Newspaper Trade Fair Closes on Successful Note

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By: Press Release | WAN-IFRA

Some 8,000 visitors from more than 90 countries visited IFRA Expo 2011, the world’s largest trade fair for the news publishing industry, which closed in Vienna on Wednesday.

“Visitor numbers are significantly higher than two years ago,”said Christoph Riess, CEO for the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). “They are slightly lower than last year in Hamburg, but that was a very special year due to the hype about tablets, so last year you simply had to attend while now the interest in tablets is settling down to business.”

The 41st annual exhibition included 306 exhibitors from 30 countries, including printing press manufacturers, editorial and advertising system providers, new media providers and other suppliers to the newspaper industry.

Expo kicked off the World Newspaper Week, which includes the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum, which get under way on Thursday. Mr Riess cited the multinational nature of the audience and pointed out that by day two of Expo, more than 200 Congress delegates had entered the halls to talk with exhibitors.

“It was interesting to see publishers and editors investigating technologies at the show,” he said.

The Expo also featured a Tablet and E-Reading Conference and Focus Sessions on newspaper production, as well as presentation of the winners of 2011 XMA Cross Media Awards. Complete coverage can be found at: http://www.worldnewspaperweek.org/blog.

There were a number of major announcements and developments unveiled at Expo, including orders for press equipment, workflow solutions, content management systems, and, naturally, tablet applications.

Next year’s Expo will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 29 to 31 October 2012.

Comments from participants

Eric Bell, Director of Marketing Services at Goss International:

“Goss came to the show with a positive attitude because of the order for a new press. The three-day show is the new norm now and the first day was slower than at Hamburg but still reasonable – the second day however was absolutely unbelievable in terms of volume and quality of visitors.”

Christian Seitz, Head of Marketing Events at manroland:

“Just look at the stand. Full. Today [Tuesday] is busier than yesterday but yesterday we were already satisfied with the volume and the quality of visitor is very good with a lot of decision-makers.”

Norbert Ohl, CEO of ppi Media:

“The first two days we were fully booked, and today has surprisingly been quite busy. In addition to the larger orders we announced here, which were closed just before the show, we were pleasantly surprised to make some smaller deals with existing customers at the event."

Hans Janssen, CEO, Woodwing Software:

“The Expo provides us with high-quality leads, decision-makers rather than people asking for brochures.”

Next year’s Expo will be returning to Spain for the first time since 2003 when the show visited Barcelona.

“We haven't been to Southern Europe in a while hence the decision to go to Madrid as our Expo has become very international,” said Riess. “Next year's Expo will feature a dedicated event for Latin American publishers to discuss investment opportunities in this booming marketplace. I would like to invite you all to meet your colleagues next year in the wonderful city of Madrid.”

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world's newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.
































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