Vice Chairman of New York Times elected President of WAN-IFRA

Michael Golden was elected by WAN-IFRA members on Thursday at the World News Media Congress, World Editors Forum and Women in News Summit in Durban, South Africa. Approximately 700 publishers, editors, journalists, and other senior news executives from around the world attended the events, which continue through Friday. The conferences can be followed on the congress blog [1] and on Twitter, #wnc17.

Michael Golden succeeds Tomas Brunegard, who was elected President of WAN-IFRA in 2013. Together with Paul Verwilt (Mediahuis, Belgium), who was elected new Treasurer of the organisation at the same meeting, David Callaway (The Street, USA) and Kevin Beatty (Daily Mail Group), they will form the new Presidency of WAN-IFRA for the two coming years.

”What I was able to help the New York Times do, and what I'd like to help WAN-IFRA do, is to reverse some of the current trends that are going on in the world. Media freedom is going the wrong direction in many parts of the world. Building on the tradition of WAN-IFRA to increase the dialogue about that, bring awareness to it, and underscore the importance of the role that media plays in informing citizens and making society work better” said Michael Golden [2] in an interview. ” Being elected President of WAN-IFRA is an honor and I take it as a vote of confidence. It is the opportunity to build on what we've done, and help the professionals operating independent media adjust their business models and prosper”, he added.

At the same meeting, 10 executives from leading news media companies were elected to new terms on the Board of WAN-IFRA.  

New leaders for the World Editors Forum (WEF)

David Callaway, Editor Emeritus and CEO of TheStreet.com, USA, has been elected President of the World Editors Forum (WEF), succeeding Marcelo Rech, Vice President of Journalism, RBS Group, Brazil.

Helje Solberg, Executive Editor and CEO of VGTV, Norway, was named as the new Vice President at the annual meeting of the WEF board in Durban on Wednesday.

David Callaway awarding Can Dündar, Golden Pen of Freedom 2017Callaway, a former Editor in Chief of USA Today, took control of TheStreet.com, as CEO and Editor Emeritus a year ago. He is credited with growing USA Today to the fifth largest digital news organisation in the US. Before joining USA Today in July 2012, he was the Editor-in-Chief at MarketWatch and its predecessor CBS MarketWatch.

Callaway has a masters degree in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He serves on the board of the ICFJ.

Helje Solberg, CEO and Executive Editor of VGTV, Norway, is an award-winning investigative journalist and author who has worked on several Norwegian papers.    

The new Board members of WAN-IFRA are: 

• Gunnar Siiner, representing EALL - Eesti Ajalehtede Liit, the Estonian Publishers Association;
• Sophie Gourmelen, Publisher, le Parisien – Aujourd’hui en France;
• Nicolas Corneau, Deputy General Manager Centre France La Montagne, Representing UPREG, the French Regional Publishers Association;
• Edith Dankwa, representing PRINPAG, the Independent Publishers Association in Ghana;
• Tove Nedreberg, CEO Adresseavisen, Representing MBL, the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association ;
• Cristina Soares COO Member of the Board Publico,  APImprensa (Portugal);
• Patrick Daniel, deputy chief executive officer, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), representing WAN-IFRA Regional Committee  for Asia Pacific;
• Peter Mertus, CEO of News and Media Holding representing the Slovak Press Association;
• Ishmet Davidson, Director Print Media Media24, South Africa, Member of the WAN-IFRA Regional Committee for Africa (South Africa);
• Sergey Okhrimenko, Segodnya Multimedia - Representing UAPP, the Ukrainian Association of Press Publishers
• Rick Stunt , Group Paper Director Dmg::media, United Kingdom, representing WAN-IFRA’s World Printers Forum.

A full list of incoming and outgoing WAN-IFRA Board members can be downloaded below

The new members of WEF Board are:

• Joanne Lipman, Editor in Chief, USA Today, USA
• Ritu Kapur, CEO of TheQuint.com, India
• Stephen Rae, Editor in Chief, Independent News and Media, Ireland
• Martha Ramos, Editorial Director, OEM, Mexico
• Warren Fernandez, Editor in Chief, SPH, Singapore