INMA's Challinor on Africa, chasing Google and Facebook

Nov 29, 2016 at 07:32 pm by Staff


New distance learning initiatives and geographic expansion are on the cards for INMA in 2017, president Mark Challinor says.

Following a board meeting in Cape Town and a Global Media Summit which "may be a precursor to further activities in Africa", Challinor says the US-headquartered group is looking at a number of new initiatives.

These include a new initiative offering webinars and live video chats on best practices, new membership classifications for start-ups and universities - to "infuse INMA with the next generation of bright minds" - more advisory services, and new ways of expanding membership activities deeper into East Asia and Africa.

"We are aiming to build new bridges to INMA members via an app, messaging services such as WhatsApp and traditional SMS," he says.

INMA is currently running at more than 8,000 members from 614 companies in 63 countries, and says membership will have grown five per cent in 2016. A record 1210 people attended INMA conferences, seminars, summits and study tours in the past year.

Nearly two dozen presentations about trends were provided to corporate members around the world, with guidance and advice where needed. "We were glad to be a spark," Challinor says.

The first-ever World Congress in London also drew record attendance and engagement, and entries to the Global Media Awards competition were up 23 per cent.

Priority "hot topics" discussed by the board include disrupting media agencies, the fast-evolving use of distributed platforms - with plans for a survey of members on their use of platforms including Facebook Instant Articles, Google AMP and Apple News - and "diversifying away from the core". Digital subscriptions, native advertising, virtual reality, the value of news brands, advertiser misconceptions and the "unique values" of media are also on the agenda.

Challinor says there is also speculation about "who will be Number 3" after Google and Facebook, and whether media companies can band together, country by country, to be the third player. A common ad exchange among New Zealand media players was particularly cited at the meeting.

Events planned for the year in addition to the World Congress and Global Media Awards, include Big Data For Media Week in London (February 20-24), Media Viking Week - a two-day study tour of Stockholm and Oslo media innovators and a local media seminar with the European News Media Conference - and an October Silicon Valley study tour. Conferences are also planned in Latin America, North America and South Asia.

Pictured: Delegates at the Global Media Summit in Cape Town

Sections: Newsmedia industry

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