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Fairfax boss Greg Hywood to address inaugural Publish conference

Screen Shot 2014-10-09 at 10.23.23 AMFairfax Media boss Greg Hywood, Australia’s most famous playwright David Williamson and the global commercial boss of BuzzFeed are to speak at the inaugural Publish conference in Sydney next month.

Publish, which is produced by Mumbrella in association with Publishers Australia, will focus on the future trends and opportunities in print and digital publishing.

It also includes a formal networking afternoon offering the chance to schedule 15-minute meetings with publishers, media buyers, technology suppliers and other relevant practitioners.

Hywood is pursuing a digital first publishing strategy at the 180-year-old newspaper company as well as building its events arm and eyeing investment in other verticals. He will share his thoughts on the future of the Australian publishing industry and how Fairfax is navigating the rapidly evolving market.

Meanwhile, Williamson will appear days before the Sydney premiere of his play about the life of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Williamson is the country’s most produced playwright who has written Australian classics including Don’s Party, Gallipoli, The Year of Living Dangerously and Let the Sunshine.

Grey Hywood

Greg Hywood

Rupert has received both critical and audience acclaim following runs in Washington and Melbourne. The Sydney season starts on 25 November featuring American film and TV star James Cromwell and Kath & Kim’s Jane Turner, before it heads to London.

The Publish conference will kick off with networking on the afternoon of November 19 before the conference on November 20.

The conference will open with a keynote address from Andy Wiedlin, chief revenue officer at social content site BuzzFeed who is widely credited with transforming the publisher from zero revenue to profitability with 500 staff worldwide and an audience of 150 million.

Other sessions confirmed for Publish include a look at the experiences of launching and operating paywalls with Damian Eales, group marketing director, News Corp Australia, Jason Kibsgaard, acting CEO at Private Media publisher of Crikey, Jane Waterhouse CEO of We Magazines, publisher of The Hoopla and Nick Ross, founder of Nanostransactions so far confirmed to speak.

David Williamson

David Williamson

The once sacred divide between editorial and sales and whether it still exists will also be explored by News Life Media CEO Nicole Sheffield, Guardian Australia managing director Ian McClelland and Jason Whittaker, editor of The Mandarin.

Editor-in-chief of The Collective, Lisa Messenger, will talk about why print is most definitely not dead, while senior media buyers including Danny Bass, chief investment and intelligence officer at Group M, UM chief Mat Baxter and leading advertisers will talk frankly about what publishers need to do in order to get on the advertising agenda.

The future of advertising sales will go under the microscope by Geoff Hird, publisher at Westwick Farrow Media and former chairman of Publishers Australia and blogging entrepreneur Yaro Stark will reveal the tricks on how to make serious money from blogging.

Other sessions include whether tablet publishing has a sustainable long term future, what publishers need to know about programmatic advertising, whether native advertising is the great white hope for the publishing industry and how to build effective new revenue streams.

Further speakers and sessions will be announced soon.

The conference takes place at Doltone House Hyde Park in Sydney on 19-20 November. It will be followed by Publishers Australia’s Excellence Awards on the evening of November 20.

Andy Wiedlin

Andy Wiedlin

Earlybird tickets which include free access to the Publish Networking Forum are on sale until 31 October with savings of up to $299.

More details on Publish are available via this link.

Tickets to the Excellence Awards which celebrate outstanding consumer, business-to-business and custom publishing across print and digital to be held on the evening of 20 November are also on sale now via this link.

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