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Rumours have long circulated that IFRA, the Germany-based news publishing association, and the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) would merge.

Journalism.co.uk has learned, according to several sources, that negotiations have now been finalised, and an official announcement is imminent.

WAN president Gavin O'Reilly - who is also group CEO for Independent News & Media - confirmed the merger in an interview with the Huffington Post's Faisal J. Abbas published on Friday June 19 .

Abbas reported: "O'Reilly revealed that the board of directors of WAN has just agreed to merge with IFRA, the other main news publishing association, which is based in Germany and has more than 3,000 members in about 70 countries.

"The decision was approved during a recent WAN board meeting held in Barcelona, and it is now up to the board of IFRA to finalise the deal. Once both sides have agreed... the merger is expected to take place as early as July 1, says O'Reilly."

IFRA and WAN did not wish to comment on the agreement at this time.

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Written by
Judith Townend

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