Speakers | The Newsroom Summit 2018
The Newsroom Summit 2018
CEO, Schibsted Media Group, Norway
Rolv-Erik Ryssdal joined the Schibsted Group in 1991 and has held several management positions including CEO of Aftonbladet (1999-2005), CEO of VG (2005-2008) and CEO of Schibsted Classified Media, the holding company for our international online classifieds operations (2008-2009). Rolv Erik Ryssdal holds an MA in Business and Economics from the BI Norwegian School of Management and an MBA in Business and Administration from INSEAD, France.
Managing Editor, NewsMavens.com
Co-founder, fathm, London, UK
Fergus Bell is an experienced journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering, verification, newsroom innovation and collaborative journalism projects. He is also a strong advocate for higher ethical standards in digital journalism.
Fergus’ experience spans both the business and editorial sides of the news industry. He spent eight years at the Associated Press, where he became their first International Social Media and UGC Editor. He then headed up newsroom partnerships and innovation for digital newsgathering start-up, SAM Desk. Fergus founded Dig Deeper Media in 2015 and advises broadcasters, publishers and start-ups on social and digital newsgathering, newsroom transformation and innovation. In 2017 he launched Pop-Up Newsroom, a framework for collaborative journalism projects that has already seen success in the US, UK, Sweden and won an Online Journalism Award in 2018 for "Verificado" - an initiative designed to monitor for misinformation during the Mexican elections. Fergus was named as a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow. He is a faculty member of the European Broadcast Union’s Academy. He serves on the board of the Online News Association. He is the co-founder and CEO of fathm a media consultancy and news lab.
Head of Newsroom Systems, The Sun, UK
Joel Davies is an experienced journalist, editor and technology leader, and has worked in The Sun newsroom for 19 years. Currently the technology lead for the rollout and use of all digital editorial tools in the newsroom, his experience covers newspaper and magazine writing, editing, and editorial design. Joel is working closely with technology partners at NewsUK to deliver new editorial experiences, and integrating advanced analytics into the newsroom.
Head of data strategies, product manager, MittMedia, Sweden
Newsletters Editor, The Economist, United Kingdom
Sunnie Huang is the newsletters editor at The Economist. Prior to this, she spent a year with the social media team to promote the newspaper's science and technology coverage. Before joining The Economist, she worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for three years as a multimedia reporter, covering domestic and international news. Sunnie studied journalism at the University of Toronto and environmental economics at University College London.
Content & Community Manager, Content Insights, UK
CEO, Neva Labs, Ireland
Mark Little is CEO of Neva Labs, a new Irish start-up developing solutions for people who want a more productive news routine. Mark spent 20 years in broadcast news, as a foreign correspondent and TV anchor for RTE. In 2010, he founded the world’s first social news agency Storyful, and was most recently Twitter's VP of media partnerships in Europe.
Publishing Consultant FT Strategies, WAN-IFRA Supervisory Board Member London, UK
Lisa MacLeod was Head of Digital at Tiso Blackstar Group, South Africa’s largest English-language publisher, and owner of 8 newspapers, 15 websites, music, film and radio businesses across the continent. Her role was to lead digital strategy and innovation, and manage Tiso Blackstar’s online properties with 6-million unique browsers monthly on titles such as TimesLIVE, SowetanLIVE and BusinessLIVE, as well as implement sustainable digital monetisation streams.
Lisa was previously General Manager of Digital for Media24’s 24.com in Cape Town, and prior to that spent 12 years in London at the Financial Times, helping to drive their print to digital integration. She served as Head of Operations for FT.com, widely thought to be the most successful paid website in the media industry, and FT Managing Editor, overseeing staffing, strategic planning and budgets for the FT globally
From 2018-2020, Lisa served as the Vice-President of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers and is currently a member of the Supervisory Board. She has been on the board of the World Editors Forum (WEF) for many years, and has taught and spoken at numerous international conferences and training events for WAN-IFRA , WEF and Women in News.
Commercial Director, Human Made, UK
Ant has been helping enterprises get the most out of new technology for 20 years. He started his career in agencies delivering new websites for the likes of Xerox, Aviva, and British Airways back when AJAX was cool. He spent 11 years in various technology areas of the BBC, including archives, open source innovation, and the the BBC’s own drone effort, before returning to the web agency world in 2013. Commercial director of Human Made since 2015 he’s been proud to help grow the team from 20 to 70 strong, and deliver superb sites and platforms for enterprise clients all over the world.
Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Finland
Kaius Niemi began his journalistic career as a television and radio reporter at the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE in the 1990s. Later he worked as a reporter at the television channel Nelonen (Channel Four Finland). In 1998 Niemi moved to Helsingin Sanomat where he was a staff writer at the Foreign Desk for six years. In 2005 Niemi became the City Editor of the Helsingin Sanomat City and Metropolitan News Desk. Two years later he was appointed Managing Editor of the newspaper. Since 2010 Kaius Niemi has worked as Editor-in-Chief of Ilta-Sanomat where his main focus is the digital content and its development. Kaius Niemi was appointed Senior Editor-in-Chief of Helsingin Sanomat September 2013.
Director, Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL), Norway
Randi S. Øgrey is the Director of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL) the leading media trade organization in Norway which counts approximately 324 member businesses, of which 172 are newspapers, 21 printing offices, 26 distribution companies, 24 TV companies, and 13 advertising groups. The Association’s objectives are to help build a diverse, independent and economically healthy industry; to secure editorial independence, and to initiate common initiatives in cases where the members deem it necessary and useful.
Head of special projects, the Guardian, UK
Mark Rice-Oxley is a journalist and author. After stints as a foreign correspondent and news editor, he now heads up the Guardian's special projects team, working on investigations, exclusives and news packages on big global themes. He also writes on mental health and psychology, and is the author of a memoir about depression and recovery, Underneath the Lemon Tree.
Chief Marketing Officer, Expressen, Sweden
Editorial Manager, Kleine Zeitung, Austria
Director of Digital Innovation, WELT, Germany
Niddal Salah-Eldin is Director of Digital Innovation at Axel Springer’s WELT. In this newly created function, she is part of the chief editorial staff and works on all matters relating to editorial development, partnerships, distribution, paid content and innovation at the intersection between editorial, product and tech.
Prior to this position, Niddal was Head of Social Media. She studied communications, political science and journalism in Mainz and Washington, D.C. and holds a Magister/ Master’s degree. During her studies she gained practical experience working for ZDF German television, RTL and CNN in Germany and in the U.S., among others. After a stint working in a communications agency she is now following her passion for social media and journalism at “WELT”. In 2015 Niddal has been named one of the year’s top 30 under 30 in journalism (“medium magazin”).
Head of Audience Engagement, Financial Times, United Kingdom
Head of the ATC Innovation Lab, ATC, Greece
Nikos Sarris is the Head of the ATC Innovation Lab, working on new technologies with a focus on the media sector. For the last 20 years he has been working in R&D projects as a researcher, project manager and coordinator of large multinational consortia. Lately he has mainly been involved in projects focusing on the semantic 'understanding' of news content and the assessment of its trustworthiness. He is currently managing two related products on behalf of ATC: TruthNest and TrulyMedia.
Digital transformation, content strategy and innovation consultant, WEF Board Member, UK
Dmitry is an expert in digital transformation, content strategy, and innovation. He worked for 21 years at the BBC in London where he was responsible for developing and implementing the BBC’s digital editorial offer for 40 non-English foreign language new services. Originally from Moscow, Russia, Dmitry worked in various editorial-development roles for the digital section of BBC News. These roles required liaison between editorial, product and strategy teams in order to drive innovation and develop new ways of reaching audiences, increasing engagement across the world and, crucially, driving culture change is newsrooms. He is an experienced digital leader in content creation, specialising in growing audiences across the world, driving editorial changes in newsrooms and adapting the way organisations work in digital space, especially around content innovation and audience engagement.
After his years at the BBC, he joined Culture Trip, a startup operating at the intersection of media and travel. He is now pursuing new adventures. Dmitry's main area of expertise is on the intersection between Editorial, Organisational, Strategy and Product sectors.
Political Editor, VG, Norway
Hanne Skartveit is a Political Editor at VG in Norway. She has a law degree from the University of Oslo and Master of International Public Policy (MIPP) from Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. Hanne is hosting the weekly podcast "Skartveit" where she talks to people in power.
Editor in Chief and CEO, VG - Verdens Gang AS, Norway
Gard Steiro is a Norwegian journalist and editor. In 2016 Steiro was appointed editor-in-chief and CEO of VG, Norway´s leading digital media house. With 2.5 million daily users cross platforms VG reaches half of the population in Norway. Steiro started as a reporter. The last ten years he has held several leader positions in different media companies. From 2011 to 2015 Steiro was chief editor of Bergens Tidende, the largest regional newspaper in Norway. Steiro is a member of the management team in Schibsted Media that owns and runs a large number of newspapers and digital startups in Scandinavia.
Head of platforms and strategic partnerships, MittMedia, Sweden
Editor for publishing strategy and visual journalism, Dagens Næringsliv, Norway. WEF Board member.
Ingeborg Volan is editor for publishing strategy and visual journalismat Dagens Næringsliv, Norway’s most prominent business newspaper. Previously, she held the position of director of audience engagement. She’s an online news veteran who early saw the possibilities of reaching audiences better online. She’s very passionate about understanding news users and letting their needs shape journalism. Among other roles, Ingeborg has previously worked as the first head of social media at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and lead the NRKbeta innovation crew. She’s also taught digital journalism at the Norwegian Institute for Journalism, been head of newsroom innovation at Adresseavisen and president of the Norwegian Online News Organization.
Project Coordinator, WAN-IFRA, France
Andrea joined WAN-IFRA's Global Alliance for Media Innovation as Project Coordinator in 2017, and is mainly responsible for the Research & Innovation Projects that GAMI participates in (INJECT, CPN, Media Innovation Mapping). She gets most energy from projects like these that bridge research and practice, applying new insights about media innovation to real-life situations. This is also the focus of her ongoing PhD-research and research projects at the University of Groningen. Before joining GAMI, she worked as a (freelance) journalist and researcher.
Innovation Manager, DW Research & Cooperation Projects, Deutsche Welle, Germany
Customer Success Manager, Chartbeat
Alisa Schaefer is a Customer Success Manager at Chartbeat, overseeing strategic partnerships with industry-leading publishers to help optimize their analytics efforts, and providing customized insights and specialized training to client teams and leadership. Based in New York, she is a native of Cologne, Germany.