Joint efforts help spread the news in Asia

John Nery, editor-in-chief of Inquirer.net, a member of the Inquirer Group of Companies in the Philippines

A1. I think it's been very successful. When we started, there were only eight members, and now we have 21 members from 19 countries. The idea that the best perspective on Asia will come from Asia has been a driving force behind the expansion and success of the ANN.

A2. All members will have to figure out their own online, digital, mobile and social media strategies. The landscape will vary from country to country. You might have a place like Singapore, a very highly developed island, in contrast to the Philippines, which is a middle-developing economy spread across 7,000 islands. We have a website, which we will be relaunching ... and we are also working together on certain projects. We will have different components from different countries, but they will be packaged and presented as coming from one group.

A3. Some of us have been online for a long time. In the case of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, we have been online since 1997. We see ourselves as quite successful - we have a very large footprint in the Philippines and also among Filipinos living abroad. But the advertising money that comes (from online) is less than 10 percent of that made through print. That's one challenge that is common to other news organizations - disruption in the business model.

A4. Every time the annual board meeting is held, we sit down with either the president or the prime minister of the host country, allowing senior editors from the ANN to interact with them. In this case, on Wednesday we are meeting with Premier Li Keqiang. In this sense, this is a project on which we can collaborate. We all work together, we ask questions and so on, but we have our different takes and write different stories based on the group interview.

A5. Our role is really to provide information to enable people to make better informed decisions. If we define democratic logic as the consent of the governed, the role of media is to turn consent into informed consent. So, that's really our role. We labor under the assumption that the information provided helps different parties to reach a better understanding of the situation. It's not so much defusing tensions, but disseminating the correct updated information and analysis.

Ravindra Kumar, editor, The Statesman, India

A1. The idea of the ANN when it was formed was to report Asia from an Asian perspective, and I think we have succeeded in setting up a platform of shared content and perspectives among the members.

A2. This has been a challenge that has been discussed at the ANN board meetings for some time. One of the reasons why we proposed discussing the challenge is that our print content has been used in digital space. And cooperation between digital and print should be strengthened. Obviously, the advantage the print media has is credibility. If we expand our presence on social media, we will be able to meet the challenges. We are not talking about two competing media platforms. The challenges for print media is how to attract audiences, which social media has tried to take away.

A3. We call Asia a continent, but it has so many sub-regions, so there are different sets of challenges for different regions. But one of the things we can do is to find ways to enable ANN members to help solve challenges in a specific region. The ANN can make an effective contribution in this regard. The challenge also varies from country to country, but when you have a close network, you can share the problem, share the challenges and try to find specific solutions for your country or region.

A4. There are obvious areas of cooperation - for example when the Olympic Games are held in Asia. ANN members can now cooperate on diverse topics - from the environment to food, from culture to entertainment. One area in which we have cooperated very well is earthquakes. So the ANN is a platform for many positive things we can contribute to.

A5. Let us say, I am from India and you are from China. The role the ANN can play is to put the other person's views across to readers. For instance, my newspaper in India can put across Chinese views to the readers and your newspaper can cover Indian views for Chinese readers. I think readers can examine both sets of views, and in terms of journalism they can get both sides of the story.