Mr Pirker is CEO and president of Styria Medien, based in Graz, Austria. He hopes to encourage the association to focus on strategy development as the industry tackles the transition towards digital platforms.
"Not only do publishers need to adapt their strategies, but they also have to arm themselves and their staff with the proper infrastructure and tools to become a 'content company' in the future," said Mr Pirker.
The development of new technologies such as e-paper will means that convergence becomes critical for newspaper publishers, he said.
"Everything is pointing towards convergence and makes a nonsense of the question of if and how long newspapers will exist. Who's to say that the newspaper of the future will not have the look and feel of a TV?"
Ifra is an international trade organisation for the news publishing and technology industries, with 3,000 members in 70 countries.
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