MONDAY 7 JUNE

14h30 - 17h30

(The round tables are open to all participants and will take place at the Hotel Phoenicia InterContinental)

The Annual Press Freedom Round Table
What's Ahead for the Independent Arab Press

As leaders throughout the Middle East and North Africa have been securing their hold on power or making sure it remains in the family, the independent press continues its work, despite repressive government policies and economic hardships.
Those in power are not shy to resort to harassment, censorship, prosecution, fining and imprisonment of news media professionals in order to control information and their hostility toward independent and opposition media has often proven to be ruthless.
Thus, the determination of independent news publishers and journalists to carry on writing, publishing and advocating a free press, and to develop their news organisations in challenging local markets and in times that are demanding for the press industry the world across, is remarkable.
Yet what are the prospects for the Arab independent press to fully play its role as a counter-weight to power and an opponent to the abuse of power? Can it investigate, challenge and provoke within the current political environment? Can it report critically and hold those in power to account if both its management and finances cannot resist pressure and if the judiciary only plays by the leaders' rules?
Those are among the questions that will be addressed at the 2010 press freedom round table.

Chair: Brian Whitaker, Former Middle East Editor of The Guardian, United Kingdom

Confirmed speakers include:

- M'hamed Krichen, Anchor and Producer, Al-Jazeera, Qatar, and Contributor to the London-based daily Al Quds al Arabi

- Magda Abu-Fadil, Director, Journalism Training Program, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

- Taoufik Bouachrine, Managing Director, Akhbar Al Youm Maghribya, Morocco

- Khaled El Sergany, Columnist, Al Dustour, Egypt

The round table is supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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The Annual Digital Media Round Table
Digital Futures 2010

It was Pliny the Elder in AD79, who may have summed it up first and best when he said: "...the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

That we believe is a fair description of the state of the global media market, it is also the key reason why the Digital Round Table in 2010 will scrutinize and distil the options available to newspaper publishers for digital development.

The simple fact is that to be certain of success in the future no digital fashion, new idea or new product can be dismissed and so the most powerful tool in your armory will be to seek the sort of knowledge the round table aims to provide. In Beirut we will take five key themes likely to have an impact on our digital publishing future and update the audience on the possibilities, the likely obstacles, the possible revenues and the impact on your core business.

The only certainty is uncertainty and the only defense is comprehensive intelligence and knowledge of the market.  Accordingly we welcome you to the Digital Futures Roundtable for 2010.

Welcome to the future - whatever it is.

1. iPAD - GAME CHANGER AND NEWSPAPER OF THE FUTURE, OR AN INTERESTING GADGET
Apple's Ipad looks cool and no doubt will attract a ready market on that basis but given the fundamental obstacles experienced by the current generation of e-readers is it really a game changing opportunity for your newspapers' distribution?

2. SELF SERVICE ADVERTISING - CAN YOU REALLY ATTRACT NEW BUSINESS - YES IS THE ANSWER!
The self-service advertising online and in print, evaluated, designed, written and bought online. A successful case study reveals the secrets of the high yield categories that surprised the publishers and made this case a financial and market success.

3. NETWORKS AND BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING
How the future of digital advertising will change the existing planning and buying structures in a world of one to one marketing based on comprehensive knowledge of the consumer, his/her needs, wants and habits. In addition the role of networks in this new environment and an answer to the question: Is joining a network a quick way to lose yield and control or a long term money maker?

4. THE NEW NEWSROOM PART 3 - THE MULTIMEDIA NEWSROOM; DIGITAL STRATEGIES
Newsroom strategies in a digital environment, a special WAN-IFRA report detailing the route to successful multi-media publishing

5. MULTI-MEDIA ADVERTISING SALES - HOW TO BUILD MULTI-MEDIA ADVERTISING REVENUES
Building digital advertising revenues by exploiting the advantages of multi-media advertising campaigns, where new research demonstrates 1+1+1 really does equal 5.

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The Annual Young Reader Round Table


Winning strategies for engaging the young & how to get help to implement them

How to get support from new places to engage the young
Hard times require creative thinking to pay for newspaper youth projects. We will explore a wide variety of strategies from around the world for finding the resources to keep this crucial work going. We will look at successful cases for getting support from community members, business CSR (corporate social responsibility) budgets and from government entities. The session will include an update on the French scheme to give free newspapers to 18 to 24-year-olds for a year and on how other countries are doing variations of that plan. Participants will receive the new edition of WAN-IFRA's "Guide to sustainable Newspapers in Education projects".

How concentrating on youth can help overall survival: The "Total Youth Think" approach
We'll have an in-depth discussion of lessons from newspapers -- big and small, national and local -- that have successfully adopted a "Total Youth Think" approach to staffing, content, platforms and attitude that places young people at the center of a newspaper company's strategy. The result is a newspaper with content that appeals to the young -- and those who advertise to them -- but that does not alienate older readers.

Launch of new free WAN-IFRA young reader resource
We'll tell you how to make use of our new free set of stories designed to help you celebrate International Literacy Day (8 September) as you encourage family reading while attracting new kinds of financial and strategic partners and building loyalty among youth and the parents and teachers who influence them.

Ideas for actions you can start tomorrow
We will provide an array of the newest simple, low-cost or no-cost actions you can start the day after you get home to effectively engage the young in your area.

Speakers include :

Danièle Fonck, Deputy director general, Editpress, Luxemburg

Jeanne-Emmanuelle Hutin, Directors Committee,  Ouest-France

Gerard van der Weijden, STEPP, Belgium