News executives who believe their organizations must do a better job of engaging young people will meet in Poland in December to explore how best to go about it, with a focus on what works now and what the industry needs to do for future success.
At stake is not only the future health of the news business, but of democratic society as well. The Youth Engagement Summit is dedicated to helping newspapers and news publishers encourage a new generation to identify, understand and appreciate credible, quality journalism in the sea of information that characterizes today's world.
"No matter what business models we devise or digital wizardry we invent, it will all be for naught if we do not pay smart attention, right now, to youth," said Aralynn McMane, Executive Director for Youth Engagement and News Literacy at the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), the organizer of the event. "People who will come to this conference are dedicated to this concept, and are looking for the next 'how'.
The Youth Engagement Summit & Workshops, set for 2 to 4 December in Warsaw, Poland, will provide lessons from this year's World Young Reader Prize winners, along with insights from global experts who will share successful strategies for connecting effectively with the young.
Speakers include:
- Margaret Holborn, Head of Guardian News & Media Education Centre, The Guardian, United Kingdom;
- Chris Sopher, Journalism Programme Manager at the Knight Foundation, United States;
- Adam Michnik, Founding Editor-in-chief, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland;
- Serene Goh, Schools Editor, Singapore Press Holding, Singapore;
- Sandra Kreft, Head of Publishing, Magazines and New Business, De Zeit, Germany;
- Per Arne Skjelvik and Siri Gulliksen Tømmerbakke, Project Managers, Avisa Nordland "Engagement Guaranteed" initiative, Norway;
- Markus Pettersson, Director, Resultatfabriken Consulting, Sweden;
- Guri Leyell Skedsmo, Editor, Afternposten Junior, Norway;
- Wolfgang Grandjean, Head of Marketing, Gmünder Tagespost and Schwäbische Post, Germany;
- Tarrence Karmelia Palar, Promotion Manager, Kompas, Indonesia;
- Jonna Tolonen, Specialist in Media Education, Finnish Newspapers Association;
- Minerva Generalao, Head of Research, Philippine Daily Inquirer
- and many others.
In addition to the conference, the Youth Engagement Summit will include a full day devoted to workshops and study visits, including individual consulting with WAN-IFRA consultant Gerard van der Weijden. The programme will also feature an examination of how news literacy offers ways to approach corporations for support, and tips for engaging youth via social media in day-to-day journalism.
The Summit is hosted by Gazeta Wyborcza and Metro, past winners of the World Young Reader Newspaper of the Year Prize, which will offer an in-depth briefing to explore how they consistently succeed. In addition, top executives from Indian news organizations will be on hand to explain the key strategies behind their joint World Young Reader Country of the Year award.
"We meet to share case studies on successful initiatives, to discuss what works and what is a waste of money, and to network with people like us who prefer to face challenges in a bold way instead of only talking about them." said Grzegorz Piechota, Director of Editorial Development at Gazeta Wyborcza and European President of the International News Marketing Association.
"At the last version of this conference, I got three ideas I wanted to try at home as quickly as possible. One of them evolved into the biggest educational campaign of my newspaper in the decade. I will be happy to tell you this story when we meet in Poland."
