Download the 76th World News Media Congress Playbook

Our goal with this playbook is to give your news organisation not only a leg up on the competition but also perhaps a way to benchmark where you stand with global peers. And by the way, can you pinpoint your competition today anyway? A moving target.

We have distilled tactics, strategies, best-practice, even failures from the more than 120 news executives who spoke over the three days at WAN-IFRA’s World News Media Congress in Krakow in May.

We settled on seven chapters covering the broader issues of business sustainability: naturally, AI; leadership; newsroom transformation; audience engagement; revenue strategies, and the next frontier in journalism.

Table of Contents

1. Beyond survival: Innovative, sustainable solutions for longevity

Le Monde’s newsroom investment fuels digital growth
Mediapart makes independence pay
Die Zeit riding the wave of its ’dolphin culture’
Bold editorial investments powering digital sustainability
How leading publishers bet big on innovation
10 Actionable priorities for executives

2. AI, everywhere: In strategy, systems, processes, workflows

From hype to utility
Driving productivity and efficiency
Reshaping content workflows
Enhancing customer experience
Navigating existential questions
Organisational and cultural transformation
Future business landscape?
Showcase: Newsroom AI Catalyst

3. Leadership reloaded: How to lead amid relentless change

Projecting optimism builds confidence
Resilience as a strategy
The ’why’ of the mission can align the entire business
Cultivating culture to navigate relentless change and challenges
The CCE approach
Ringier International’s recipe for sharing best-practice
Ringier’s Digital Media Playbook

4. Newsroom evolution: People, platforms, purpose

The newsroom reset: Restructured, refocused
The cultural reset: Adapting to new roles and norms
Look & Listen: Key strategies for video and audio adoption
AI in the editorial mix: Integration, adoption, customisation

5. Next-level engagement: Shifting focus from audience to community

From readers to regulars: Amplifying audience engagement
Gaming beyond great content at NYT
Playing along: Der Spiegel fosters engagement with games, comments
Galvanising community engagement at the Financial Times
Mediahuis rebuilds journalism with – not just for – Gen Z
The City: A case study in hybrid digital engagement

6. Refining revenue: Monetisation strategies that work

Rethinking pricing strategies at The Atlantic
Le Monde finds success after fine-tuning pricing strategy
Multiple propensity modelling
Optimising the ad stack can boost advertising returns
Industry collaboration needed more than ever
Trust issues arise as publishers tackle the AI ad economy

7. The next frontier: What’s working, what’s needed, what’s next

Rethinking journalism: Facing up to existential threats and challenges
Shifting the trust barometer: Remapping the news media ecosystem
Future forward

DOWNLOADS

The report and the Congress presentations are available in the WAN-IFRA’S Knowledge Hub