The newspaper industry has cancelled its big annual conference, citing the industry’s “economic crisis” for the second year running.
Organiser WAN-IFRA says it’s shelving the World Newspaper Congress – due to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, June 7 to 10 – “due to the failure of the Lebanese host organisation to meet its financial commitments“….
“The local host, the An-Nahar newspaper, has just informed WAN-IFRA that it was unable to provide the agreed funds to meet their obligations, in the aftermath of the 2009 financial, economic and political crisis in the region. The cost of the venue, security and other local expenses was estimated to be 1.6 million Euros and could not be covered by registration fees alone.”
The event was billed as “In Search of the New Business Model”, discussing falling circulations, insufficient web ad income and paid content models. Oh well.
WAN-IFRA says 700 people had registered for the event – tickets for which register.php” title=”cost between