Publishers, news editors discuss digital future at Singapore meet

The DMA held on Nov. 3 and 4 was hosted by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-Ifra), the global organization comprising 3,000 news publishers and technology companies, as well as 60 national publishers’ associations representing 80 publications in 120 countries.

Inquirer Group of Companies CEO Sandy Prieto Romualdez delivered the welcome remarks at the two-day event, held in person for the first time in two years. WAN-Ifra COO Thomas Jacob delivered the keynote address.

Romualdez chairs the nine-member WAN-Ifra Asia-Pacific Committee covering South East Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific region. The committee met ahead of the DMA live conference.

In 2021, Romualdez was appointed as one of four members of WAN-Ifra’s executive board exercising an oversight and stewardship role in the organization which has a formal representative status in the United Nations, Unesco and the Council of Europe.

WAN-Ifra, based in Frankfurt and Paris, aims to protect the rights of journalists and publishers worldwide to operate independently and also provides its members with expertise and services to prosper in a digital world and perform their essential role in society.

‘Extra challenging time’

In her remarks, Romualdez said the conference would provide news publishers and executives with ideas on sustainable business models and monetization opportunities as well as best practices on digital transformation.

“It’s an extra challenging time for all of us in media with the constant rise in cost of our resources, the ever changing media landscape where the lines of discipline have been blurred, where everyone can be a content creator but most playing with a different set of rules, giving rise to fake news and disinformation. Internally we ask ourselves how we manage people from different generations and varying perspectives, externally there’s also the imminent challenge of the end of third-party cookies and the list goes on and on,’’ she said.

Building trust

Alongside the DMA, WAN-Ifra’s World Editors Forum also held a parallel Asian Editors Summit where Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) associate publisher Juliet Labog-Javellana was one of the speakers. She discussed the topic, “Build Trust: How can newsrooms convey the trust value of their news amidst the flood of misinformation as an essential service to society?’’

A seasoned journalist, Javellana shared seven lessons from the Inquirer’s over three-decade pursuit of its mission to provide readers with balanced news and fearless views. Other speakers were Ritu Kapur, cofounder and CEO of The Quint from India, and Nic Hopkins, head of News Ecosystem Relations and Development of Google News Initiative.

The Inquirer Group delegation at the DMA included PDI president and CEO Rudyard Arbolado, Inquirer Group Corporate Strategic Planning head and Inquirer Academy executive director Glenn San Luis, Inquirer.net COO Imelda Alcantara and Erwin Lomibao, Inquirer.net associate director for IT operations.

Inquirer associate editor for Regions Robert Jaworski Abaño, Inquirer.net assignments editor Maila Ager and Inquirer.net news anchor Neil Arwin Mercado also attended the two-day in-person final session of the Young Media Leaders Fellowship, cosponsored by WAN-Ifra and Temasek Foundation.