Larry Kramer, President and Publisher of USA Today, and Terry J. Kroeger, President and CEO of Warren Buffet's BH Media Group, and publisher of the Omaha World-Herald, have joined the programme of the upcoming World News Media Congress, to be held in Washington, D.C. from 1 to 3 June next.
They will participate in a panel discussion that will bring together leading US publishers to share the lessons learned in a decade of dramatic change in the world's leading media market. The panel will be moderated by Tom Silvestri, President and Publisher of The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Full details of the 67th World News Media Congress, 22nd World Editors Forum, 25th World Advertising Forum and inaugural World News Media Policy Forum can be found here.
Gannett Corp.'s USA Today in the largest circulating daily newspaper in the United States. Mr Kramer was appointed publisher in 2012, bringing more than 40 years of media experience to the job. He was the founder of MarketWatch and will bring a unique perspective to the discussion in Washington as both an entrepreneur and an experienced journalist (notably with The Washington Post and the San Francisco Examiner).
BH Media Group is the 9th largest newspaper group in the United States. In addition to being President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kroeger is also Publisher of the group's flagship, The Omaha World-Herald, where he held a variety of positions since joing the Omaha World-Herald Company in 1985. The company was purchased by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway in 2011and has since acquired many other newspapers to form BH Media Group.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is also part of the BH Media Group. Mr Silvestri has been President and Publisher since 2005 and has come up through the ranks: in a career spanning more than three decades he has a been stringer, reporter, copy editor, business editor, deputy managing editor, division staff executive, the president of a community newspaper group, publisher of a mid-size newspaper, vice president of a regional group and a Sunday columnist.
The World News Media Congress is the global summit meeting of the world's newspapers and news publishers, organised for more than six decades by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, WAN-IFRA.
More than 1,000 publishers, CEOs, managing directors, chief editors and other senior news media executives from around the world are expected in Washington for the events, organized this year in cooperation with the Newspaper Association of America. It has been held five times previously in the United States; in New York (1960), Washington (1970 and 1996), Las Vegas (1979), and New Orleans (1989).
Other highlights include:
--The New York Times Innovation Report - the Next Chapter, featuring The Times' President and Publisher, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr., and Alexandra MacCallum, who last year took on the masthead role of assistant editor for audience development, charged with overseeing audience growth and engagement at The Times.
-- Can Mainstream Media Buy Its Way To Growth?, a discussion of strategies for growth for companies without the resources of the big tech companies. The panelwill feature Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President & Deputy Head of Strategy for News Corp, Perrine Albrieux, Director of Marketing & Digital Development at Groupe Télégramme in France, and Christian Hendricks, Corporate Vice President, Interactive Media, for The McClatchy Company in the United States.
-- A new strategy for news, a proposal for the future of news media by Jeff Jarvis, author, digital visionary, professor and Director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City Universiry of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.
-- The Multi-Platform Newsoom, which will focus on the evolution towards a mobile future and will feature David Callaway, Editor-in-chief of USA Today, Marta Gleich, Executive Editor of Zero Hora in Brazil, and Poul Madsen, Executive Editor-in-chief of Ekstra Bladet in Denmark.
The World News Media Congress also offers an array of workshops and other resources, incuding a seminar on "News publishing on wearable devices," a networking session for small-and medium-size publishers, a masterclass on video output, and much more.
As always, the events are accompanied by an array of social events, gala dinners, lunches and networking breakfasts -- including an opening cocktail at the Newseum, hosted in cooperation with NAA and the Knight Foundation -- and are considered to be the premier opportunity to meet colleagues from around the world.
www.wan-ifra.org
