Best one-liner of the conference so far came from Christian van Thillo, chief executive of the Belgian publishing group, De Persgroep: "The internet is great - everything is virtual except for the losses."
He also wisely pointed out in a World Newspaper Congress session about newspaper companies transforming themselves into multi-media businesses that there is "no such thing as one universal media strategy that works everywhere." However, it was clear from the contributions that some kind of single strategy is indeed emerging, and the keys appear to be expansion and diversification.
These watchwords, well practices, were mentioned by each speaker, including Tomas Brunegard, chief executive of Sweden's Stampen group, which has been transformed by acquisition from one main paper, Goteborgs-Posten, into a group with 25 local papers, websites and a printing group.
But that expansion has been supplemented by a new approach towards both readers and advertisers, becoming less product-based and much more customer-centric. A great example of this was explained by the Goteborgs-Posten president, Lars Rundblom.
Before the Rolling Stones performed at a concert in Gothenburg last August, the paper commissioned a profile of a typical fan and, on the basis of the result, approached two very different companies - a clothing store called Holmens and the car manufacturer BMW. It then convinced them that they should team up in a mixture of promotional, marketing and advertising activities. This evidently proved such a success that the companies have continued their relationship with each other and with the paper.
As for the paper itself, it published an LP-shaped supplement, 300,000 copies of which were given away with the paper with thousands more distributed in the streets. The paper benefited from ad revenue and publicity. Oh yes, and the Stones played to 56,000 people. Satisfaction all round.
Another senior executive with Stampen, Pelle Mattisson, also spoke at length about the way in which the group's papers have launched websites to appeal to communities of people interested in a single subject (even if briefly), such as parenting, gardening, weddings and football. His message: collaboration between users and publishers helps to create a very powerful media.
This approach was echoed in a contribution from Per Lyngby, managing director and editor-in-chief of a Danish paper, Nordjyske, based in north Jutland. He also spoke of the benefits of diversification and expansion in the face of what he called a gloomy downward sales trend for paid-for titles in his country.
Both he and Brunegard also opened eyes by pointing to the rapidly growing online advertising market in Scandinavia. They predict that online ad spend will exceed that of newsprint within a very short time span. Stampen is already achieving obtaining 15% of its revenue online.
