Fernando de Yarza, President of WAN-IFRA, will start the conference by welcoming the attendees of the seventh edition of Digital Media LATAM.

Jean-Luc Breysse will share how the French newspaper has focused on growing its digital subscriptions to more than 100,000 since it launched its paywall in 2015. Le Figaro has opted for the freemium strategy, but has always been experimenting: in recent months, they went from having two different sites - one for the general public and one for their subscribers - to a single site, in which certain content is exclusive for subscribers. Likewise, they have opted to diversify their digital income. Being the fourth internet group in France in terms of unique users per month, they have been able to offer a series of services that provided good results: e-marketing, online ticket sales, weather forecasts and, above all, an agency service for tailored trips that have provided excellent results.

A fundamental element in any content strategy is to offer quality and differentiated content for members or subscribers. However, Ankur Thakkar, from the Editorial R&D team at Quartz, will share why it is equally important to create a deep relationship with readers by bringing product thinking to the newsroom and through experiences, services, and spaces for interactivity and participation that reinforce the tie between the organization and its most loyal readers.

STRAUS Media is a group of 17 New York community weeklies in cities such as Manhattan, Southeast New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, whose goal was to create a centralized workflow to share content and create attractive and innovative journalistic products for cross platform audience. STRAUS Media will share its experience of success from the implementation of Media Cloud, a solution of PROTECMEDIA designed to optimize editorial strategy in an agile and scalable way. This change has allowed them to save money, time and effort, work remotely and exchange content on social networks and from one edition to another in a powerful and intuitive interface.

Launched in 2008 in France, Mediapart is today an essential player in the French media and political landscape. Since its foundation by former Le Monde journalists, François Bonnet and Edwy Plenel, along with three other co-founders, the digital portal structured its business model based solely on subscriptions, both individual and collective, as well as on an editorial proposal focused on investigative journalism of impact, politics, culture and economy. Its model has achieved 170 thousand individual subscribers, representing 95% of its annual turnover. The site has a paywall closed to non-members, does not have any type of advertising and has achieved an economic gain for eight consecutive years. It also has a staff of 87 employees, of which 47 are journalists. François will talk about the keys to the success of this outlet and explore what lessons Latin American media can rescue in the search for subscription and membership models that make their digital operations viable.

Using the latest virtual reality and augmented reality technology, Karim will share the behind the scenes of his award-winning installation "The Enemy," through which he has managed to immerse his audience in the heart of the most complex armed conflicts on the planet. An example of how these technologies enhance the impact that journalism can have on audiences.

Mitra has led the expansion of CNN’s digital audience through the deployment of innovative digital story-telling, creative distribution strategies and by focusing on the story while making sure it is distributed as quickly and widely possible. Mitra will tell us about the different teams she has for each platforms, the internal cultural changes and workflows that have been implemented, the use of alerts and push notifications, second screen strategies and several other initiatives she has led during these last three years.

Publishers in Latin America are actively looking for new audiences and ways to monetize. In this session, Facebook will share the experience of the Accelerator, a program through which it is supporting publishers to transform their business model and expand its audiences through experimentation and innovation.

All media must have an effective strategy for distributing content on platforms in order to bring their journalism to the greatest number of readers and connect with new audiences. That is the work of Anna Dubenko, Editor for Off-Platform Strategy, who everyday rethinks how the journalism produced by The New York Times can go as far as possible through different platforms and in the best format according to each audience.

 The 5th edition of the LATAM Digital Media Awards will be inaugurated by Rosental Alves, member of the evaluation jury and Founder and Executive Director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

Rosental will share some thoughts on the importance and challenges around promoting innovation in the journalism industry, before the official announcement of the Awards' winners.

It has been an exceptional year in which Latin American news media have rethought, reshaped and rejoiced on digital journalism, both in pure players and legacy media, after showing how innovation and creativity remain at the core of exceptional journalism.

This is why the 2019 LATAM Digital Media Awards recognize news media companies and press entities that have adopted the best innovation and journalistic quality strategies as part of their product offerings. In this link you'll find this year's 37 finalist projects!

Podcasts are consolidating as a audio platform through which it is possible to experiment with innovative story-telling, build loyal and look for new audiences and monetization strategies. American digital native Slate has 25 podcasts today, which he estimates this year will reach 200 million downloads. Asha Saluja will tell us what are the editorial strategies are behind the journalistic and commercial success of this podcast offer. On the other hand, Ana Ormaechea will tell us about the current increase in audio consumption, through conversational audio (speakers), direct audio and podcasts (PRISA Radio has more than 800 podcasts produced in different Spanish speaking countries). She’ll explain how audio has become not only a format but a real interface in which media outlets and brands must learn how to effectively distribute their content.

Product roles are increasingly becoming a must-have for media outlets eager to align business goals, editorial outputs and tech resources to the demands of an ever-changing and highly complex digital ecosystem. This session will examine the hunt to find the perfect profile, retain and empower them within news media companies in order to boost their entire operation.

Two very different media companies with a common goal: to offer quality content using the tools that the digital era offers in a creative and innovative way. This session will provide practical, relevant and inspiring examples for all Latin American media that seek to improve the quality of their journalistic content offer and to experiment with new digital tools.