A Global Perspective: Take-Aways From The 22nd World Newspaper Advertising Conference

Newspaper executives and newspaper advertising experts gathered in Prague, Czech Republic on March 1st and 2nd 2012 to discuss how to protect and grow advertising revenues. They shared success stories and their projections for the future of newspapers. Here are some of the most interesting quotes from the two-day event.

“Most, if not all, of you will be seeing some growth in print advertising. It’s patchy, but we appear to be in a recovery mode. Some of you might not feel like that yet, but that’s the way things appear to be going.”

Eamonn Byrne, Managing Director, Byrne Partnership (UK) [seen Left]

“Don’t forget newsprint – it pays all our salaries. Just remember you have to grow beyond it as well.”

Peter M. Zollman, Founding Principal, AIM Group and Classified Intelligence (USA)

“We’re really investing in video. Video is the fastest growing segment for ad revenue in North America.”

Devin Slater, Art Director, Globe and Mail (Canada) 

“There is no one device winner that we should all focus on as publishers.

“No single device and no single front page. No front page can drive as much traffic as the users themselves through their own behaviour.”

Jakob Unger, Content Director, Centrum Holdings (Czech Republic)

“If you put all the print (titles and editions) together, we have about 67 million readers.

“We are there on print, online, radio. With so many verticals in hand, you become an agency. We have had some phenomenal results by taking all our verticals to a client. They all complement each other. We strongly believe in a 360-degree approach.”

Shailesh Gupta, Director Marketing, Jagran Prakashan (India)

“By adopting CPC [cost-per-click] you are losing revenue, you are losing brand-awareness campaigns, you are helping to distort your market. Please don’t do it, even if your inventory is not all sold.”

Peter Olás, Sales and Managing Director, ETarget SE (Slovakia)

“If you have the right content, the real art of making money online is [to] be able to sell that.”

Rob Patterson, Group Managing Director, Friday Media Group (UK)   

The 64th World Newspaper Congress and 19th World Editors Forum will take place on 2-6 September 2012 in Kiev.

Read more about the events in Kiev here.