(CP)
Thursday, May 8, 2008

TORONTO—Readers appreciate good content and always will pay for newspapers, but only the strongest brands will survive the decades ahead by adapting with the times and giving people what they want, Thomson Reuters deputy chairman Geoffrey Beattie said yesterday.
The newspaper industry needn’t worry about a future when readers demand free content because people value a good product and the relationship they build with a brand, Beattie told an audience at a joint conference of the Canadian Newspaper Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association.

“Everybody in the world doesn’t want everything for nothing,” Beattie said, adding readers will pay for the best brands of newspapers known for their reliability and integrity.
“By paying for something and getting something of value, you’re differentiating yourself and you’re forming a relationship.”
But only the best products helmed by forward-looking publishers will be able to weather tough economic times by finding the right way to present content to readers who are willing to pay for it, Beattie warned.
“I think at the end of the day we’re going to have less newspapers, I think we’re going to have more successful newspapers,” he said.
“I think the people who adapt and understand treating their customers the way they want to be treated are going to succeed.”
People always will want their newspaper at their doorstep in the morning, but they’ll also want access to the same content on their mobile devices and computers, he added.
Although industry observers often say the future of newspapers is threatened by dwindling readership and struggles to attract younger readers, Beattie said he believes the market for papers is still strong.
But the challenge for publishers is in finding a better way to package the news, he stressed.
“We haven’t come up with a way of presenting the content of a newspaper in a way that makes it attractive for people to pick it up and start reading it,” he admitted.
“I don’t think people’s appetite for expertized, editorialized, high-value added, interesting content . . . is actually going to decline.”
Editor’s note: Times owner/publisher Jim Cumming is attending this joint conference.