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Salvation Will Have To Wait: Newspapers Biggest Get Together is Off

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 cost between €1,150 and €1,950 - and that it would have attracted 1,000 people. That would have brought in €1.15 million if all attendees were paying the minimum price.

The World Editors Forum, a separate event that’s nevertheless part of the congress, has been rescheduled for October 6 to 8 in Hamburg, during the IFRA Expo. New Independent proprietor Alexander Lebedev was due to speak amongst chiefs from ProPublica, Washington Post (NYSE: WPO), Telegraph Media Group and YouTube.

Last year, WAN-IFRA postponed the World Newspaper Congress in Hyderabad, India, from March to December, citing the “impact of the global financial downturn on travel and conference budgets at newspaper companies”.