manroland, a leading global printing systems manufacturer and market leader in newspaper printing systems, has renewed its commitment to the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project of the World Association of Newspapers.

　　manroland, which has been a strategic business partner in the project since 1999, has decided to again make a significant four-year investment in the SFN project, which identifies, analyses and publicises all important strategic and operational breakthroughs and opportunities that can benefit newspapers all over the world. "manroland has long been a core member of the SFN project and its contribution goes far beyond financial support. The company’s visionary outlook for the future of print, its creativity and constant innovation, are invaluable to the project and to newspapers everywhere,” said the CEO of WAN, Timothy Balding. “As print newspaper sales continue to grow in dozens of nations across the world, it is essential to keep our focus on original solutions and strategies and manroland is very well placed to help us do that”.

　　Gerd Finkbeiner, the Chairman of manroland, says: “manroland regards itself as a driving force in the SFN project. The project results help to safeguard the competitiveness of the newspaper in the multimedia world and convincingly demonstrate to the public how important the newspaper is. As a high-performance business partner to the printing industry, we see assisting print media to move forward as one of our main tasks”. The other SFN partners are: PubliGroupe, the Swiss-based international advertising and promotion group; Telenor, the leading Norwegian telecommunications, IT and media group; and Atex, the leading supplier of solutions and services for advertising, content management, circulation and online applications.

　　WAN is a leading provider of industry research and analysis through its SFN project produces an annual series of strategy reports on the latest breakthroughs and developments in the newspaper industry. The reports are available exclusively to WAN members, who also receive access to the SFN library of case studies and business ideas, and a wealth of other vital information for all those who need to follow press industry trends. More information is available at http://www.futureofthenewspaper.com.

　　The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups.

（Renewed the contract for a strong partnership on September 25, 2008, in Augsburg: Thomas Hauser, Vice President Marketing & Communications; Timothy Balding, CEO World Association of Newspapers; Peter Kuisle, Executive Vice President for Web Press Sales）