“It has been a great growth story for the BBC in India. We [India] have become the biggest global market for the BBC,” Rupa Jha, Head of India, BBC News told participants at our Digital Media India conference in New Delhi. Jha is leading the BBC’s language operation in the country. She is also responsible for handling four other language news services for BBC News – Indonesian, Bengali, Nepali and Sinhala. Increasing female engagement a priority Consumption of video has gone up. Video made up 82% of all internet traffic in 2022, compared to 73% before the pandemic. In 2024, India holds the tit ..read more

Cecilia Campbell, WAN-IFRA’s Innovate Local Maike Schiller, Head of the Editorial Culture Team, tells the story of how the culture desk at Hamburger Abendblatt decided to think outside the box in how they reach audiences and, as a result, increased the number of conversions from culture content by 37% over a year. It’s about identifying new audiences, like the 400,000 people who sing in Hamburg choirs, or pop-up audiences who are in intense need of information related to a specific event.   The success of the culture desk is now inspiring change in the wider newsroom, and we hope it will ..read more

The Digital Media Awards Asia was first launched in 2009 to recognise news media organisations that are leaders and innovators in the adoption of digital media strategies as news consumption trends shifted from print to online. One hundred and thirty-six entries were submitted in this year’s competition. The winners were presented with their coveted prizes at a ceremony at the Sofitel Kuala Lumpur Damansara on Wednesday night as part of the Digital Media Asia conference, Asia-Pacific’s largest regional digital news media conference. SPH Media won five Gold and three Silvers whereas the South C ..read more

Over the course of her 25-year career in media, Swedish journalist Pia Rehnquist has held various roles, including that of editor-in-chief at Sydsvenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s biggest morning newspapers, where she first started her career as a journalist, in 2000. She joined Bonnier News Local in 2020, as Editorial Director. In December, she was promoted as Business Area Manager, and oversees about 50 Swedish regional and local newspapers. Rehnquist also makes up part of the management team of Bonnier News – one of the largest media groups in the Nordic region, comprising more than 200 tit ..read more

On 27 May, when the global media fraternity gathers in Copenhagen for the World News Media Congress, WAN-IFRA will award the 2024 Golden Pen of Freedom.  This award is made each year to a person or group who has sacrificed much in the cause of press freedom. As we prepare to honour the 2024 Laureate, we reflect on winners past; the ideal moment to see what has happened to some of those who have received the award in its 63-year history. On trial in Hong Kong Jimmy Lai, the founder of former independent newspaper Apple Daily, is 60 days into a trial in Hong Hong that may see him jailed for ..read more

Established in 1945, and online since 1995, VG is one of the country’s most popular news sources. “In 2024, we are in a very strong position in Norway. Our traffic comes directly rather than from social media platforms,” Jari Bakken, Newsroom Engineer, VG, told participants at our Digital Media India conference in New Delhi. See also: Mastering frontpage engagement: Norway’s VG aligns strategy and analytics ‘ChatGPT changed the way we use AI’ ChatGPT has opened up the space for developers to use AI in new ways, Bakken said. For example, today, developers are exploring different language models ..read more

The winning projects of this year’s competition showcased outstanding innovation, ranging from tools that track inflation to new travel tours. These initiatives placed their audiences at the centre of their work, resulting in increased engagement and positive feedback from readers. These projects provide a winning strategy for any initiative. We are grateful to all the publishers who submitted their projects this year. We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our expert jury members (see the complete list below) for volunteering their valuable time and expertise. The winners of each ca ..read more

Daily Maverick is recognised worldwide for its innovative and successful membership programme, Maverick Insider. But in a shock tactic, the online publication has shut down for 24 hours  to highlight the market failure in journalism, where the economics no longer work to support its production. It says most of the public and business community still don’t appreciate the full extent of the news media crisis, or its urgency.   “We have failed to communicate the severity of the crisis and the impact it will have on key institutions and our economic prospects. Today’s shutdown aims to h ..read more

Each of this year’s winning initiatives displays outstanding innovation, from AI-use cases that increase value for audiences and better efficiencies for staff, to community focused data projects that represent local journalism at its best. We are grateful to all the publishers who submitted projects this year, and once again extend our sincerest thanks to our expert jury members (see the complete list below). The winners of each category will now be automatically entered into our 2024 Digital Media World Awards, where they will compete with the top projects from other regions around the globe ..read more

From April 25th to 26th, Warsaw will host an international conference addressing SLAPPs, organised by Agora, ARTICLE 19 Europe, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Prague Civil Society Center, and Watchdog Poland. The objective is  to devise strategies to combat legal harassment against public watchdogs who champion public interests. The surge in strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) against journalists and activists exposing corruption and abuses of power is alarming. Politicians, powerful businessmen, and corporations are increasingly using legal threats to silenc ..read more