Miami (October 6, 2011)—The business opportunities that digital and mobile platforms present for the news industry will be a major development to be reviewed by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) in a series of seminars during its 67th General Assembly to be held in Lima, Peru, October 14-18.
In addition to its general focus on discussion of the problems facing press freedom in the Americas that the IAPA engages in at each of its twice-yearly membership meetings it also offers insight into developments relevant to the professionalization and buoyancy of the newspaper industry. In this regard, several international specialists will be exploring how to make newspapers’ news content most profitable and capture new audiences through the Internet and mobile phones.
On Friday, October 14 the General Assembly will open with a seminar titled “Associated Cellular Integrators, A New Business Model for Newspapers,” which will feature the successful cases of a number of Latin American papers, among them Hoy of Quito, Ecuador, and La Prensa of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which are already offering not only news but also other types of information services via mobile phones, such as sports results, maps, horoscopes, cooking recipes, restaurant guides and other sources of entertainment.
In another seminar representatives of the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, newspaper O Globo will discuss the value added that connection with its audiences represents for the paper, and the readers’ creation of content which contributes to boosting its coverage, being more aware of the market and raising revenue. For their part, delegates from The New York Times will highlight the various online subscription models and the good response that the paper has had around the world, in contrast to other models that have not been so successful.
As a final part of the seminar series representatives of the ClicLogix company will showcase new models for gaining advertising for newspapers through a digital platform that is planned to compete with others offered by Google, Facebook or GroupOn.
For more details about the IAPA General Assembly and these seminars being given by the organization’s Press Institute go to http://sip-asambleas.org/2/home.php.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com.
