Association Leader Says Newspapers Are Here to Stay

Speaking at the Internationals Advertising Association's 39th World Congress in Beijing,WAN VP Gavin O'Reilly said, "The Newspaper is the new mass-market medium." Claiming newspapers provide a steady environment in the face of fragmented and declining television viewership, O'Reilly said, "Remember that an advertiser's agenda is very, very simple - they want rock-steady reach, reliable demographics and do not want to pay a premium for a dwindling, haphazard audience."

Perhaps O'Reilly hasn't notice the decline in newspaper readership.

He went on to say that newspapers can consistently reach the elusive customer and discounted claims that the young have eschewed the medium for the Internet and other mediums. "Even if we exclude India and China as obvious growth markets, the trend for newspapers in Europe, Canada, the United States and Australasia is significantly better than most media experts would have you believe."

O'Reilly continued, "Gone are the days when editors say: 'publish and be damned'. Today's editors are acutely commercial, inventive, creative and ever-responsive to new products development and change." That would be why there have bee so many failed attempts at launching "youth-targeted" newspapers, right? Of course, being the CEO of the $2 billion, family-owned Independent News & Media, publisher of 165 newspapers, explains O'Reilly's enthusiasm for the medium.