Ahead of WAN-Ifra’s World News Media Congress opening, 60 guests and speakers learned about their co-host, which is not only France’s third-largest private media group, but also the world’s third-largest container shipping company.

Led by billionaire chief executive Rodolphe Saadé, CMA Media – previously Whynot Média – shares digs in a Marseilles office tower with its parent CMA CGM, which reported revenue of US$55.48 billion (A$77.5 billion) in 2024.

In what was dubbed ‘C Day’, delegates visited their host’s Tangram a few kilometres down the coast.

The event was moderated by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, professor of communication at the University of Copenhagen and senior research associate at Reuters Institute at Oxford University, while Ezra Eeman, who is strategy and innovation director at Dutch public broadcaster NPO and leads WAN-Ifra’s AI initiative, led the day’s AI sessions.

With Chatham House rules prevailing, delegates gained exclusive insights through presentations and publisher case studies. Nielsen challenged them to rethink some of the “sour notions” that surround the industry, redefining trust, rethinking ‘techlash’ v. tech ambivalence, and reconnecting through direct relationships.

“Don’t just brace for the agentic model, work on it,” he suggested.

WAN-Ifra president and Ringier Switzerland head of media & chief executive Ladina Heimgartner put it well in her closing remarks: “We have heard enough today that I have a healthy amount of paranoia and a healthy amount of confidence.”

with WAN-Ifra, with thanks

Pictured top: Tangram’s walled enclave; (above) Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, and (below) delegates gather for a group photograph