Web3 applications for news media: call for expression of interest

A collaborative project bringing together local and international news publishers and technologists, the pilot will start in September 2022. It will test practical applications of decentralised technologies for the publishing industry. WAN-IFRA members interested in participating in the project are invited to contact Stephen Fozard, Project Director Global Alliance for Media Innovation, at stephen.fozard@wan-ifra.org.

“We’ll consider a variety of things ranging from what a newsstand for metaverses might look like, to whether decentralised finance has a role in our future,” said Tomchak. “The overall aim is to develop a blueprint for how Web3 technologies could be used to help sustain the diverse, trusted, vibrant publishing ecosystem audiences demand and which underpin open and liberal societies,” explained Tomchak.

Web2 has become closely associated with centralised social networks and centralised database providers. Will the promise of decentralised applications implied in Web3 do a better job than the current set of principles of Web2? Will it improve the technologies and behaviours we’ve come to know as Web2? Will it result in a meaningful shift in power back to individuals and communities? Ultimately, will it improve the user experience and the web for all? These are some of the key questions that this pilot aims to help put into perspective.

Amongst other important trends in the industry, Web3 will be one of the many topics on the World News Media Congress programme to be held in Zaragoza from 28 – 30 September 2022.

Stephen Fozard, Project Director, Global Alliance for Media Innovation (GAMI) concluded: "It isn’t easy to evaluate how big an innovation Web3 can be and under what conditions it will keep its promises. But these crucial questions cannot be overlooked by the international news publishing community, and it is critical that we understand, today, the implications of Web3 for publishers in the future".

About WAN-IFRA’s Global Alliance for Media Innovation. With its Global Alliance for Media Innovation (GAMI), WAN-IFRA provides its members with new ideas and applied research by bringing the outside in, looking beyond what is already known. GAMI tracks, sources, and shares these strategic resources to benefit technology entrepreneurs and news organisations. Our mission is to share the benefits and results of applied research and radical innovation efforts in the works with growth potential for the news media industry and to help advance those projects and innovations to the market. wan-ifra.org

About David Tomchak. David Tomchak is an award-winning journalist, editor and technology leader. He is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. He was previously Head of Digital and Innovation with the New Statesman where he led efforts to bring together exceptional journalism with data-centric digital transformation and accelerate the title’s growth. Prior to his appointment at the New Statesman, David spent three years at the Evening Standard as Digital Editor-in-Chief leading all digital editorial content and journalism across platforms. David’s career started in application development in the financial sector before shifting to journalism where he has worked at a variety of publishers and broadcasters, including 10 years with the BBC.