Global news agency network
MINDS International has been officially founded as a registered society in September 2007, following an earlier European Union co-funded project. MINDS is a non-profit organization, aimed to support the global digitization of media and the development of innovative media services that are relevant for the public. MINDS is acting as a think tank, bringing together most of the world’s commercially focused news agencies to share business development ideas, technology and to debate news and media trends. With the expertise of hundreds of news agency executives from all over the world, our members get access to valuable know-how and innovative products for their clients. Besides exclusive research for our members, MINDS coordinates joint activities within the network and beyond.
The MINDS Manifesto
Nearly two decades after the founding of MINDS International, the newly published Manifesto reaffirms the core values and strategic benefits of our organization. Symbolically “signed in blood” by the attendees of the 37th MINDS Conference in Berlin in October last year, the document captures the spirit and commitment that define MINDS today.
MINDS has grown into the most influential alliance of news agencies worldwide, effectively serving as an outsourced business development unit for its members. With a strong commercial focus, our collaboration spans key areas such as editorial innovation and technological advancement. Our mission is to develop forward-looking services that meet the evolving needs of digital audiences and new media enterprises.
The network is driven by senior leaders – including agency CEOs, editors-in-chief, business and technology directors, strategists, and digital experts – who bring deep insight and vision to every initiative. Over the years, MINDS has evolved into a unique and trusted community of open-minded colleagues and friends. It stands today as a genuine success story – built on expertise, mutual trust, and the distinctive MINDS spirit.
Objectives and tasks
MINDS regularly cross-link senior managers from all business areas of its member agencies – including Chief Executives and Managing Directors, Editors-in-Chief, Commercial and Technology Directors, Heads of Strategy and Business Development. The MINDS Conferences provide a most efficient way to stay in contact with leading agencies on an executive level. During the Conferences participants are developing new ideas altogether, discussing strategies and services for the future of media. It is about learning from each other’s ideas and experiences, using existing knowledge from media experts from all over the world and making use of new business opportunities.
Value of MINDS
We see MINDS as an open platform for agency managers in order to share ideas and experiences related to the digital media business. We are joining our forces for supporting the media transition to digital on a global scale. MINDS is about a collaboration among the most successful news agencies in the world. We are supporting our members in being most efficient and finally more successful by providing them with new ideas and impulses. The real value of MINDS is not just its own staff, but the entire network with all the knowledge available at MINDS members from all over the world. With all partners contributing and sharing we are able to multiply knowledge substantially.
MINDS Global Spotlight – A new initiative on human trafficking
News agencies from 10 countries have joined in a special news investigation into migrant smuggling in the wake of the refugee crisis sweeping Europe and the continuing troubles throughout the Asia Pacific and the US. The social and economic impact of migrant smuggling has been well documented. This first Global Spotlight, under the auspices of news business intelligence network MINDS International, exposes criminal networks preying on vulnerable families dislodged from their homes through war, persecution and poverty.
The comprehensive body of work some six months in development, includes an in-depth analysis of migrant smuggling’s root causes, travel patterns and the social impact in the world’s smuggling hotspots. Correspondents covered the story from where the problems occur. It gets face-to-face with smugglers, criminal gangs and victims to fully understand the desperation, the modus operandi and the scale of an ever-growing dark industry.
This is inspiring journalism from some of the world’s most trusted news organisations: Agence France Presse (AFP), Australian Associated Press (AAP), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), EFE, Austrian Presse-Agentur (APA), STT, LUSA, ANSA, CTK and SDA.
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