Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr, chairman and chief executive of the New York Times Company, has joined the programme for Digital Media Europe, the digital publishing event being organized by WAN-Ifra in London in April.
As newspapers the world over are seeking ways to increase digital revenues, the metered subscription model introduced by the New York Times has the attention of everyone. Sulzberger will make the keynote address at the conference, which will draw hundreds of high-level participants to the Science Museum of London on April 16-18.
Full conference details, including registration information, can be found here.
Sulzberger became publisher of the NYT in 1992 and continues to run the company’s flagship enterprise on a day-to-day basis. Over the past decade, he has led the digital transformation of the Times Company, which includes NYTimes.com, BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, About.com and IHT.com. During Mr. Sulzberger’s tenure as publisher, The Times has earned 44 Pulitzer prizes.
Now in its second year, Digital Media Europe – the flagship of a series of innovative regional digital conferences offered by WAN-IFRA – offers three days of keynotes, panel discussions and networking that will challenge conventional thinking about the future of media businesses. The conference will focus on innovative revenue models and new ideas for digital publishing. It will also include a “Future Day” focused on developments in the labs of some great game specialists, App designers and promising start-ups.
Each day of the conference will examine a core aspect of digital publishing: digital business trends; paid content, mobile platforms and global innovation; and new products and developments for the future.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Per Mikael Jensen, the CEO of Metro International, who has launched a mobile crowdsourcing news photo service as part of a new digital strategy. The free Metro, the world’s largest international newspaper (100 major cities in 22 countries, global reach of more than 17 million), is read most often by commuters on their way to work – what Metro International calls “the Metro moment.” But that is now being challenged by mobiles and tablets.
- Marja-Leena Tuomola, Chief Digital Officer for Sanoma News and Sanoma Media in Finland, an early leader in charging for digital access. But what sets Sanoma apart from other paid-content strategies is that the company upsells its existing print subscribers with a clever message: pay a little more and get substantial value from online, tablet and mobile access.
- Georg Konjovic, Director for Premium Content at Axel Springer, Europe’s largest newspaper publisher which is starting to reap the benefits of its new paid content strategy. Mr Konjovic coordinates all activities regarding paid content to establish a paid culture for content for web and mobile. In addition to that, his unit is responsible for the new brand "iKiosk" which is a marketplace for journalistic products available on the iPad and the web. In December, Axel Springer opened its iKiosk for other publishers and is now selling more than 100 magazines and newspapers.
- Sam Duncan Brown, Head of Innovation at A&N Media, who is out to change the perception that publishing companies are organised in silos and slow to react and innovate. At A&N Media – which includes Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media in the United Kingdom and A&N International Media – Mr Brown works closes with business and IT team to drive innovative technology, from idea to implementation. Recent project include implementing Google Search Appliance to disrupt user search behaviour, and social networking news gathering initiatives throughout the organisation.
- Mattias Miksche, CEO of StarDoll, which is a master of “gamification” of content and has developed a very successful Freemium model, a concept that many media companies are testing or implementing. Mr Miksche is never short of new ideas to mix new revenue streams with an exciting business model. StarDoll, a safe and engaging destination site for 9- to 16-year old girls, has 130 million users around the globe.
- Richard Bergman, Chief Operating Officer of Blocket.se, who will show how a general classifieds site can become an engine to create a myriad of good businesses. Blocket, which is Schibsted’s big consumer-to-consumer classifieds site, now operates in 20 countries, including Sweden, where 70 per cent of the population has bought or sold something through the site.
- JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist at Salesforce.com, which believes in the “social enterprise” concept where companies leverage social, mobile and open cloud technologies to put customers at the heart of their business. Mr Rangaswami will engage in a question and answer session with the audience on how media companies can apply these principles, which blur the lines between sales, marketing and service.
The full programme, registration details and other information can be found here.