This first-of-its-kind programme for Asian news organisations brings together one senior editorial and one senior commercial executive from each publisher for five months of training and coaching to equip them with the insights, know-how and tools to execute a transformation strategy in their organisations. The curriculum covers Journalism, Operations, Design Thinking, Organisational Culture and Audience Engagement.

The ten news media enterprises participating in the WAN-IFRA’s Newsroom and Business Transformation 2020 programme include:

Bangkok Post
Bisnis Indonesia
Kompas Media Nusantara
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Sin Chew Media Corporation
Singapore Press Holdings
The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd
The Jakarta Post
The Manila BulletinUnited Daily News

"Our goal is to help Asian media companies become agile and responsive to the changing consumer needs in the digital age. With the close guidance and mentorship from experts, the programme will accelerate the transformation process and equip the media companies with the skills needed to navigate the increasingly complex media landscape.”  said Thomas Jacob, COO of WAN-IFRA.

Participants, whose job titles include COO, VP of Convergence, GM of Marketing, Editor-in-Chief, Executive Editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief,  will now meet online every fortnight from June to October 2020 for lectures by the programme leads, talks by guest speakers, group sharing and brainstorming sessions.

This WAN-IFRA programme, which is made possible by the Facebook Journalism Project, was originally designed to begin in March 2020 and take place in four cities over six months. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, WAN-IFRA has worked with the coaches to revise the programme with the additional urgent needs of the news industry in mind: how to lead during the crisis, accelerate digital transformation, diversify revenue sources and adopt agile work methods.

“We recognise that news organisations are under pressure to transform and build thriving digital publishing businesses and this is even more complex with the additional challenges during Covid-19. We hope that through our partnership with WAN-IFRA, the Newsroom and Business Transformation Asia 2020 program will assist newsroom leaders with business transformation while continuing to produce important, meaningful journalism that serves and informs our region.”  commented Anjali Kapoor, Director of News Partnerships, Facebook Asia Pacific. 

Well-known media consultant and researcher Grzegorz Piechota and 28-year news veteran and former Managing Editor of The Times of London, George Brock, helm the programme, while global digital creative business school Hyper Island will teach the Design Thinking modules.