IFRA last year focused intensively on defining the future orientation of the organisation. The result is a clear concept and an emphasis on existing strengths: IFRA offers support for managing the present and future challenges facing the newspaper industry, for both publishing houses and manufacturers, always under the aspect of technology and business.
Adds Mittelbach, “IFRA's new appearance is intended to reflect this stance as well as clearly signal what our role is today and will be tomorrow, namely, to give our members in the news publishing industry a knowledge edge and to be their reliable partner in the future.”
To complete the new appearance, IFRA has also changed the title of its international trade publication with the beginning of the new year. Technology drives business and business ideas drive technological developments. That is what IFRA stands for. And for this reason newspaper techniques has become IFRA Magazine. It is and continues to be the main objective of IFRA's trade publication to be a magazine about and for the entire newspaper industry (www.iframagazine.com).
“This year we are reinforcing our editorial team in order to further increase the information value and assist our readers in their search for the ‘next major trend' in the news publishing industry. IFRA Magazine will therefore continue to accompany the development of the industry in a critical and up-to-the-minute way, now also with cooperation partners in the Russian and Arabic languages,” continues Mittelbach.
Research continues to be IFRA's core activity. Thus IFRA will invest about €1.8 million in 2008 for this area alone. Besides topical subjects from the areas of print and digital, which will be analysed with equal degrees of priority, IFRA will also continue its cooperation with leading organisations in the ongoing “Where NEWS?” research project (www.ifra.com/wherenews). “Where NEWS?” consists of a series of future-oriented research reports and resulting scenarios based on serious research that permit a look into the future.
• IFRA (www.ifra.com) is the worldwide research and service organisation for the news publishing industry. With head-quartersin Darmstadt, Germany, it has acted since 1961 as the platform for decision-makers from the newspaper industry. IFRA offers its services primarily to its more than 3100 members in about 80 countries. And the number continues to increase: for example, last year alone 65 companies joined the IFRA international newspaper community.
