JOHN COOMBER

John Coomber is a career wire service journalist, having spent more than 30 years working for Australia's national news agency Australian Associated Press (AAP) in a variety of roles ranging from sports reporter to Editor. He spent 15 years as a foreign correspondent, much of it based in London, and five years as AAP's New Zealand and Pacific Correspondent, based in Wellington.

After a three-year posting as Chief London Correspondent in the late 1980s, he returned to Australia as AAP's National Correspondent, a senior writing position with a broad brief to cover the nation's most important issues. He was later appointed Deputy News Editor, and then was AAP's Editor for eight years. He stood down from that role in early 2004 to pursue his lifelong interest in sport.

He is now AAP's Senior Sports Writer. In his career John has covered six summer Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games and countless major tennis and golf tournaments. He has a special passion for cricket, and estimates he has spent almost two full years of his life on tour with the Australian cricket team in various parts of the Commonwealth. He also edited AAP's 550-page racing annual Class Racehorses.

PESI SIALE FONUA
Publisher, editor and co-owner of Vava'u Press Ltd, Tonga.

Pesi Fonua is a highly experienced and respected figure in the Pacific newspaper industry.

He was awarded Print Journalist of the Year in 1993 by the Pacific Islands News Association and was also a finalist in the Pacific Media Awards in 1992. He also became president of the Tonga News Association from 1991-99 and has served as Chairman of the Media Council of Tonga from 2003-04.

He won the first Tongan medal for military service in 1995 which was awarded to him by HM King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV for his service with South Pacific Peace Keeping Force in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and was awarded the King's Silver Jubilee medal for public service in 1995

In addition to his commitments as a senior editor and journalist, in 1999 he represented Tonga in The Olympic Distance Triathlon in the South Pacific Games in Guam. He has also penned several published short stories and pieces and a number of unpublished works including two novels.

Mr Fonua lives in Tonga and is married with three sons.

ALAN FARRELLY
General Manager, Newsource, Australia

News Limited executive Alan Farrelly will talk on the handsome profits to be made from selling your old text and pictures - and will offer a solution to all CPU newspapers without the resources to set up their own databases.

Alan is the General Manager of Newsource, the digital assets division of News Limited. He has held many senior editorial positions, including as Editor of The Australian on two occasions, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and Editor-in-Chief of the South China Morning Post.

PESI SIALE FONUA
Publisher, editor and co-owner of Vava'u Press Ltd, Tonga.

Pesi Fonua is a highly experienced and respected figure in the Pacific newspaper industry.

He was awarded Print Journalist of the Year in 1993 by the Pacific Islands News Association and was also a finalist in the Pacific Media Awards in 1992. He also became president of the Tonga News Association from 1991-99 and has served as Chairman of the Media Council of Tonga from 2003-04.

He won the first Tongan medal for military service in 1995 which was awarded to him by HM King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV for his service with South Pacific Peace Keeping Force in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and was awarded the King's Silver Jubilee medal for public service in 1995

In addition to his commitments as a senior editor and journalist, in 1999 he represented Tonga in The Olympic Distance Triathlon in the South Pacific Games in Guam. He has also penned several published short stories and pieces and a number of unpublished works including two novels.

Mr Fonua lives in Tonga and is married with three sons.

TONY GILLIES
Editor-in-Chief, Australian Associated Press, Sydney

Tony Gillies is editor-in-chief of Australian Associated Press, the country's national news agency.

He has held this position since January, 2004, having spent 25 years before that in newspaper publishing with Rural Press Limited, Fairfax and News Limited.

Mr Gillies served Rural Press Limited for 15 years in a number of group roles, including editorial trainer, group editor and publishing services manager for the company's 160 regional newspapers. He has also been a daily newspaper editor and manager.

While AAP has been a different and rewarding challenge for Mr Gillies, he remains closely linked to the progress of Australasia's newspapers through his position as the Editorial Advisory Group chairman of PANPA, the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association.

DAVID HENRY
Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Consultant Physician, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia

David A. Henry is professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle in Australia. He is a consultant physician and chairman of medical staff council at the Newcastle Mater Hospital.

He directs the World Health Organisation's Collaborating Centre for Training in Pharmacology and Rational Drug Use at the University of Newcastle. His research interests include evaluation of drugs, the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry, lay news reporting of new drugs, availability and affordability of drugs in developing countries.

JEREMY LAURANCE
Health Editor, The Independent, UK

Jeremy Laurance has been Health Editor of The Independent since 1997 and was previously Health Correspondent of The Times from 1991 to 1997.

He has also worked for the Sunday Times, Sunday Correspondent and written freelance for most national newspapers and many magazines. He has run seven courses in health reporting for local reporters in developing countries around the world - five for the Commonwealth Press Union and two for the British Council.

He was voted Health Journalist of the Year in 2004 in a poll of the 350 member UK Medical Journalist's Association.

THABO LESHILO
Editor-in-Chief, Sowetan and Sunday World, South Africa

Thabo Leshilo was appointed editor-in-chief of Sowetan and Sunday World at the end of August 2004. His primary mission was to revitalise and relaunch the daily Sowetan, which had been losing sales dramatically over the past few years. Sowetan has 1,5 million readers and Sunday World just over one million readers.

Leshilo joined the world of newspapers as a trainee journalist at the Argus Cadet School in 1989. He was voted the 1995 Sanlam (financial) journalist of the year in the small business category. He has also been the editor of Business Times, the business section of the Sunday Times, South Africa's biggest circulating newspaper with 3,5 million readers.

Leshilo previous positions include being the editor of Pretoria News as well as the assistant editor and night editor of Business Report, the business section of the Independent group's four premier publications - The Star, Pretoria News, Cape Times and the Natal Mercury. He lives in Johannesburg.

KEITH PERCH
Editor and Managing Director of Northcliffe Electronic Publishing, UK

Keith joined NEP as Regional Director in 2000, before becoming Editor in 2001 and MD and Editor in 2004. He is responsible for all of Northcliffe's newspaper websites. Editor of the Derby Evening Telegraph, 1997-2000, Editor of the South Wales Echo, Cardiff, for four years prior to that.

He was also responsible for the creation and launch of a number of national websites including www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk and www.adoption-net.co.uk.

Keith first joined Northcliffe as a trainee reporter at the Grimsby Evening Telegraph in 1978, before working on the Derby Evening Telegraph, Hull Daily Mail and Birmingham Evening Mail. He was also launch editor of UK News, the national news agency.

Aged 47, married with three children. Other interests include football and freedom of information.

TERRY QUINN
Editor-in-Chief, APN Regional Papers (Australian and NZ)

Terry Quinn has worked in the newspaper industry for 30 years. He has edited two metropolitan newspapers in the UK as well as the Daily Record, Scotland's biggest selling national newspaper.

He was editorial director of Thomson Regional Newspapers based in London and later moved to the US to become Senior Vice President for Readership of Thomson Newspapers, a group of 60 dailies in the US and Canada.

Prior to moving to APN in April this year, Terry was publisher of Fairfax Sundays in NZ which included two national Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of 320,000.

CAMPBELL REID
Editor,The Daily Telegraph Sydney, Australia

Campbell Reid joined News Limited in 1981.

He worked as reporter and feature writer at The Daily Telegraph until his appointment as chief-of-staff in February 1988. Later that year he moved to the US to head News Limited's New York bureau, which services all of the Australian group publications.

He took up assistant editorship of The Daily Telegraph upon his return to Australia in 1991, a position he held for six years.

In July 1997, he was appointed editor of The Australian.

Campbell is currently editor of The Daily Telegraph - he was appointed to this role in May 2001.

Campbell and wife Helen have three children - Morgan, Harrison & Imogen.

Mr Reid grew up in Rotorua, New Zealand and studied journalism at Auckland Technical Institute.

TONY YIANNI
Managing Director, Fiji Times, Fiji

Tony Yianni has been the Managing Director of Fiji Times since October 2001. For 12 of the past 15 years, Tony has held senior management positions with the two largest newspaper organisations in the Pacific Islands.

He has spent more than 28 years with News Limited starting with The Australian, PNG Post-Courier, Townsville Bulletin, North Queensland Newspapers, PNG Post-Courier and currently with Fiji Times. Fiji Times was established in September 1869. Fiji Times Online, www.fijitimes.com.fj was established in April 2004.

In September 2004, Kaila! was launched. It is the first weekly newspaper for high school children in the Pacific. Fiji Times also publishes two vernacular weeklies.