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This session provides hands-on exposure to practical AI applications tailored for resource-constrained newsrooms. It will cover safe workflows, tools that deliver quick wins, and methods for mapping newsroom challenges to technology solutions. Participants will engage in demos, collaborative exercises, and side-by-side tool testing, leaving with concrete next steps for pilots.

Key areas covered:

• AI today: what actually works– LLMs, TTS, translation, summarisation, extraction; failure modes and verification basics.
• Security & privacy– What not to send outside; de-identification; roles/protocols; “local/controlled” options; checklists.
• What you can do right now– Out-of-the-box wins (transcription, translation, headline generation, subtitles, voiceover). Mini-demo + quick participant examples.
• Build vs. Buy– When SaaS is enough vs. when to assemble custom chains; Impact × Feasibility × Risk; checkpoints.
• Mapping pains to opportunities– Group exercise to turn top newsroom challenges into AI opportunities with success metrics.
• Hands-on pipeline build– Facilitator-led, group co-piloting. Options include content workflows, research/ops automation, and distribution tasks.
• Language testing – Compare multiple tools/models for local languages; rate quality; define where human review is required.
• Next steps – Optional one-page pilot: owner, metric, first action in 48h, checkpoint in 30 days.

Learning outcomes:

• Recognise where AI reliably supports editorial, audience, and operational workflows – and where it doesn’t.
• Select 1–2 priority AI use cases per newsroom using an Impact/Effort/Risk framework.
• Co-build one working AI pipeline and leave with an optional 30-day pilot sketch.

This session focuses on a scenario-planning exercise to help participants identify the key organisational and business changes they expect to see in the next three to five years. Based on these scenarios, the session will explore ways of testing, planning, and implementing projects that move the media closer to their future vision. It will also look at how AI projects – from processing news assets to formatting content for specific audiences – can be integrated into a larger, long-term AI development plan rather than remaining isolated experiments

Key areas covered:

• Developing a clear picture of the state of AI in your market and its potential uses.
• Using scenario planning techniques to forecast where individual media will be in three to five years and the key developments shaping that path.
• Breaking down processes and roles into detailed components to forecast impacts, design tests, and define success metrics.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand how to use scenario planning to anticipate change and define strategic priorities.
• Identify AI opportunities relevant to different newsroom contexts.
• Build an initial roadmap for aligning projects with longer-term organisational strategies.

News media today face a pressing challenge as most AI adoption remains fragmented, experimental or underleveraged. While tools exist, many organizations struggle to scale pilots, integrate AI into workflows and embed it into the newsroom culture in ways that truly enhance journalism or up-to speed on the transformation. The gap is not technical, it is strategic, cultural and leadership.

This masterclass will be a practical session designed for those who already understand the AI’s capabilities and want to explore how to create an AI strategy beyond pilot schemes.

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Welcome  by WAN-IFRA APAC Committee Chair

We will start the conference with the latest findings of World Press Trends, the annual survey from WAN-IFRA. This will provide an indication of what is coming up, the priorities of news media executives as they plan for a sustainable future for news media.

This increasingly uncertain world filled with economic and political challenges presents an excellent opportunity for strong and successful media businesses to stand out. In this opening session, top business leaders from world renowned, leading media brands share and discuss strategies which are helping them stay ahead of the pack and to continue to deliver growth their owners and shareholders demand. They will share their ideas, thinking behind their plans, inspiration and experience with delegates at the Asian Media Leaders Summit.

The news industry is facing many varied challenges – declining profits and margins, unfavourable demographic trends, declining market share, price resistance. These are all familiar to news publishers who have in some way, shape or form crafted their own solutions. Why have some of these solutions succeeded? Why have some not worked as planned? Is the lack of a special kind of daring entrepreneurial spirit holding us back? In this session, we explore the thinking behind the “leap of faith” that two entrepreneurial business leaders have taken to find new markets and revenue streams. When the going gets tough, innovation takes the wheel!

Join a future-oriented and inspiring panel of top media executives as they present courageous strategies that have the potential to reshape the dynamics and markets in which our news media ecosystem operates. Speakers will cover such points as reinventing products and tools, forging alliances for sustainable growth, nurturing leadership and innovation, and fostering a culture of constant improvement.

The rise of content creators and news influencers has disrupted traditional journalism, drawing massive audiences with formats and voices that often sidestep institutional norms. Should newsrooms see them as allies, rivals, or something in between? This session explores the strategic choices facing editors and executives: Do we collaborate with news creators—and if so, how? Should we hire them, partner with them, or try to build our own in-house creator talent? What happens when their idea of “news” diverges from journalistic standards? Join us for a candid discussion on how newsrooms can approach this new media ecosystem without losing their core values.

In today’s climate of rapid change for news organisations, challenges abound. How do their leadership respond in the face of unprecedented complexity?  Steering a company toward a sustainable future requires more than resilience. It demands clear strategy, purposeful communication, and a culture that empowers change. This session dives deep into the essential tools and mindset leaders need to inspire trust, align vision, and spark transformation that lasts.

While it’s easier to chase after the bright shiny objects of national news and big stories, what happened to grassroots reporting? What do newsrooms do to connect with their communities, surface issues that matter to them and help solve bread and butter issues on the ground. Isn’t this what journalism is about? Is focusing on the community the way to crack the code with regards to local news sustainability? What are the challenges in doing so?

With two revolutions running parallel in newsrooms across the planet, journalists who are not usually the first to get on board the train of change have to deal with crafting stories for consumption on mobile devices, while learning about artificial intelligence and its potential adoption to help with content creation. Those two revolutions are the subject of the speaker’s talk. He will present tips for how editors in newsrooms worldwide can navigate these two concurrent revolutions: mobile-first and artificial intelligence. Unlike previous changes the media has encountered, these transformations fundamentally affect the craft of journalism itself — specifically, how content is created and experienced.

Ultimately, these revolutions — mobile-first and AI — will redefine journalism at its core, empowering journalists to craft stories that are both technologically advanced and unmistakably human. Journalists will find themselves amid two revolutions that directly affect the craft of journalism.

Originator Profile (OP) technology, is a collaborative effort among more than 45 media and tech organisations in Japan. It was first presented at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in 2023. Since then much progress has been made with the technology ready for use in a real environment. The aim of OP is to help internet users easily identify quality news articles and safe advertisements that are third-party verified, thus preventing the distribution of fake news content and ad fraud.

Our speakers explore two very valuable but elusive factors which play a crucial role in digital advertising and revenue expansion.

In a deeply divided world of beliefs and politics, the role of journalism is under intense scrutiny. Audiences increasingly expect not only objectivity, but also transparency and representation that reflects the diversity of our societies. Journalists today must navigate personal biases, political pressures, and shifting social expectations, while striving to build trust and foster inclusive, informed debate.

This session brings together speakers who will share how they approach these challenges: ensuring accurate, balanced reporting while also making diverse voices visible and heard. The discussion will highlight practical strategies for maintaining credibility and relevance, and for contributing to a more representative and trustworthy media landscape.

News consumption and distribution is shifting rapidly. It is becoming more of a challenge for news publishers to find where their audience is because today’s audience has many options from which to consume news and their loyalty has to be earned. Engaging the audience first requires newsrooms to build tools to find them, earn their trust and engage them, before even thinking about how to monetise. Our speakers in this session will share their cutting edge strategies to gain trust and engage audiences.

Our keynote speaker in this session will talk about why the digital flak jacket is an essential safety suite for journalists and information professionals to ensure safe and professional digitised and hybrid workspace. Researchers at the Dart Centre Asia Pacific and the University of South Australia have established that journalists  across the Asia Pacific and across the world are now working in hybrid workspace, moving between online and offline workspace. This workspace encompasses a unique threat matrix. We know these dangers; we all are exposed to them, most of us right now as you read this.  Our speaker will talk about the skills needed to counter this using the digital flak jacket.

In the panel discussion, we will cover this topic more broadly to encompass other skills, support and coping mechanisms that are essential for journalists exposed to traumatic and distressing events in their line of work. 

This session will end at 12:45.

(Amantha will be available for private one on one clinics during the two days of this conference. We will be announcing how you can book these sessions closer to the event.)  

The speaker will explore the latest trends and developments in AI and how it is impacting the news media ecosystem now and in the future. He will delve into the biggest questions facing the media industry today as a result of AI, and how publishers can make sense of them, and suggests ways news organisations can adapt to stay relevant and connected in this era of rapid technological evolution influenced by AI. This session will be delivered virtually.

In today’s age of rapid technological advancement, change is a certainty and innovation is a necessity. This session incorporates a presentation of the most impactful and innovative business and technological trends in the news media industry around the world, along  with a leading media publishing house sharing their case studies which has resulted from breeding a culture of innovation in the organisation.

We close this year’s Asian Leaders Summit with a fireside chat with a senior leader from one of Europe’s fastest growing media groups. He will reveal how his organisation has, in spite of disruption, not only adapted but led through continuous innovation. From harnessing emerging technologies to reinventing business models and rebuilding audience trust, this session will touch on how to stay relevant, credible, and visionary in a rapidly evolving landscape. It’s not just about surviving change, it’s about shaping it.