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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ENEX launched new AI assisted video distribution platform NEP

ENEX has launched its new AI assisted video distribution platform at a meeting of its partnership group at the European Parliament in Brussels.  The News Exchange Platform (NEP) is developed by BCE and is also being utilized by the European Broadcasting Union.

Read more
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European Parliament signs agreement with ENEX

Ahead of the European elections on 6-9 June, the European Parliament signed on Thursday a Memorandum of Understanding with ENEX.

ENEX represents 55 private TV outlets. The partnership will deepen the cooperation between the two sides to ensure broad coverage of the European elections.

With the Memorandum of Understanding, the European Parliament and ENEX seek to strengthen the collaboration between Parliament’s communication services and ENEX’s headquarters, to increase awareness and cooperation of each other’s services and to fosterdirect contacts.  

ENEX’s mission is to facilitate good and understandable journalism to enable its members to better report on EU affairs, so stories can be told and light shone on policy, debate and dialogue. The European Parliament frequently champions the importance of having free and balanced media to foster transparency and ensure the dissemination of important electoral information.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by European Parliament Vice-President Othmar Karas, Jaume Duch, Director-General for Communication and spokesperson of the European Parliament, and Adrian Wells, Managing Director for ENEX.

“These European elections come at a critical time for the world. The crises of the past few years, from COVID-19, to the war in Ukraine and the increased cost of living, among others, have raised citizens’ awareness and expectations of the impact of the European Union. It is more important than ever that citizens have access to reliable information, so that they can make informed decisions about their future, and fully engage with their democratic rights. As research shows that most European citizens get their news from television, our continued partnership with ENEX, underlined by this Memorandum of Understanding, helps us in the pursuit of this goal”, said European Parliament Vice-President Othmar Karas, ahead of the signature.

Background

ENEX is an association of leading commercial TV broadcasters founded in 1993 and based in Luxembourg. ENEX’s 55 members, of which 26 are from 24 EU countries, are drawn from across the world. The partners exchange daily their most relevant video news items and provide each other with the necessary production resources when there is breaking news or special events. The coordination centre in Luxembourg delivers every year more than 32 000 stories and 3 000 live sources.

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World Government Summit Dubai: The Future of Business Journalism

ENEX has participated in the World Government Summit in Dubai where many Presidents, Prime Ministers and tech leaders attended. Adrian Wells, Managing Director of ENEX, was part of a roundtable discussion organised and chaired by WAM, the national news agency of the UAE. 

Participants in the panel discussed how news agencies could better report the economy, technology and future trends. Mohamed Jalal Alrayssi, Director General of WAM, said that the media sector is seeing remarkable advancements in the tech sphere, with the emergence of new technologies in media work utilising artificial intelligence (AI) and data, which will shape the future of business media.

Senior officials from the UNA news agency, Federation of Arab News Agencies, Pakistani Press Foundation and the Bulgarian national news agency also took part.

In the wider conference, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, President Erdogan of Turkey gave keynote speeches along with an appearance from Tucker Carlson who spoke about his exclusive interview with President Putin in Moscow. 

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Celebrating 30 years of Enex

(Article by Oliver Fahlbusch / RTL Group) Enex celebrated 30 years of global collaboration during its latest General Assembly at RTL City in Luxembourg.

RTL City in Luxembourg – the birthplace of Enex – recently played host to a major event: Enex’s General Assembly. This year was particularly special as it marked Enex’s 30th anniversary, making it a significant milestone for the global news organisation. 89 delegates from across the globe attended the meeting to share knowledge and discuss a range of topics during the two-day event held on 12 and 13 October 2023. 

Adrian Wells, Enex’s Managing Director, set the stage for the General Assembly by reflecting on the company’s three-decade journey and the world events that have unfolded during that time. He emphasised Enex’s pride in its diverse membership and the importance of the network as the company’s key differentiator. Adrian’s introduction paved the way for Sonja Schwetje, Editor-in-Chief of NTV and Chair of the Enex Board, to begin with a powerful speech.  She highlighted the significance of press freedom, trust, and the diversity of opinions in the media industry.  

Another highlight of the two-day meeting was a donation to the Rory Peck Trust (RPT). Clothilde Redfern, Director of the RPT, and Tira Shubart, Chair of the RPT, presented the Trust’s mission, namely the support, safety and welfare of freelance journalists around the world. In celebration of Enex’s 30th anniversary, RTL Group made a donation of €10,000 to the Rory Peck Trust. This underscores the Group’s dedication to the cause of freelance journalists and the broader mission of responsible journalism.  

At the heart of the General Assembly was a series of informative sessions and thought-provoking speeches. Here are some highlights from the two-day programme: 

David Shukman’s insights on climate change 

David Shukman, a former BBC News Science Correspondent, delivered a captivating presentation titled ‘Reporting from the climate frontlines.’ His journey into climate reporting underscored the need to integrate environmental issues into all facets of news coverage. The audience was reminded of the importance of impactful storytelling to engage the public effectively. ”The environment should be integrated in all of our coverage as broadcasters,” said David Shukman. 

Addressing the digital revolution 

A session on ‘Digital Formats’ featured James Glynn, a former Twitter executive who has since joined the Enex team. The panel included representatives from various Enex member organisations, including Sophie Merle from Groupe M6, Wu Qian from SMG and Jonathan Paterson, Managing Editor at The News Movement. They explored how emerging social media platforms like TikTok are reshaping news delivery and discussed the challenge of monetising content in this digital landscape. “It should be digital first, but monetisation is a big issue!” said Sophie Merle. ”The future will tell us if TikTok will allow us to make money with these formats.” They confirmed that digital formats enable them to reach a younger audience. 

A peek into 5G 

‘Whatever happened to 5G?’ was another insightful session that delved into the status of 5G technology, its potential, and its adoption in various regions. The panel included experts such as Julio Cesar Pinho from Post Telecom, Michael Mossal from NTT, and Morten Brandstrup from TV2 Denmark, who highlighted the significance of 5G for broadcasting – alongside its current challenges. 

Insights from Israel 

Arad Nir, Head of Foreign News Desk and International Commentator from Israel’s Channel 12, joined the meeting via Zoom to discuss the brutal attacks on Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists. Channel 12 has broadcast 24/7 since the first Hamas raids on 7 October. Arad shared a television report and presentation to shed light on the complex situation in Israel, while attendees had the opportunity to ask challenging questions about the latest developments in the region and the Israeli operation to move into Gaza. 

AI in broadcasting 

A session on ‘AI Technologies’ hosted by Mark Evans, Enex’s Head of News, featured discussions on the role of artificial intelligence in the media industry. The panel included experts Frederic Fievez from BCE, Kristian Kim Eikeland, Co-founder of Mimir and Professor Charlie Beckett from the London School of Economics. 

Charles Goerens’ address 

Charles Goerens, a Luxembourgish politician and Member of the European Parliament, delivered a thought-provoking speech. He discussed the state of the European Union, addressing topics such as EU scepticism, the crisis in Ukraine, and the importance of media during challenging times. 

This year’s General Assembly was an invaluable event that not only celebrated the organisation’s 30 years of global cooperation, but also provided insights into the current state of the media industry. The wealth of knowledge shared and the connections made during these two days reinforced the collaborative spirit that defines Enex.

Check out our Instagram feed for detailed posts about each event: https://instagram.com/enexnews

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