Predictions of newspaper industry's decline a “profound mistake” - WAN president

“Virtually every brokerage report from the investment banks appears to support a new conventional wisdom that newspapers are soon to be some relic of the past, and that newspaper companies are not up for the challenge - or indeed, the many opportunities - that the digital world offers. What a profound mistake these commentators are making,” said WAN president Gavin O'Reilly, speaking during the World Newspaper Congress in Göteborg, Sweden.

“Big strategic issues and challenges”

“All of us in the industry know the big strategic issues and challenges at play in the fast evolving digital world - and, the really successful publishers are those who recognise and capitalise on the newspaper's relative position in the busy media matrix. Happily, that is the majority of publishers today,” he said.

“The fact is that newspapers are winning well in a world of heightened digital fragmentation,” he said. “In properly assessing the performance of newspapers, one needs to calmly analyse the underlying audience trends for our industry - the quantum of our readership and the quality demographic that we deliver, coupled with the incremental and growing audience that we garner from online - and the conclusion is that our industry is extremely well-positioned at weathering the storm that is media fragmentation, guaranteeing as we do sizeable, reliable and relatively stable audiences. “

Newspapers are a US$190 billion dollar industry globally, reaching 1.7 billion readers daily, said O'Reilly during a Congress session dedicated to Shaping the Future of the Newspaper.

Grow advertising by 17%

The industry is expected to grow its advertising by 17% over the next 5 years, or at a faster rate than the preceding five years, said O'Reilly, the group COO of Independent News & Media.

“Newspapers are a vibrant, relevant and commercial proposition for readers and advertisers alike. For investors, the investment in new technology and the delivery of new audiences produces an unrivalled cocktail of success: strong, definable demographics coupled with strong margins delivering consistent returns.”

The Congress, along with the World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2008, has drawn 1800 newspaper publishers, editors and other senior executives to Göteborg, Sweden. The conferences continue through Wednesday.

More on the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project can be found at www.futureofthenewspaper.com.

• The 61st World Newspaper Congress, 15th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo 2008, the global meetings of the world's press, run through until Wednesday, 4 June. For more, including summaries of presentations and other materials, go to www.wansweden2008.com.