ENEX Unites in Hilversum: Navigating News, AI, and a New World Order

The ‘Trump effect’ was a key topic at a meeting of more than 50 newsroom partners at the headquarters of RTL Netherlands in Hilversum held on April 3/4th 2025. Many Enex partners have boosted their American operations to try to keep pace with the blizzard of news from the new US administration. Senior journalists from Lithuania, Norway, Mexico and the UK discussed how their newsrooms and their countries are responding to new realities. 

Enex Head of News, Mark Evans, hosted the meeting along with RTL Netherlands Chief International Editor, Eric Smink.  Mark Evans detailed how Enex is further orientating towards digital media both in terms of its news agency service and customer base. RTL Netherlands Deputy Editor in Chief, Dennis Van Luling presented the challenges and opportunities in correctly sourcing and clearing user generated content for breaking news. Enex is bolstering its efforts to coordinate a joint UGC clearing approach across the Enex partnership. 

Nikolai Radisic, European Correspondent for N1 Serbia gave an impassioned presentation about the severe pressure the channel is under from Government authorities. Huge demonstrations have taken place in Serbia in recent months against, what the protestors say, is government corruption and mismanagement.

Artem Oblovatny, Senior International Coordinator from 1+1 Media Ukraine, told the audience how Ukrainians are anxious about the latest phase of the war with Russia. In the last few months a 1+1 journalist who was serving in the army was killed in action.

Of course, Artificial Intelligence was also on the agenda! Mark Egan from PurpleBridge media demonstrated the latest powerful tools for generative AI text and images.  The audience were asked to re-create AI images in order to fine-tune their prompt skills and a quiz demonstrated that spotting AI text from human generated text is now near impossible. An explanation of the tools was also mitigated with some careful reminders of the importance of human oversight and ethical codes being applied to AI influenced journalism. 

The bread and butter of Enex daily cooperation was addressed by News Editors Andras Vizler and Oana Matei.  About 75% of Enex content comes from its partner newsrooms so speed of delivery and quality also relies heavily on timely contribution and meta data supplied by each newsroom across the world from Argentina to Japan. 

Head of Operations of Al Arabiya, Dina Nimer, outlined how the channel is re-basing from Dubai to Riyadh.  Two new buildings are in construction in the Saudi Arabian capital with many hours of live broadcasting already hosted from Riyadh. 

The most important part of any Enex meeting is always to welcome new partners. Elli Kotzamani, News Director of Antenna Cyprus gave an overview of her station and operations and encouraged other Enex partners to be in touch whenever Cyprus can assist with news cooperation.


Adrian Wells, Managing Director of Enex, spoke about the pursuit of new partners in so far unrepresented countries.  Also in development are further improvements to Enex’s video distribution platform NXP. Attendees also heard about Enex’s design update and new initiative called the Media Innovation Exchange:

https://innovationexchange.enex.news/c/broadcasters/

The Exchange is a forum for leading technical suppliers to interact with partner CTOs to discuss best products, services and technical implementations.  More seminars are planned in the coming weeks.  Ask for more information if interested in more details. 

Alex Kengen, Global Distribution Manger, outlined Enex’s Media Services offer where Enex helps governments, conferences, institutions and corporate entities increase their media profile by using Enex expertise to connect with broadcast and digital media. See this section of our website for more details! https://enex.news/media-services/

And finally, Terence Jarosz, Enex News Editor explained how the news agency is working with AFP and some other media companies to build a new audio resources platform called The Audio Market Place.  Audio is a massive growth area for news and information providers and this new platform, supported by funding from the European Union, aims to serve the podcast and radio production market. 

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ENEX Part Of AUDIO Market Place Project

ENEX is proud to be part of a new project that is set to create a new audio content exchange aimed at radio and podcast producers. Read all about it in the official press release:

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Arnaud De Brandt has been appointed as Enex’s new Director of Finance and Commerce

Arnaud De Brandt has been appointed as Enex’s new Director of Finance and Commerce. Arnaud joins with a mission to accelerate Enex’s growth and diversification as the media industry faces major changes in technology and customer demand.

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Innovation Exchange: ENEX is launching an exclusive CTO-led series of virtual events

ENEX is launching an exclusive CTO-led series of virtual events to help technology leaders find solutions to the rapid pace of development in the broadcast and digital industry.

The sessions will short-cut your research and show how to implement the latest products and services, opening up fresh opportunities and reducing costs.

The first session: Wednesday January 22nd 14:00 CET on AI Video Indexing. Later in January we focus on creating 5G private networks for newsgathering.

These sessions are free for ENEX members.

Mail us on innovationexchange@enex.news if you would like to join or fill out the registration form:

https://innovationexchange.enex.news/c/join-enex-ix

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Spectacular Shanghai General Assembly 2024

Shanghai: ENEX’s first conference in Asia took place against the spectacular backdrop of China’s most populous mega-city.  Two days of intensive discussions and debates about the future of media and the challenges and opportunities of reporting in China were enjoyed by the more than 70 delegates.  You can’t have a journalism conference without talking about AI and the 31st ENEX General Assembly was dominated by the topic.   Behind the talk of regulation and whether newsrooms should adopt Generative AI, many newsrooms are pushing ahead.  Mark Egan, from Purple Bridge Media, a top AI coach, trainer and consultant gave the ENEX assembly an overview of which organisations have already put in place AI assisted workflows and the opportunities it has opened for increasing the diversity of output across multiple platforms.  A great example was found in the newsroom of ENEX’s co-hosts, Shanghai Media Group (SMG) which makes parts of its output available in multiple languages translated and voiced by AI technology.

Jamie Angus, COO of Al Arabiya hosted a further panel on whether there is threat or a commercial opportunity for broadcasters and publishers protecting or selling rights to their IP to Large Language Model (LLMs) companies looking to train their AI?  Some English language entities like the New York Times have threatened to sue AI companies from ‘crawling’ their websites.  Alternatively, other companies such as Axel Springer in Germany and the Associated Press have sought to reach commercial deals with LLMs.  How will non-English speaking publishers be affected? 

Madhav Chinnappa former Google executive and now Vice President for Human Native AI argued for the media industry to quickly develop a strategy. Graham Lovelace a writer and expert on the subject contributed via zoom, drawing on the news from his own highly successful substack blog on the issue https://grahamlovelace.substack.com/  Aleksandra Subotic, CEO of United Media Group, which owns news entities across South East Europe including the successful N1 news channels in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina, said her organisation was nervous about which media outlets would be crawled in Serbia where most media is aligned with the government. 

Lastly, on the theme of AI, Simon Hof, RTL Germany, Aslaug Henriksen, TV2 Norway and Tristan Noblia, Telefe Argentina, compared notes on how their organisations are rising to meet the challenge of AI. Panel moderator, Mark Egan referred to the EBU’s excellent recent report about trusted media in the age of AI.

https://www.ebu.ch/guides/open/report/news-report-2024-trusted-journalism-in-the-age-of-generative-ai

Last year’s ENEX General Assembly held in Luxembourg was disrupted by the October 7th massacre of Israeli residents in Kibutzim near Gaza. Arad Nir, International Editor of Channel 12 News Israel spoke via zoom into the 2023 conference as the full horror of the attacks became clear.  Since then, some 60,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed as Israeli forces have moved into Gaza and destroyed much of it.   A new front has opened in Lebanon as Israeli forces look to disable Hezbollah.  Somewhat forgotten has been the plight of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Niva Verkert, whose son is one of the captives, joined Arad and moderator ENEX Head of News, Mark Evans to discuss the situation.

Every year the ENEX GA discusses topics relevant to the location of the event. China is one of the most challenging stories for news organisations to cover with most news providers unable to support their own reporters and cameramen in Beijing.  ENEX supplies Chinese video to its members from those few companies who do support bureaux in the country. ENEX has also been fortunate to receive footage from Shanghai Media Group’s journalists who upload material to the ENEX video distribution platforms daily. 

Just a few days before the conference, Shanghai fell victim to a violent tropical Typhoon which saw widespread floods and disruption.  ENEX also takes special video material from CCTV+ to support its coverage of China especially focusing on business and technology.

Visa permissions are not always available for journalists who want to report in China.  Steven Jiang, CNN China Bureau Chief told the conference that far fewer foreign journalists are now based in China than 5 years ago. The panel covered many of the frequent themes of reporting the world’s second superpower and was completed by John Ruwitch, International Correspondent for NPR and Leonard ‘Bud’ Pratt a long-time China journalist and business expert who has collaborated on projects with SMG. 

Continuing with China, a special session looked at the emerging dominance of Chinese manufactured electric vehicles.  More than 200 manufacturers are involved in EV production in China. The new variants have huge range are quick charging and incorporate many advanced smart technologies.  So successful has the sector been that both the European Union and the United States are considering imposing large tariffs on the sector as the price point for comparable EU or US built cars is much higher. 

Kevin Chen, Global PR Director of Geely Holding Group (owner of Volvo, Polestar etc) hoped their manufacturing bases within the European Union would help offset the effect of tariffs if they were imposed.  Weisi Xie, Director of the Economist Intelligence Group Shanghai, explained the supply chain advantages open to Chinese EV car makers. The panel was expertly chaired by Yin Fan, a leading business presenter for SMG.

On the final day of the meeting, delegates had the chance to experience the thrills of driving some of the latest Chinese made EVs when they visited the design and research headquarters of SAIC owner of the MG brand.  ENEX attendees were allowed to test drive several new models including the new MG Cyberster sports car:
https://www.shanghaieye.cn/detail?postId=123993

Tim Singleton, Head of International News, Sky News UK, interviewed Fin Gomez, Political Director of CBS News.  Gomez dialled in via zoom in the late evening from Washington DC where he spoke about the forthcoming Vice-Presidential debate and which way momentum was turning in the race.

Last, but certainly not least, Jo Schmaltz, Advisor to ENEX outlined an exciting new initiative called the Media Innovation Exchange which looks to pair the very best and latest technologies with ENEX’s own technical experts. So much of news production and innovation is today led by technology and the sector changes rapidly.

This new programme will allow technology mangers and newsroom directors to make sense of which trends and technologies are taking hold and how they can help them improve their output and achieve more effective workflows. Two ‘taster sessions’ were included with Jeff Kofman, CEO and Founder of Trint and Mansoor Ahmed, CEO of Open Origins.

An ENEX meeting could not wrap up without ENEX itself bringing its membership up to date with ENEX’s own company news and future plans. 

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ENEX is gearing-up to cover Pope visiting the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 26 September 2024

The Pope will be visiting the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 26 September 2024 and ENEX is gearing-up to cover the event.  His Holiness Pope Francis, who will turn 88 in December, will be greeted at Findel Airport by His Royal Highness Grand Duke Henri, Her Highness Maria Teresa and Prime Minister Luc Frieden. During his visit Pope Francis will meet with the national authorities and civil society representatives at the Cercle Cite in the centre of the city where he will deliver a speech.  He will also meet members of the Catholic community at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.  A tour of the city centre will follow in the Pope-Mobile. A full schedule of the event is included below. ENEX will be rebroadcasting all parts of the visit that are allowed to be covered live and supplying satellite services.  Nicoletta Pispisa, Head of ENEX Special Events said: ‘’We’ve never had a Papal visit to Luxembourg in my time at ENEX and there is always a lot of interest, particularly from our Latin American partners, in the Pope’s overseas events.’’

Full Schedule 26 September 2024: 

08:00 GMT: Arrival of the Pope at the Luxembourg Airport 

09:00 GMT:  Interview with the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess and the Pope

10:00 GMT: Meeting with civil society at Cercle Cité

10:45 – 11:15 GMT:  Pope-Mobile goes through the centre of Luxembourg City

14:30 GMT: Meeting of the Catholic community in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg

16:00 GMT:  Departure of the Pope from Luxembourg Airport

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Digital and media companies launch Europe’s first online marketplace for digital audio and podcasts.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), in collaboration with prominent digital and media entities, has launched the European Audio Data Space (EAD) project. The project aims to develop the continent’s first online marketplace platform for the exchange and commercialisation of digital audio content and podcasts powered by artificial intelligence.

Accessible in multiple European languages, the platform will strive to revolutionise the audio content industry across Europe, fostering collaboration, innovation, and the exchange of high-quality, trustworthy content among producers and consumers.

“This ambitious project aims to address a significant gap in the industry: podcasters and digital audio producers are reaching a growing audience of tens of millions of listeners across Europe, yet they lack tools to collaborate and effectively monetise their content” says Christine Buhagiar, AFP’s Regional Director for Europe.

The EAD initiative seeks to tackle key challenges faced by the European podcast landscape, including the difficulty of purchasing and selling trustworthy content among producers, the uncertainties surrounding metadata and sources, the limited international reach of locally produced podcast series, and the growing threat of misinformation spreading through audio content.

The project is co-funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG Connect), with a grant exceeding 1.3 million euros. A first online version of this B2B marketplace will be released around mid-2025.

The consortium behind the initiative includes Agence France-Presse (France), Dawex (France), ENEX (Luxembourg), Europod (Belgium), Agora Media (Poland), a prominent private radio group, the news agency EFE (Spain), and Wake Word (Germany), which will develop a recommendation tool.

Dawex, a leading technology company specialising in data exchange, will manage the technical setup of the EAD platform, creating a trusted digital environment for audio content producers. “Trust is at the heart of the world of culture and information. Traceability, compliance and security are essential pillars to create trust in the exchange of audio content and their information” says Laurent Lafaye, co-CEO at Dawex. “We are delighted to bring Dawex technology to the European Audio Data Space, to create a trusted digital environment for all audio content producers in Europe.”

ENEX, an association representing commercial TV broadcasters across 25 European countries, will conduct workshops, surveys, and preparatory activities to support the platform’s development. “Audio is booming and ENEX is excited to work across European borders to create a new audio focused resource destination for producers and consumers”, says Adrian Wells, ENEX Managing Director.

Europod, a Brussels-based podcast agency dedicated to delivering high-quality podcasts in multiple languages, will promote the EAD project within the podcast industry and facilitate connections with other relevant projects. “Rooted in European values, this project focuses on cross-border collaboration and innovation, respecting the interests of all participants in the current podcast market, from independents to established producers and the media. Europod is delighted to be associated with EAD”, says Antoine Lheureux, CEO and founder of Europod.

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Simon Hof Appointed as New Chairman of the ENEX Board of Directors

Simon Hof, Director of Journalistic Services RTL NEWS Germany has replaced Sonja Schwetje as Chairman of the ENEX Board of Directors. Under Sonja’s tenure, ENEX celebrated its 30-year anniversary with its annual General Assembly held in Luxembourg in October 2023.  

As she steps down effective January 1st,  Simon takes the organization forward with the implementation of a strategic review of its operations that was completed over the last 12 months.  New editorial partners have been added to the group and ENEX’s commercial activities amplified.

On joining as Chairman Simon Hof said: “ENEX is a matter close to my heart. I am very much looking forward to the new task and am grateful for the trust placed in me.”

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Partnership agreement with DELFI, a leading digital publisher in the Baltic states

Enex has signed a new partnership agreement with DELFI, a leading digital publisher in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  The Baltic States have been a long-standing target for Enex expansion.

Enex is now represented in 26 of the EU’s 27 member states with only Malta remaining as a missing component. DELFI operates in each of the Baltic languages and with an accompanying Russian language service.

Enex members exchange news content across the group and receive additional news content from the news provider’s newsroom in RTL City Luxembourg.  

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