Mr Vidal-Folch was re-elected for a two-year term by the Board of WEF, meeting in Hamburg, Germany, during the annual World Editors Forum conference.
Before he agreed to run for a new term, Mr Vidal-Folch declared that he would accept only if he could serve a shorter period than the two-year traditional term of office. He will resign when he considers he can say "mission accomplished" regarding the WEF future and its sustainability as the “organisation of the editors-in-chief and senior news executives within WAN-IFRA”; or if he considers that his contribution to issues arising from the merger between WAN and IFRA last year is no longer substantial.
Mr Vidal-Folch has been Deputy Director of El Pais since 1989. He has been with the paper since 1982 and has served as Chief Editor and Brussels Bureau Chief.
Harald Stanghelle, the Political Editor of Aftenposten in Norway, was re-elected Vice President of WEF.
He has been Political Editor of Aftenposten since 2000. He previously served as News Editor of the paper and as Editor-in-Chief of Dagbladet.
Two editors became new members of the WEF Board: Ricardo Kirschbaum, Executive Editor of Clarin in Argentina, and François Dufour, Editor-in-chief of L'actu in France. A full list of WEF Board members can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/wef/board.php
The three-day World Editors Forum conference in Hamburg drew a record audience, claims the organisers, of nearly 600 chief editors from 86 countries. More on the conference can be found on the Editors Weblog.
