From the keynote of entrepreneur Raghav Bahl to its two pre-conference workshops, WAN-Ifra's Digital Media India event promises something for everyone next month.
The event is being held in New Delhi from Feb 10-11.
Bahl, a journalist, entrepreneur and media baron is one of India's most respected business leaders. In Delhi, he shares the limelight with Kalle Jungkvist, a senior advisor to the chief executive of Europe's Schibsted Media, who will deliver the keynote on the conference's second day. He is a former editor-in-chief of Aftonbladet, published by a 180 year-old Swedish media company.
Ben Shaw, WAN-Ifra's newly-appointed director of global consulting will chair conference sessions and present a round-up of digital news business entrepreneurship in traditional news publishing. He also chairs a panel discussion around the question. 'should news publishers be selective in choosing their digital advertising partners?'.
DMI delegates will have an opportunity to listen to visionaries and eminent practitioners from news publishing houses from around the world. The conference will have sessions on content and tools to reach the digital audience; retooling the traditional newsroom for digital news delivery; deciphering audience data for better editorial products and business; and digital revenue models.
Trushar Barot, the Apps Editor for BBC World Service, will share findings of the editorial experiments carried out by BBC News during the last Indian general election including the use of chat apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat and Line.
"These instant messaging platforms give us an additional distribution method to potentially penetrate markets that we may not be able to do through more conventional means," he says.
Another hot topic is the redesign and relaunch of IndianExpress.com early last year, with Express shifting gears on social networks to package its serious content for a non-serious audience. Outlining the amazing response to new tools and formats - which helped package content specifically for social - will be new media editor Nandagopal Rajan.
Another speaker is Matt Lindsay, an economist whose company Mather Economics specialises in revenue analysis and pricing strategies. His presentation will share an approach to revenue maximisation from digital publishing and present examples of how publishers should analyse their data when determining an optimal metering level.
Not to be missed is the experiences of verrnacular dailies in digital news publishing, with the case of the Telugu language daily Sakshi, - one of the youngest in the region - to be presented by IT and digital president Divya Bollareddy. She will share the continuously evolving strategies that is keeping Sakshi at the helm of the fast moving, ever-changing digital space.
How do you integrate interactivity and audience engagement into the everyday workflow of a newsroom? S. Mitra Kalita of Quartz, the global business site of the Atlantic, will present its strategy on shareability, annotations, and even just responding to readers and their feedback. Mitra is the executive editor at-large for qz.com
Also from the BBC is Nathalie Malinarich, News Online editor for mobile and new formats. She will share her experiences on how the kind of video mobile audiences want to consume is different to that they view on TV, and how the explosive growth of mobile is changing the way video is produced and consumed.
Two pre-conference workshops on February 9 drill down on specific subjects:
- Kalle Jungkvist will lead a workshop on digital content strategy for senior editorial executives; and
- Matt Lindsay of Mather Economics will expand on pricing strategies for digital news publishers.
More than 100 delegates from India and neighbouring countries are expected for Digital Media India. Follow #dmi2015 on Twitter for updates.
Pictured: Raghav Bahl (photo Penguin India)