Larry Kilman, WAN communications director, reports from Cape Town (bolds are mine):
World Association of Newspapers (WAN) President Gavin O’Reilly today dismissed the doomsayers predicting the death of newspapers, saying the industry had seldom been in a better position globally.
With circulations on the rise, a record number of paid-for titles in existence, capital investment in excess of $6-billion dollars last year, the aggressive marketing of brands and the launch of a plethora of brand extensions, the demise of newspapers had been greatly exaggerated.
“It’s too easy to be negative about newspapers and many commentators are profoundly bearish,” O’Reilly said.
He explained that many myths existed about the future of print, including the threat posed by the Internet.
These myths had “polluted” the international capital and equity markets, he said.
Armed with reams of data about the latest global trends, O’Reilly told delegates the WAN was planning a series of initiatives amounting to a “fight back” campaign aimed at setting the record straight.
O’Reilly said the suggestion that the internet was damaging newspapers was “unfounded”.
“The data suggests increased Internet usage tracks increased newspaper
usage.
There is an increase in total audience (if newspapers are linked to internet), proving yet again, in spite of what the doomsayers say, the complementary nature of print and online”.
Sceptics argued that the roll out of broadband was another threat to the future of newspapers, O’Reilly said, “but the data shows that in markets where broadband penetration is at its highest, newspaper penetration is also high”.
In fact, broadband’s conversion of the Internet into an audiovisual medium represented more of a threat to television than it did to newspapers, he argued.
O’Reilly said he was “not negative about online”, but believed the platform should be used to aggregate larger audiences rather than to cannibalise existing ones.
“Our only risk is inertia in our industry which leads to consumer apathy.”
You can agree or desagree with Mr. O’Reilly but what he says is what a president of the newspaper industry must say.
If you don’t believe in the future of this business, you’d better sell your paper and go home.
If you believe, say so.
