World Newspaper Congress to be held in Hyderabad

Over 2,000 newspaper publishers, CEOs, chief editors and other senior newspaper executives are expected to gather here from Nov 30 to Dec 3 as India hosts the 62nd World Newspaper Congress and 16th World Editors Forum.

The congress along with the Info Services Expo will be organised at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) here.

This is the first time that India is hosting the meeting of the prestigious world bodies and the expo, at a time when the global financial crisis has put pressure on advertising-dependent media.

The events, originally scheduled for March, were postponed due to poor delegate response due the impact of the downturn on travel and conference budgets in newspaper companies.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has assured full support to the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and Indian Newspaper Society (INS) in conducting the events.

The assurance came when WAN vice president Pratap G. Pawar and INS president Harmosji N. Kama called on the chief minister Monday to seek the state government's cooperation in making the conclave a success.

They informed the chief minister that President Pratibha Patil had agreed to inaugurate the global meetings. Kama said they chose Hyderabad as the venue for better facilities and the world-class convention centre.

The theme of the World Newspaper Congress is "Newspapers: a multi-media, growth business", while the forum will discuss "Doing more with less: the new newsroom challenge".

"In recognition of the new pressures brought about by the global economic crisis, we have added new sessions on cost-cutting and achieving greater business efficiency," WAN CEO Timothy Balding said in his message on the association's website.

"Our events will also be a great opportunity for many participants to discover India, the world's biggest democracy, where the press is not only free and fiercely independent - but undergoing extraordinary growth," he said.

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Last updated on Jul 14^th, 2009 at 12:40 pm IST--IANS