Following the American Press Institute's release of its report Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond 'Newspaper Companies,' the World Association of Newspapers will host the first-ever Newspaper Next event outside North America at the end of its UK Study Tour 2008.

Newspaper Next's Managing Director, Steve Gray from the American Press Institute, will present a day-long strategy session during the study tour's seminar in London at news agency Reuters.

The day-long programme, to be held Friday, April 4, will give an overview of the Institute's groundbreaking research and testing of executable new business models for newspapers, with hopes that newspaper companies can take away a set of practical concepts, tools and processes to navigate to a new future, according to WAN study tour information.

The workshop will provide a framework for understanding the disruptive forces facing the newspaper industry, offer a new way to look at growth opportunities, explain a clear process for testing and assessing those opportunities, and provide a structure within which to apply that process to the critical growth areas of an organisation.

“If newspaper companies stay on their present path, the future is clear – the core business model will keep shrinking, along with circulation, advertising and profit margins. It's time to make the leap – a mental leap, a leap of vision and leadership – beyond newspaper companies, to a larger, more diverse kind of company,” said Gray, according to Newspaper Next.

For more information on the study tour, contact Martha L. Stone, director of the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, at mstone@wan.asso.fr.