US newspaper execs discuss industry future

May 29, 2009 04:15:33 PM

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Top US newspaper executives discussed the future of the troubled industry Thursday amid growing moves to begin charging for news on the Web.

The New York Times Co., Gannett, EW Scripps and Hearst Newspapers were among the two dozen newspaper publishers represented at the meeting, according to The Atlantic magazine and other press reports.

The US news agency the Associated Press reported that its chief executive, Tom Curley, also attended the discussions, which were held at a Chicago hotel.

John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, told Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab in a statement that the meeting was held under the auspices of the newspaper trade body.

"The group discussed business topics such as protection of intellectual property rights and approaches to the Congress and Administration to address these and other issues," Sturm said.

"With antitrust counsel present, the group listened to executives from companies representing various new models for obtaining value from newspaper content online," the NAA president added.

The meeting comes amid newspaper closures and bankruptcies and a debate among media analysts over whether readers will be willing to pay for news online after becoming accustomed for so many years to getting it for free.

Faced with a steady decline in print advertising revenue and circulation and weak online advertising growth, a number of US newspaper publishers appear ready to attempt charging for at least some of their content.

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday in an interview with his Fox Business Network that the days of free news online were "going to stop" and newspapers were going to have to start charging readers on the Internet.

"I believe newspapers will be selling subscriptions on the Web," he said. "You're going to have to pay for your favorite newspaper on the Web."

Murdoch announced this month that he planned to begin charging readers of the websites of News Corp. newspapers "within the next 12 months."

Murdoch's holdings include The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times of London, the Sun and The Australian, among others.

The Wall Street Journal online already requires a subscription fee for access to all of its content.

Murdoch also said the future of newspapers will be on digital devices, but it may be 10 to 15 years before readers go fully electronic.

"Some of the greatest electronics companies in the world are working on this very hard," he said. "I think it's two or three years away before they get introduced in a big way and then it will probably take 10 years or 15 years for the public to swing over."