News

The combined new organisation will represent more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3000 companies in more than 120 countries.

WAN-IFRA is dedicated “to be the indispensable partner of newspapers and the entire news publishing industry worldwide, particularly our members, in the defense and promotion of press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity, and the development of prosperous businesses and technology.²



The mission statement of the organisation can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org



The merger, which becomes effective on 1 July, has been approved by the

membership of the two organisations. The new organisation will maintain the

two current headquarters in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany.



The two organisations have been discussing a merger, on and off, for more

than five years, as they have built up several similar products and services

and have an increasing overlap in membership.



Gavin O¹Reilly, the President of WAN and Group CEO of Dublin-based

Independent News and Media, will serve as President of the new organisation

through 2010. ³Both IFRA and WAN are strong organisations providing key

services to our industry,² he said. ³We believe that combining their

strengths will allow us to be even more resourceful and effective in

responding to the growing needs of our members and industry partners in the

fast-moving and evolving media matrix. This is a necessary merger which,

indeed, has been on the cards for some time².



Horst Pirker, President of IFRA and CEO of Styria Medien AG in Austria, will

serve as First Vice President, and become President in 2011. "Like the whole

news publishing industry, WAN and IFRA are currently facing serious

challenges. I think we need to concentrate our resources to support our

members in the best possible way², he said.



The new organisation will appoint a Chief Executive Officer shortly. In the

meantime, the current CEOs of WAN and IFRA, Timothy Balding and Reiner

Mittelbach, will jointly manage the merged association.



WAN, founded in 1948, groups 78 national newspaper associations, individual

newspaper executives and companies in more than 120 countries, 13 news

agencies and nine regional press organisations. It is based in Paris,

France.



IFRA, founded in 1961, groups more than 3,000 publishing companies and

suppliers to the publishing industry from more than 70 countries. It is

based in Darmstadt, Germany, with regional offices in the United States,

Asia and Europe.



The two organisations have a long common history: WAN was instrumental in

the creation of IFRA, which emerged in 1961 under the name of INCA

(International Newspaper Colour Association), an organisation to aid

newspapers in their widening use of colour printing in newspaper production.

In 1971, IFRA was established as a separate entity to treat the rapidly

developing technical side of the industry. The acronym stands for INCA-FIEJ

Research Association ­ FIEJ, the French acronym for the International

Federation of Newspaper Publishers, is the organisation now known as WAN.



Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Head of Communications and Public Affairs,

WAN-IFRA, Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10

28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org