Our Managing Editor joins WAN-IFRA for Digital Media Africa Conference 2024
The Managing Editor of Ghana Business News is attending the Digital Media Africa Conference to be held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Mr Emmanuel K Dogbevi, who is also the Executive Director of NewsBridge Africa, and serves as the Vice President of The African Editors Forum (TAEF) is attending the important conference scheduled for September 17 to 20, 2024, as a guest of the Eastern Africa Editors Society.
“As an esteemed guest, your insights and participation will be highly valuable to the discussions and networking sessions,” the invitation letter signed by Robert Muhia, Communications Specialist of the Society said.
The Conference being organised by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) is the first in-person edition of the Digital Media Africa Conference since 2019.
“With mounting newsprint and distribution cost pressures, along with print publications downsizing or closing, it is urgent for African publishers to speed up their digital transformation programmes. This is necessary to establish a strong foundation for generating digital revenue and to fulfil their crucial role in society,” said Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA.
“We believe this event will serve as a catalyst for goodwill and bring new and encouraging opportunities to our African colleagues through increased international collaboration,” he added.
The focus of the conference among other things, will be on accelerating digital transformation for African news publishers, securing and growing digital revenue, addressing challenges and opportunities in digital revenue generation, and exploring the role of AI in African newsrooms.
“The conference will also cover strategies for engaging young audiences, building public trust through inclusive leadership, and navigating the evolving advertising landscape,” says WAN-IFRA.
About 150 industry leaders, digital media professionals, and innovators from around the world are expected to meet to deliberate on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the digital media landscape.
“I will also seek opportunities to raise issues about the safety of journalists; a matter that is gaining urgency following the decline of democracy across the continent and the growing hostility of governments and state actors against journalists who are only doing their jobs.”
Other topics will include digital content creation, social media strategies, emerging technologies, and media ethics in the digital age.
“This is a rare opportunity to meet with other like-minded colleagues and friends to discuss common interests, challenges, goals and to collectively find solutions towards advancing the media landscape in Africa, that has seen some turbulence since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors,” Dogbevi says.
He adds, “I will also seek opportunities to raise issues about the safety of journalists; a matter that is gaining urgency following the decline of democracy across the continent and the growing hostility of governments and state actors against journalists who are only doing their jobs.”
Mr Dogbevi, a multi-award-winning journalist, and founder of Ghana Business News, which is the first online news platform to be established in Ghana by a professional journalist, is one of Africa’s highly regarded and impactful professionals, whose deep insight of journalism and knowledge about the continent are well documented. As a reporter, editor, trainer and mentor, his works resonate across the continent and the rest of the world making him a highly-sought-after professional.
By Peter Quarshie