The year, the conference, which returns to Chennai after a gap of six years, is also its silver jubilee year since its inception in 1992. Since then, the event organised by The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (Wan-Ifra), the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers, has grown to be the largest news media conference in the sub-continent.

Secondly, while we celebrate the success story of printed newspapers, it’s time we planned ahead to consolidate this momentum of growth. The key word here is technology.

Over the years, technology has helped publishers increase news consumption volume. Technology has made it possible to print with high yield, and with relatively lower cost. There is a trend towards print turning to be the profit centre, with operational excellence and innovative initiatives.

Technology has also forced publishers to create user-specific content and to look for ways to monetise the content in different platforms. While publishers attempt to harness the advantage of platform publishing, it has also posed the challenges of credibility of news, quality of journalism etc., fact-checking and rechecking that was part of classic journalism has taken a backseat. News publishers are now responding to this challenge with initiatives to protect the credibility of the news they present.

This year, the Wan-Ifra India 2017 Conference promises to offer a balanced view of what is trending in the industry and how the future is unfolding. As part of this, for the first time, World Editors Forum (WEF) South Asia Summit is being organised in India.

This year, the conference has packed a whole lot of activities, which includes, besides the World Editors Forum South Asia Summit and the World Printers Forum Conference, an exhibition of technology service providers during newspaper printing; learning workshops; the South Asian Digital Media Awards and a plant visit.

Thus, if you are connected to the newspaper business, this is the place to be. For one thing, the conference affords a connection with the right people, as it will see a get-together of more than 300 senior publishing executives from over 25 countries. The conference also gives an opportunity to get insights from innovators who are transforming the global media industry. The conference is also a platform to learn from case studies and best practices that are directly relevant to a visitor’s own media operations.

The highlight of the conference, of course, will be the two parallel conference tracks, the World Editors Forum South Asia Summit for editors and publishers and the World Printers Forum Conference for newspaper production managers, both of which will offer ideas, insights and knowledge to drive the business into the future.

The event also features learning workshops on 12 September on investigative journalism and business models for print production.