The World Printers Forum is the central point for the international print production community, encompassing the entire supply chain for newspapers and magazines, including the consumer lifestyle sector. Besides publishers, this community includes printers, material suppliers, and equipment manufacturers across the entire value chain: prepress, press (coldset, heatset, and digital), product finishing, and delivery.
Its objective is to encourage innovation and productivity as well as product development that can be instrumental for publishers to exploit future-oriented news media products. It promotes the power of print and the sustainability of print production.
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The Forum addresses all print-related questions, focusing specifically on high-volume print production for news and lifestyle content. It serves as the worldwide reference in the following areas:
Strategy Development: Providing essential guidance for publishers and printers on developing print strategies, exploring new and emerging business models, and meeting evolving customer expectations.
International Exchange: Facilitating the global sharing of expertise, business models, and best practices on a global scale.
Research & Innovation: Driving forward-looking research in print technology and product development, particularly for coldset, heatset and digital processes.
Sustainability & Power of Print: Promoting the sustainability of print production processes and championing the enduring power, impact, and reach of print media.
Operational Excellence: Improving productivity, profitability, and benchmarking across the print value chain.
Objectives of the World Printers Forum are
Exploring customer expectations in communication with publishers and customers
Strategy development for the printing business, including new and emerging business models
International exchange of experience regarding business optimisation and innovation in product development, marketing, sales and technology
The World Printers Forum achieves its objectives by organising
Temporary and permanent working groups
Research projects, reports and guidelines
Standardisation and certification projects in technology and business processes
Benchmarking projects
An annual “World Printers Summit”
Advising WAN-IFRA regarding production related events
Maintaining a blog for discussion, working group interaction and community engagement
Promotion of “Unique Selling Propositions” of print in an increasingly digital media environment.
Organisation
The World Printers Forum (WPF) is an integral part of WAN-IFRA.
Membership is individual. Everyone who is employed by a WAN-IFRA member company or organisation can register online and free of charge as a member of the World Printers Forum. Membership is open to WAN-IFRA members who are interested in the future development of newspaper production technology, organisation and business and who want to influence this development.
Members can propose working items and candidates for the Board of the World Printers Forum. They can participate in working groups of the World Printers Forum.
Members meet once a year at the “World Printers Summit,” which is organised as a World Publishing Expo. The Conference receives the report of the board and discusses the state of the international newspaper print business as well as new projects and working items.
WAN-IFRA board will nominate representative companies to the World Printers Forum Board.
The WPF Board advises WAN-IFRA in all questions of newspaper production and steers the projects of the World Printers Forum.
The Board elects a chair, a vice-chair. Director of the WPF is secretary. The Board meets regularly two times per year and more often if needed virtually.