Internet 'holds the future'

2005-11-10 21:55

Madrid - Newspapers have no future without online and digital services, media executives heard at a World Association of Newspapers meeting in Madrid on Thursday.

"We are getting the whole organisation ready for a digital future," said Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at Guardian Newspapers, whose Guardian Unlimited site is by far the most popular British newspaper online site, ahead of The Sun, The Times and The Telegraph.

Within "six to seven years", the group planned to dedicate 80% of its time to digital activities, compared to 20% at present, Waldman told the conference, entitled "Beyond the Printed Word".

The Guardian's 15 internet sites, which became profitable this year and are funded almost solely from advertising, command similar numbers of readers in the United States and in Britain.

Meanwhile the internet arm of El Mundo (Elmundo.es), Spain's second-best selling daily in print, has the highest readership of all online European papers with 750 000 visitors a day, and is the most read title in the Spanish-speaking world.

A digital strategy dating back nearly 10 years has made the site "very profitable" since 2003, with a profit of €1.3m ($1.5m) in 2004, according to Elmundo.es director of development Emilio Plana Hidalgo.

"Digital revenue is serious business ... Online business is a growth business, while newspapers are not," echoed Helmar Hipp, regional director of Austria's Voralberger Nachrichten, which draws 15% of its revenue from the internet and related activities.

The two-day conference was jointly organised by the World Association of Newspapers, the IFRA publishing association and the International Federation of the Printed Press (IFPP).

- AFP