5 June 2007
I want to give an update about the World Newspaper Congress that I am at and that is currently under way in Cape Town. It has been amazing so far, the amount of useful information, interesting people, and the eclectic combination of social events is an experience to write home about with great enthusiasm.

The Congress started of on Sunday with three different Round Table discussions. I attended the African Press Freedom Round Table and was shocked by the information South African publisher and editor Raymond Louw presented to us.

He used the past five months to research harassment of journalists on the African continent and found 103 arrests of press workers in 26 countries. The presence of insult-laws in 48 out of 53 African countries go hand in hand with Louw's research.

Anti-press laws
Insult-laws or -anti-press laws - are used to threaten, intimidate, detain or even imprison journalists who are thought of as critical of government leaders. However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the Declaration of Table Mountain during that same Round Table discussion.

The Declaration of Table Mountain, initiated by WAN, aims to abolish insult-laws in Africa and to set free press higher on the agenda. The Declaration calls on African states to recognise the indivisibility of press freedom and their responsibility to African and international protocols that uphold the freedom, independence and safety of the press.

It also calls on the African Union to include in the criteria of 'good governance', in the African Peer Review Mechanism, the requirement that a country promotes free and independent media.

This revelation concluded the Sunday session on a happy note, arguing that the world has not forgotten about Africa. It is in fact watching its rapid descend of press freedom.

Castle of Good Hope
In the evening we all enjoyed the first social event at the Castle of Good Hope. Thanks to my old colleagues at the M&G Online who turned it into a dinner event not to forget (I'll mail the pictures soon!).

Monday was a really blue one. The organisers in the Cape Town Convention Centre probably still have nightmares. Technical glitches, poor information dissemination to delegates and a change in speakers and the programme caused a lot of confusion. However, attending the Welcome Address proved well worth it. South African President Thabo Mbeki caused quite a stir.

Shi Tao
But what everyone will remember vividly is Shi Tao's mother, Gao Qinsheng, who accepted the Golden Pen of Freedom Award for her son. Shi Tao is currently imprisoned in China for ten years for e-mailing a document to foreign colleagues. The document contained his government's orders to newspapers to censor their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary. The China Newspaper Association has demanded the award to be withdrawn.

Shi's mother accepted the award risking her own life, Chinese government officials could be waiting for her as soon as she arrives at the airport back home. She cried her eyes out and had difficulty speaking but gave a powerful speech in the end.

The first business session later that same day was interesting for all of us media practitioners who try to keep up with the latest trends in the newspaper industry. Luis Fernando Santos, president of Casa Editorial El Tiempo in Colombia, presented us with his way of organising advertising sales teams in an innovative way. His strategy makes advertisers buy packages to advertise on different platforms instead of buying TV or newspaper ads only.

Olav Mugaas, chief executive of Aftenposten in Norway, showed how many-to-many communication (think about online towns and social networks), user-generated content on all channels (videos send in by readers) and the making of Web TV proved of value to his business.

Line extensions
Interesting for the African market was Klaus Lutz', CEO of the Suddeutsche Zeitung (SDZ) in Germany, solution to improve the papers' financial situation. The company's strategic plan thought of line extensions, which expand the brand beyond its main product and use the newspaper as a springboard to sell additional products that are affiliated with the
brand. OK, that sounds hectic...but it is in fact very simple.

SDZ introduced book editions of well-known 20th century writers that were given for free to subscribers with every weekend edition of the paper. The books were then also distributed via the newspapers' normal distribution channels with the paper. Within a year, the SDZ Library collection sold 11.3 million books, proving that line extensions can be of great value to newspaper businesses.

Spier Wine Estate
After all the information sharing and networking it was time for a more eventful session: the social event at restaurant Moyo on the Spier Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. I guess I don't need to tell you that the evening was a mad one, combining African music and dance with the craziest African cuisine: crocodile meat and worms included. It wouldn't have been such a success without Ko Yamaguchi from Kyodo News in Japan and the guys from
Punch media in Nigeria.

I just returned from the World Editors Forum discussion about integrated or converged newsrooms. Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor of the New York Times, explained that the NY Times started integrating a year and a half ago and that nowadays the newspaper journalists are blogging, podcasting and making video.

He concluded that the resistance to change in the newsroom production flow, that journalists traditionally have, is not the biggest hurdle to converge. The problem is to find solutions in managing the new, innovative multimedia newsroom.

Daily Telegraph
The journalists at the UK's Daily Telegraph, had to endure a strict training programme of 5 whole days. William Lewis, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, also expanded on the pilot projects that were run, the necessity of a strong core team and the importance of communication with staff. Nowadays the website attracts 71 million page impressions a day.

All in all, it has so far been a great Congress. I'm on my way to lunch and then to the last business session of the day with the theme 'We are digital'. I'll write another update on Thursday about the rest of the Congress.

To view some of the photos I made during the WAN Congress click here