drawing on observations around market dynamics, emerging trends, and developments among leading publishers in the region.
| Head of APAC & Principal, FT Strategies, Singapore |
In this essential briefing, learn how generative AI is reshaping newsroom workflows, advertising, and marketing strategies. From powerful use cases to real-world applications, Sonali Verma, INMA generative AI initiative lead, will explore the opportunities and risks AI presents to journalism, along with the ethical, operational, and creative challenges that come with it. Gain insights from global industry examples and learn how to approach AI with clarity, caution, and confidence.
| GenAI Initiative Lead, INMA, Canada |
Meet the exhibitors, connect, share, and learn while interacting with the speakers, colleagues, the INMA initiative leads, or just enjoy a tea break.
In this session, learn from a series of South Asia case studies on the deployment of AI in news media – including combatting SEO and user engagement, advertising and marketing, and print advertising. This session’s special focus will be on print advertising: how to enhance creativity, the creation of hyper-targeted print campaigns, surfacing insights for better ROI and its role in amplifying intelligence, personalisation and integration, both in physical and digital technology and content.
| CEO, HT Digital |
| Former Deputy General Manager and Head, ABP One |
| Vice President, Data and Analytics, The Hindu |
| Head of Product and Design, Times of India - Online |
In this forward-thinking conversation moderated by a leader himself, gain a top line view of how different leaders approach financial stability, recalibrate priority areas and draw up a roadmap for future investments and innovation.
| CEO, The Hindu Group |
| Chief Executive Officer, Publishing, and Executive Director, BCCL |
| Group CEO, HT Media |
Our moderator will distill the conference’s first day into takeaways.
| Conference Moderator, and Executive Editor, The Quint |
Join us for high powered networking over drinks and dinner as you unpack the day with colleagues, decision makers and industry partners.
Exchange notes from the previous day over breakfast, tea, and coffee. Meet the exhibitors, connect, share, and learn while interacting with the speakers, colleagues, the INMA initiative leads, or just enjoy a tea break in the Inspire Lounge.
| Conference Moderator, and Executive Editor, The Quint |
The news industry is at a turning point. Legacy media faces fierce competition from digital-first outlets that prioritise current audience habits. With more choice than ever, audiences demand relevance and impact. This session explores how traditional newsrooms are adapting through strategic focus, content strategies, audience targeting, and platform-native approaches. We’ll highlight real-world transformations, editorial innovation, and the role of technology and AI in modernising workflows and boosting efficiency.
| GenAI Initiative Lead, INMA, Canada |
Building on the opening keynote presentation, learn how South Asian news media companies are reinventing the innovation playbook through immersive storytelling techniques, content delivery, product development, and audience reach. And learn where GenAI is intersecting (and not).
| CEO and Co-founder, Collective Newsroom |
| Head of Digital and Editor, Amar Ujala |
This session showcases how a regional news publisher successfully grew digital subscriptions through targeted audience engagement, simplified paywalls, and a focus on local journalism. The presentation highlights key strategies, results, and lessons for building sustainable reader revenue.
| Business Head, Digital, Sakal Media Group |
Prothom Alo has diversified its subscription journey—from a dynamic e-paper to Chorki, a hub for premium Bengali content catering to a global audience. To drive subscription growth, both platforms have prioritized high-quality original content, deep customer insight, and creative, localized marketing campaigns. These efforts have significantly expanded their user base, firmly positioning Chorki as the leading OTT platform in Bangladesh. Drawing on these experiences, Prothom Alo is now shaping its own path toward a sustainable subscription model.
| Chief Digital Business Officer, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh |
Meet the exhibitors, connect, share, and learn while interacting with the speakers, colleagues, the INMA initiative leads, or just enjoy a tea break.
This session explores how regional legacy publishers, who are the front runners in vernacular content, are leveraging the strength of print to expand reach and deepen audience trust. They are innovating with formats and platforms to stay ahead of changing consumption habits and using data responsibly while crafting culturally resonant narratives and redefining success in a hybrid print-digital ecosystem.
| Editor-in-Chief and CEO, MXM India |
| Chief Resident Editor & Director, Malayala Manorama Co. Ltd. |
| CEO, ABP Group |
| Group CEO, Kantipur Media Group, Nepal |
In this conversation, gain insights into a brand’s perspective on how the end objective and goals of a brand align with different media (print, digital, broadcast). How does a brand approach strategic balance in momentum vs meaning, navigating timeframes, focus, and success metrics? Do both short-term and long-term brand building matter and can they work together?
| Former Chief Growth Officer, Sideways Consulting and Former Senior Vice President, BCCL |
| Fractional CMO and Marketing Advisor, AND Marketing |
| Group CEO, Eros Media World |
| CEO and Managing Director, Omnicom Advertising Group |
In this session, the speaker will share insights into subscription marketing, highlighting how many teams tend to focus heavily on acquisition and lowering cost-per-acquisition (CPA), while overlooking the more critical challenge — churn, which is often the real growth killer.
| Subscription Growth Strategist and Former Chief Strategy Officer, The Economist |
Meet the exhibitors, connect, and share with the speakers or the INMA initiative leads, or just enjoy lunch in pre-function area.
Explore the fast-growing Indian creator economy and its disruptive impact on advertising and the news media. What opportunities and challenges does this shift bring—and how can publishers tap into it for audience growth and monetisation? This session dives into the growth of the Indian creator economy: where it’s headed and why it matters. Strategies for publishers to collaborate with influencers effectively. Redefining “influencer” across print and digital landscapes. Building the right guardrails: ethics, transparency, and trust. Striking a balance: how much is too much influence? Join us to decode the roadmap for media in the age of influence.
| Former Head, Growth Products, WPP Media |
| President and Head of Digital Business, Lokmat Media |
| Head of Marketing, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Former, Head Brand and Category Marketing, Amazon India |
Print remains a powerful brand-building medium, now enhanced by innovation in ad formats, content marketing, brand solutions and smart integration with digital platforms. This session explores how print is evolving through interactive formats like AR and QR codes, data-informed marketing solutions, and sector-specific strategies that deliver measurable results. With a focus on creativity, accountability, and multi-stream monetisation, the panel will showcase real-world campaigns and execution frameworks — reinforcing print’s role as a trusted, high-impact channel in future-focused media strategies.
| Editor-in-Chief and CEO, MXM India |
| President - Response, BCCL |
| Director, Sales Enablement, Franklin Templeton |
Video is no longer optional — it’s central to the future of content consumption. While short-form formats like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok capture massive attention, particularly among younger audiences, news publishers have been slower to adapt, and monetisation remains a challenge. For publishers and brands, video presents powerful storytelling, viral reach, and revenue potential — but only with a clear strategy. This session explores what’s next for video in newsrooms, including its role on larger screens, impact on monetisation and how AI is transforming video creation, editing, distribution, and performance optimisation.
| Chief Growth Officer and former Head of Digital Video Strategy and Partnerships, Network 18 |
Get an inside look at how a brand like Mondelez sustains brand relevance and what this means for its media choices. Discover how Mondelez continues to shape brand relevance by fostering interactivity and deepening audience engagement on the back of strong consumer insights. Learn how the brand strategically aligns purpose, performance, and innovation to remain relevant, drive meaningful results, and make thoughtful media choices.
| Senior Director Marketing – Chocolates, Mondelez |
This session explores the vision and strategy behind positioning print as a high-impact, high-trust medium in today’s cluttered and hybrid media environment. It delves into the role of storytelling in print, and how aligning print with brand objectives can effectively meet advertiser expectations around innovation, targeted engagement, brand safety, and emotionally resonant narratives.
| Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, BBDO |
| Conference Moderator, and Executive Editor, The Quint |
Madhavi Sekhri
Head - South Asia Division
Strategy and Special Projects Lead - Asia Pacific
New Delhi, India
Hindi, English
Tel.: +91 99716 00632