World Editors Forum

Some highlights from the Cape Town Conference:

Newspaper design guru Mario Garcia drew parallels between the advantages of web design for navigation of content and the direction newspapers should head in. "Online is where the action is...print is there to amplify. Social networks are the new cities;most news breaks very quickly on these networks." Good to know I wasn't alone in making that point. He also unveiled a new Poynter study of newspaper readership which suggested people read more deeply and for longer online.

A number of editors said integrating online and print operations had put the "fizz" back into their newsrooms. Jennifer Carroll of Gannett said: "It is waking up our newsrooms. We feel as if we're doing better journalism than ever."

Luis Fernando Santos of El Tiempo in Columbia talked of transforming a moribund newspaper into a multi million dollar media company by "trying everything". After being totally dependent on print ten years ago they are now in magazines, TV, internet portals, books and more. Anything that distriburtes the group's content.

Two important moves by the World Association of Newspapers: they protested about the UN Human Rights Council approving a resolution proposed by Pakistan which would justify censorship on the grounds of religious sensitivities. WAN called for international standards of freedom of expression to be upheld.

And they launched the Declaration of Table Mountain calling for free press throughout Africa.

First time at this conference - and for journalism, it's better than most.

(Btw, the weather closed in, and Robben Island was unreachable...)