Riyadh - KUNA
Sessions of the ongoing IV News Agencies World Congress (IV-NAWC) continued in Riyadh on Tuesday with the participation of KUNA Board Chairman and Director-General Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah as well as world news agencies and senior officials in the IT and communication fields. The participants discussed the concept of "new market products and services. " The discussions focused on making use of the latest technologies and communication networks to promoting news, reacting to incoming news, monitoring the public's reaction and developing the products that might serve the users of social networks. Among the speakers, President and CEO of Agency France-Press Emmanuel Hoog who stressed the importance of diversifying news sources, using modern technologies, expanding the awareness and capabilities of news agencies' journalists, in addition to promoting news products and services. In his paper, President of the Spanish news Agency EFE Jose Antonio Vera spoke on the crisis of traditional media, the low revenues of newspapers and online commercial advertising. He also spoke about the impact of the economic crisis on media outlets. The sessions also highlighted the idea of "search for change", where news agencies should strive to find various means of expanding their business, especially, through focusing on providing video clips on their websites and taking advantage of the widely used social networks