A Silicon Valley study tour next month complements a number of new WAN-Ifra initiatives aimed at helping members address AI challenges and opportunities.

A tour in San Francisco and Silicon Valley (January 27-31) will be followed by one  tour in Bengaluru, India on February 20-21.

The events are among announced several initiatives including forums and a new AI Academy learning platform.

Newly-recruited as strategic advisor, Ezra Eeman is to lead WAN-Ifra’s AI Community platform, intended for news media executives and content creators to network and share insights on AI in media. It will include a Slack channel, regular webinars featuring expert speakers, and case studies.

Eeman takes on this role alongside his position at Dutch Public Broadcasting (NPO), where he is director of strategy and innovation. WAN-Ifra chief executive Vincent Peyrègne described Eeman as a “driving force” in the digital transformation of the media industry for more than a decade. “His leadership in numerous innovation projects has boosted digital capabilities and audience engagement,” he said. “With expertise spanning AI applications in content creation, editorial workflows, and newsroom automation, he has established himself as a thought leader in leveraging AI to revolutionise media practices.

“With Ezra’s expertise, WAN-Ifra is excited to assist its members in harnessing AI for innovation and growth, ensuring they remain at the forefront of this rapidly changing environment.”

Regional and international AI forums have already been held in Bengaluru, Jakarta, Madrid and Paris, with upcoming events in Frankfurt and Mexico City, and the new AI Academy will offer self-paced online modules focussed on newsroom AI applications.

Ongoing projects include the Newsroom AI Catalyst Accelerator – a programme training 128 newsrooms across Europe, APAC, Latin America and South Asia in collaboration with OpenAI – and the Data Science Expert Group, an international community of more than 400 data analysts, scientists and engineers.

Eeman will chair an advisory board driving strategic AI initiatives, with members including Jane Barrett (Reuters, UK), Fergus Bell (Fathm, UK), Jessica Davis (Gannett Media/USA Today, USA), David Dieudonné (Ouest-France, France), José Gutiérrez Cuellar (PRISA, Spain), Fabian Heckenberger (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany), Kasper Lindskow (JP/Politikens, Denmark), Juan Carlos Lopez Calvet (Schibsted, Norway) and Ingrid Verschuren (Dow Jones, Spain).

For more information, please contact Giselle Ho, giselle.ho@wan-ifra.org