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28 March 2024

Future will be of hybrid news: Wan Ifra

Reem Al Hashimi addressing the 10th Wan-Ifra Middle East Conference (All pictures: Eudore Chand)

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By Eudore R Chand

The Middle East is still in the “golden era” of news users, according to speakers at the 10th Wan-Ifra Middle East conference which kicked off in Dubai today.

The conference is being held under the theme of ‘Imagine it’s 2020: Connecting Content, Reach and Revenue’.

Providing keynote address, Reem Al Hashimi, UAE’s Minister of State and Director-General of Dubai Expo 2020 Office, said the World Expo in Dubai in 2020 will reflect the best in architecture, design and technology.

She urged the media to benefit from the available opportunities that the Expo would bring.

In his address to the delegates, Dhaen Shaheen, Chief Executive of Print Sector in Dubai Media Inc. (DMI) and Editor-in-Chief of ‘Al Bayan’ Newspaper Group, said the media of the future will be related to ‘smart media’.

Dhaen Shaheen providing keynote address at the 10th Wan-Ifra Middle East Conference

“Publishers will need to restructure the way they work. The future will be all about dynamism and multiple media channels,” he said while pointing out that “we are still in the golden era of news users”.

Dhaen Shaheen honoured at the Conference

“The future will be of hybrid news,” said Shaheen. “The ability to change and restructure can give newspapers a new and  longer life.

“We can create more friendly and interactive news adopting digital tools.”

Referring to the adoption of technology by the younger generations, Shaheen said focus of the media of the future should be on liberating young minds. “Mobile phones are very important to our future. We need to put content on different platforms for the new electronic society.”

Shaheen said that newspapers can exist as long as we change our newsrooms into ‘everlasting workshops’ to teach both traditional journalism and new technologies.

Manfred Werfel of Wan-Ifra pointed out that global daily newspaper circulation fell from 548 million in 2009, but recovered in 2013 to hit 534 million.

Ahmed Al Hammadi honoured at the Conference

However, Middle East North Africa (Mena), Asia and South America showed a growth while the fall was largely accounted for steep declines in North America and Europe [-23%].

However, newspaper revenues rose from $80 million in 2009 to $1.75 billion in 2013, of which again South America showed a rise of  50 per cent and Mena 21.1 per cent. North America showed a fall of 29.6 per cent.