Are Alibaba & Amazon reinventing the news media ecosystem?

Are Alibaba & Amazon reinventing the news media ecosystem?

SINGAPORE, Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Asia (DMA), Asia's leading digital event for news publishers, will return to Singapore from 31 October to 2 November 2017. It will feature a series of in-depth masterclasses, round-tables and a packed 2-day conference programme fully dedicated to growing news media digital revenues. Top executives from the Washington Post and The South China Morning Post -- which were recently acquired, respectively, by Jeff Bezos and Alibaba -- will offer renewed perspectives on the news publishing business.

A lot of people were surprised when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013. In the course of a few years, Bezos however completely changed the outlook of the 140-year-old newspaper. Its readership has exploded, its content has become more suitable for the digital world, and the WaPo is now looked upon as one of the most innovative news media companies in the world.

Shailesh Prakash, Chief Information Officer at the Washington Post, has been one of the key architects of this outstanding transformation. At Digital Media Asia 2017, Shailesh will explain how the use of Big Data has allowed them to develop personalisation features and automation tools which decisively boosted the newspaper's digital subscriptions. An in-house developed CMS also enabled the WaPo's newsroom to publish relevant digital contents in a more agile and efficient way.

Two years after Bezos, Amazon's stronger competitor, the Alibaba Group, bought in a surprise move another venerable news media institution: the 113-year-old South China Morning Post (SCMP). Headed by Gary Liu (former CEO of Digg), SCMP is currently undergoing an in-depth transformation which (counter intuitively?) started by taking down the publication's paywall. Gary will share with DMA participants his company's vision for the future of news on digital platforms and what they are doing to successfully get there.

Top 5 digital priorities

Asian news publishers are reaching on digital platforms more readers than they ever did before! Through mobile, chat apps, websites or on social media networks, journalists are constantly innovating with new content formats and creating outstanding news experiences... But the one and only issue for everyone remains finding sustainable ways to monetise this great content.

Digital Media Asia 2017 will notably focus on 5 digital priorities:

  • Paid content and digital subscriptions
  • Reclaiming the ad premium market
  • Enhancing programmatic yields
  • Big Data and AI in today's newsrooms
  • Creating viral mobile content for millennials

On October 31, DMA will offer three simultaneous in-depth masterclasses led by media experts on Paid Content, Design Thinking for improving Video Platforms, and Storytelling with Snapchat and Facebook Live.

DMA confirmed speakers include:

  • Shailesh Prakash, CIO and CTO, Washington Post, USA
  • Gary Liu, CEO, SCMP, Hong Kong
  • Chris Janz, Managing Director, Fairfax Metro, Australia
  • Sachin Doshi, Co-Founder, Scroll, USA
  • Hiromi Onishi, Executive Director, Asahi Shimbun, Japan
  • Gyan Gupta, CEO, DB Digital, India
  • Marc Lourdes, Director, CNN Digital Asia, Hong Kong
  • Yusuf Omar, Co-founder, Hashtag Our Stories, UK
  • Victoria Ho, Editor, Mashable, Singapore
  • Mike Tanapon Raomanachai, Senior Global Business Correspondent, Voice TV, Thailand
  • Jonathan Harley, Head of News, Asia Pacific, Twitter, Australia
  • Steffen Damborg, Chief Digital Officer, Damborg Digital, Denmark
  • Endy Bayuni, Editor in Chief, Jakarta Post, Indonesia
  • And many more…

Event venue & registration

Book your seats now! Digital Media Asia will gather over 300 media executives from leading Asian news publishing companies. It will offer an unmatchable learning and networking opportunity for boosting your digital businesses.

The conference's updated programme and speakers list is available at https://dma.wan-ifra.org. To register, please go to the event's website or contact Wilson Leong at +65.6562.8446 or wilson.leong@wan-ifra.org.

Digital Media Asia 2017 will also feature a Services & Tech Expo and the presentation of the annual Asian Digital Media Awards. It will take place at The Orchard Hotel, 442 Orchard Road -- in the heart of Singapore's premier shopping and entertainment district.

For more information on sponsorship or exhibiting, please contact Kimberly Lim at +65.6562.8444 or at kimberly.lim@wan-ifra.org.

Website: https://dma.wan-ifra.org

Hashtag: #DMASG17

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