Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of the world’s largest marketing communications group WPP, will be a keynote speaker at this year’s Newspaper Works Future Forum in Sydney.
“It may be that old-style felling trees and distributing newspapers and magazines is more effective than we think,” Sorrell told The Australian in a recent interview at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. “There’s certainly data in the UK, Canada and Australia that demonstrates consumer engagement with newspapers is better than we think. The average person who reads The Times of London newspaper spends 40 minutes. Newspaper readers are so much more engaged and it maybe that we’re under evaluating,” he said.
Sorrell, who will speak live via a videolink, founded WPP in 1985 and the group now employs more than 188,000 people in 111 countries. Its key companies include MEC, Group M, J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, Y&R and Mindshare.
A second keynote speaker, News Corp’s senior vice president of strategy for US operations, Raju Narisetti, will address the forum in person. His role at News Corp sees him primarily involved with new ventures and acquisitions that drive digital growth.
“We have attracted a world class speaker line-up at the Future Forum this year, which is testament to the influential role news media continues to play in the advertising and communications industry and society in general,” said Mark Hollands, CEO of The Newspaper Works.
Further international speakers to be announced soon will include leaders from iconic media brands discussing strategy, design, mobile and sales operations.
The forum will be a two-day event held on September 10 and 11 at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney and this year's theme is Influencing a connected world. Sorrell and Narisetti will speak at the Plenary on September 11. The Future Forum will feature three workshops, including master classes for editorial, advertising and marketing, and print and production, plus a full-day plenary and separate gala events for the Advertising & Marketing awards and The Newspaper of the Year awards. The annual conference convenes newspaper media executives from across Asia-Pacific and more than 600 delegates attended last year’s series of events. This year’s Future Forum is once again sponsored by Norske Skog.
Future Forum is a free event for members of The Newspaper Works. To register visit here. Non-members wishing to attend should contact kyliehannah@thenewspaperworks.com.au.
The Newspaper Works is a not for profit industry body established 'to advocate the cultural influence and commercial value of newspaper media in Australia.' It was founded by Fairfax Media, News Corp Australia, APN News & Media and Seven West Media (West Australian Newspapers).