Can’t wait until October for Ifra’s study tour (see link)? Don’t fancy the Rhine valley? Ifra still has an offer too good to refuse: Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the French Riviera sounds a great place to ‘Reconsider the future of the newspaper’ … and you can be there before the end of the month.

Organised by Ifra South West Europe, the fourth Summer University (June 29-July 1) is dedicated this year to the best practices and initiatives in the area of business models and new strategies; an opportunity to learn to take advantage of convergence and the dynamics of the web.

The idea is that you rethink your newspaper so that it will become a multimedia, multi-support and multi-platform news publishing brand and thus benefit from the dynamics of the web and convergence to better satisfy the expectations of the advertisers and audiences.

Contributing to the event are Ifra’s emerging digital platforms research manager Jochen Dieckow, Jonathan Halls of Talkshow Media (USA), Niklas Jonason of Citygate (Sweden), Madeline Finnerty from Finnerty International (USA), Terry Maguire of Mediterranean Media Center (France), Robert Picard, director of Jönköping International Business School’s media management and transformation centre (Sweden), Martin Schulte of Denkwerk Zukunft  Foundation for cultural renewal (Germany) and Fabio Viviani of ‘Il Secolo XIX’ (Italy).

Sounds promising? All you need – apart from the time – is the airfare to Nice and 2490 Euros (plus VAT). Just the thing (and just in time) to set off against 2009’s taxable profits!

Details from Sandrine Proton, phone +33.4.72770595.