European Newspaper Congress 2009

The ‘European Newspaper Congress’, taking place in Vienna this year for the 6th time, was opened on 27 April by the Vienna City Councillor for Media, Christian Oxonitsch. 500 publishers, editors and newspaper designers took part in the two-day congress in the Vienna City Hall. This international meeting focused on new trends in the newspaper sector.

It was a “high-quality exchange of ideas”, according to Councillor Christian Oxonitsch, who used the congress opening event to underline Vienna’s importance as the leading media location in Austria. More than 2,000 companies in the media sector, with around 50,000 employees, are based in Vienna. More than half of the companies were founded in the last 10 years, reflecting the dynamics of this sector.

Vienna also acts as a pivotal point for projects and ideas from the Central European region, according to Oxonitsch, who was particularly pleased that around 50 media experts had come to Vienna from Eastern and Southeastern Europe. He also stressed the importance of the high level of quality offered to various media companies by the Media Quarter Marx (founded in 2003) in Vienna’s 3rd district. The location, which has proved to be popular, will be expanded by a further 36,000 square metres by 2010.

10th European Newspaper Award

The newspaper conference, which has taken place for the last 10 years, deals with the latest trends in the sector. Several of the best concept developers, designers and readership researchers in the world presented their newest projects alongside renowned editors and shed light on the European world of newspapers, addressing the interplay between internet and print versions, new reading trends and layout, among other things. Traditionally, particularly successful newspapers are given awards in various categories at the conference. This year, the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, the weekly paper Athens Plus, the regional paper Basler Zeitung and the local paper Diari de Balears received awards in their respective categories.

Europe’s newspaper of the year

One of the winners of the competition, in which 236 papers from 27 countries took part, was the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, which was crowned ‘Europe’s newspaper of the year’. Svenska Dagbladet was one of the first papers to consider print and online versions as a single unity. Up-to-date news is published on the internet, while the paper itself is more like a daily magazine. Selected contents are presented in an extremely reader-friendly way with fact boxes and information graphics. One of the pinnacles of European newspaper expertise is the weekend edition. Svenska Dagbladet was one of the first papers in Europe to switch to tabloid format. It has a circulation of 186,200. 210 journalists work for the paper, 50 of whom are subeditors, who are in charge of layout, with ten photographers and eight information graphic artists. The website svd.se was voted Sweden’s best media website in 2007.

European Publishers Forum

How are the media changing in 2009? This was the question focused on at the first European Publishers Forum, which took place in Vienna’s City Hall on 27 April for the first time as part of the European Newspaper Congress. The media crisis in the print and online sectors, as well as new developments in the advertising sector, was discussed in detail.

Return to longer stories

In his presentation, the newspaper designer and congress organiser Norbert Küpper pointed out the trend towards more magazine-like newspapers. By this, he meant a clear emphasis on partly large-format pictures and the equally generous use of information graphics in reporting. Another trend that can increasingly be observed in papers is the return to longer stories and background information. Short, rapid and up-to-date news releases are increasingly left to the newspapers’ online editions. According to Küpper, it is mostly weekly papers which can currently boast a ‘slight increase’ in circulation, while tabloid papers are somewhat on the decline.