63rd WORLD NEWSPAPER CONGRESS

Session: LeadershipTitle: The Leadership ChallengeSpeaker: Jurij Giacomelli

Vienna, Reed Messe Wien

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64th WORLD NEWSPAPER CONGRESS19th WORLD EDITORS FORUM

www.wan-ifra.org/kiev2012

The Leadership Challenge

Jurij GiacomelliPresident of Management Board

Delo, Ljubljana, Slovenia63rd World Newspaper Congress

Vienna, October 15th, 2011

Slovenian news media market

Slovenia - population: 2 millionTotal readership of print dailies: 450.000

4 general dailies, 1 tabloid, 1 business daily and 1 sports daily newspaper

Subscription driven market

Dominance of the TV in the advertising market: over 70% share

The News Media CompanyDelo is Slovenia’s leading news media company

with over 50-year tradition2 leading newspaper brands – one quality

paper, one (and only) tabloid on the market

8 independent media brands on multiple platforms

40% of the Slovenian subscription market

4

Starting point: end of 2009Decreasing circulation of both daily

newspapersA drop in ad revenues by 35% in 2 years

(2009/07)No digital strategyA lack of editorial, marketing and sales

competencesA culture of mistrust and a legacy of

mismanagementOwner: a brewery group in financial distress;

soon to put Delo on sale

The mission: making this company successful again!

1. Reinforcing the readership of both leading news brands

2. A development of the entire brand portfolio to keep and strengthen the market share

3. Investment into 21st centruy journalism

4. Strong belief in paid contents

5. Digital strategy: all brands on multiple platforms

6. Taking advertising sales into the wider market

7. Seeking efficiencies accross a vertically integrated organsiation (print, distribution)

We need leadership at different levels

Owners

Senior management and senior editors

Sufficient talent and competences accross the entire organisation

At the regulatory level – in order not to defend and preserve old business models but to help create new ones

More lessons learnedConstantly check and re-evaluate your

priorities and focus.

Stay calm. It’s a process. Things will never go quite as you have planned.

You are alone in this from the beginning till the end. But we can only win together.

Leadership: a cultural challenge

It is about how to profoundly change the capabilities of an organisation in a limited

time frame with limited resources and often with limited authorisation.

It is ourselves racing against time.