Presents the latest developments in the news publishing world and members and publishers share their business experiences.
WAN-IFRA South Asia organised an OPENDAY program on 3 May 2108 at Chennai, to present the latest developments in the news publishing world and also to hear from the members and publishers about their business experiences. The programme was attended by more than 25 participants from newspapers in South India. The programme included presentations on – Resilience of printed newspaper, International Color Quality Club (ICQC) – now and the way forward and Mechanical audit project and other projects by WAN-IFRA. The presentations were followed with open session with the participants.
Manfred Werfel, Dy. CEO of WAN-IFRA was present on the occasion and spoke on the resilience of printed newspaper. This first of its kind initiative from WAN-IFRA South Asia gave an opportunity to the participants to interact with the experts from the newspaper printing industry. In his address, Manfred presented the facts and figures about the newspaper industry worldwide that is growing at a rate of 5% per annum. He highlighted that on an average a person spends 40 minutes in a newspaper, as against a mere 30 seconds in digital. A huge positive circulation impact is seen from the Asian countries, particularly from India. He also explained how the new ‘high-value printed products’ are becoming part of the business models.
Magdoom Mohamed, Managing Director of WAN-IFRA South Asia addressed the gathering on how WAN-IFRA supports publishing industry to thrive in the business. He also explained some new initiatives like “print-on-demand” from WAN-IFRA, which will help the publishers to get the research reports of WAN-IFRA, as and when a new report comes, printed at a nominal price.
Prabhu Natrajan, Research Engineer of WAN-IFRA South Asia, presented a preliminary report on the on-going International Colour Quality Competition, ICQC. He mentioned that an increasing quality awareness in the South Asian region has helped to surpass the number of entries from Germany.
M Jaiganesh, Research Engineer of WAN-IFRA South Asia presented the “Mechanical audit” project.
This new project from WAN-IFRA employs condition monitoring techniques to analyse the health of the printing press and helps to extend the service life of the presses and to keep the presses in idealistic conditions. He shared examples of successful results with the recent audit projects.
Many prominent executives from the news publishing industry, including L Adimoolam, of Dinamalar, joined this event and the team from Dinamalar showed some remarkable innovations both in digital and printed products. A lively and interactive question and answer session followed.
The event started with a fantastic Bharatanatyam dance performance by young Akshara Murali and concluded with high tea.
