Hawke EU Centre Annual Lecture

After the Fall: content, context and co-creation after the decline of print media Wednesday 7 October 2015

With Ralf Blomqvist, Founding Partner, Main Dialog

Panel members: Misha Ketchell, Managing Editor of The Conversation and Tory Shepherd, Political Editor at The Advertiser

Podcast available HERE 

 What happens when customers disrupt an entire industry? Rapidly changing consumption habits are forcing newspaper companies across Europe to question business models, products and practises that kept them successful for decades.

Fuelled by a social media explosion and empowered by mobile technology, most consumers now face an abundance of choice in terms of news and media consumption. In a commoditised media landscape, where everybody can publish and distribute content, old notions of customer needs and the role of “news” need to give way for emerging thought models on co-creation and context-driven development.

As part of the Hawke EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations and Cultural Transformations Annual Lecture Series, Ralf Blomqvist will draw from his experience as senior advisor to several leading Nordic media companies to deliver a talk reflecting on recent developments in Northern Europe and depict a way forward for an industry that almost lost touch with its customers.

Professor Anthony Elliott, Executive Director of the Hawke EU centre will moderate the discussion.

This event is proudly sponsored by the European Union

Presented by the The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre and Hawke EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations and Cultural Transformations in partnership with the Hawke Research Institute.

Ralf Blomqvist

Ralf Blomqvist is founding partner at Main Dialog, a Swedish management consultancy focusing on customer strategy and communications development. He co-authored the first Nordic book on Relationship Marketing (Relationsmarknadsföring) in 1993 and has written several other books on customer relationships.

Misha Ketchell

Misha Ketchell is Managing Editor of The Conversation, a news and analysis site written by researchers and academics. He was previously editor of Crikey, founding editor of The Big Issue Australia, editor of The Melbourne Weekly and a reporter and feature writer on The Age. More recently he's worked as a researcher and producer on ABC TV's Media Watch, The 7:30 Report and online at The Drum.

Tory Shepherd

Tory Shepherd finished a thesis on UFO cults, which naturally led her to Canberra. She started at The Advertiser 10 years ago, reporting on crime, state politics and health before leaving to play at being the editor of national opinion site The Punch. The Tiser lured her back to become their political editor two and a half years ago, and she now splits her time between Radelaide and the nation's capital. Her main interests are science, religion, social justice and good food.

While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: strengthening our democracy - valuing our diversity - and building our future.

The copying and reproduction of any transcripts within the Hawke Centre public program is strictly forbidden without prior arrangements.