Middle East Publishing Conference opens in Dubai

The two-day event, organised by WAN and FIPP with the Dubai Consultancy, Research and Media Centre and other groups, will address the opportunities and challenges of the regional publishing environment under the theme of 'Re-Inventing the Middle East Publishing Market'.

"The 're-inventing' aspect applies as much to international media as to Middle East Publishers, in that all face similar challenges such as managing the impact of online competition,"

said Donald D. Kummerfeld, president and CEO of the International Federation of the Periodical Press.

"This will be a central theme of the conference, along with exploration of the other key issues that affect our industry and how we must adapt to cope."

WAN chief executive Timothy Balding, said the conference would provide media executives in the region with many new and profitable ideas to improve their services to readers and advertisers.

"Middle East publishing continues to flourish, and the rise of the Internet and allied developments are providing new challenges and opportunities."

After keynote addresses on the 're-inventing' theme by Balding and FIPP chairman Chris Llewellyn, a plenary session today will deal with 'How to make money online', followed by workshops on 'Planning and strategy behind a successful magazine launch', 'Newspaper wars in the Gulf - free or paid?', 'Format change', and 'Problems and opportunities for B2B publishing in the Gulf'.

Today, more workshops will cover 'Circulation auditing comes of age in the Middle East', 'Editorial integrity - how to deal with growing pressure from advertisers for advertorials and product placement', 'Media research standards', 'Classified migration online', 'Trends in newsrooms', 'Key strategies for a successful as sales department', 'The distribution revolution', and 'Cross-border publishing'.

Conference delegates will hear from some of the top newspaper executives from the region and from around the world.

International speakers include: Marc Sands, marketing director of the UK's Guardian newspaper; Chander Rai, chief executive of Living Media International, USA; Fabrizio D'Angelo, director of international magazine development at Italy's Modadori publishing house, Eamonn Byrne, business director of WAN; and Bertrand Pecquerie, Paris-based director of the World Editors Forum.

Giving a grass-roots perspective from regional publishing are Mark Gatty Saunt, content sales director, Gulf region - albawaba.com; Marwan Rizq, head of CASTOR, the regional steering committee for circulation audit; Joseph Chartoni, marketing manager at HSBC Middle East; Mohamed Alomar, executive director of Saudi Research and Publishing Co; Dhain Shaheen, editor-in-chief of Al Bayan; Mohamed Al-Mezel, editor of Gulf News; Dr Abdul Wahhab, editor-in-chief of Al-Eqtisadiah; Marzuok Barbour, sales and marketing manager at Informap Production, UAE; Gavin Dickinson, commercial director of AMG, UAE, Shezan Amiji, general manager of 7Days, Dubai; and Bala Menon, general manager of DIT, UAE.

More than 60 media and publishing organisations from 52 countries are represented at the conference - including the BBC, National Geographic, Bloomberg News, Emphasis Media from Singapore, Rene AG of Switzerland, Al Wataniya Distribution from Saudi, and VNU from the Netherlands.