310 participants from 40 countries

Newspapers and the Young in a Mobile World

Delegates were welcomed to the 5th World Young Reader Conference by Seppo Kievari, Chairman of the Finnish Newspapers Association and President of Sanoma Corporation, Seok Hyun Hong, President of the World Association of Newspapers and Chairman and CEO of the Joong-Ang Ilbo of Korea, and Tuula Haatainen, Minister of Education in Finland.

All talked about the important role newspapers have in educating the young.

"In Finland, we have had 40 years of cooperation between schools and newspapers. As a newspaperman, I am very sure this cooperation has been good for newspapers, and good for young people too," said Mr Kievari.

Dr Hong focused on the challenges and opportunities open to newspapers in reaching young readers: "Newspapers are at the forefront of disseminating information through a wide variety of media, from internet sites to mobile telephones to the ever more present free sheets and, as you will hear during this conference, there is evidence that not only are these media attractive to young readers, but they may also be attracting young people to the paper product itself."

Ms Haatainen pointed out that newspapers provide opportunities for young people: "Young people have the opportunity to develop their ability to read, to think critically and to learn about their world. It’s all about how people grow to understand the world around them and their role in that world."

American Newspaper Awarded World Young Reader Prize

The World Association of Newspapers awarded its World Young Reader Prize to the Daytona Beach News-Journal for a project that offered free home delivery of newspapers to nearly 1,500 lower-income students and provided curriculum support to encourage life-long readership.

During a ceremony at the Young Reader Conference,, WAN also awarded special commendations to O Dia of Brazil and to Independent Newspapers in New Zealand for their projects aimed at developing young readership.

WAN honoured the Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida for "Families and the News", a 9-month programme in which newspapers were delivered daily to the homes of students from 24 lower income elementary schools. NIE grant funds paid for the deliveries, which went to students of 149 teachers who participated in the programme.

A description of the winning project can be found by clicking here.

The Hope and the Hype About Young Readers in a Mobile World

Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia Mobile Phones, Finland

Mr Vanjoki sees a future in which wireless telephones become a major media channel.

He calls them "media terminals" and foresees them as a trusted personal device and a life-enrichment tool. "It’s not just for holding to your ear and speaking into it," he says. "It’s very much a media terminal where you are looking at it and where you are creating and receiving text and interacting with people."

The world will be e-enabled and mobilised, he says. Everything that can be digitalised will be digitalised. It’s all about "digitalisation, convergence, globalisation, socialisation and virtualisation," he says.

And young people will be the engine of this transformation - in fact, they already are.

"Older people use mobile phones for efficiency. Have you ever heard a young person talk about efficiency? It’s not their concept," said Mr Vanjoki. "For young people, it is more about excitement and fun. They develop incredible uses for these devices. They play with them."

Attracting Young Readers: The "Most Vital" Project for Newspapers

Jim Chisholm, Director of the WAN Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Project

Mr Chisholm started his presentation with a confession: when he began his research into attracting and retaining young readers, he was sceptical about its value.

That quickly changed. "I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything so wrong in all my life," he says. "It is probably the most vital project we have for us today."

Mr Chisholm presented the results of his research, which were published in "Attracting and Retaining Young Readers," a recent strategy report from the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, which was created by WAN and its strategic business partners to identify and analyse all important breakthroughs and opportunities that could benefit the future of newspapers all over the world.

"It is a fact that newspapers make young people better citizens and better readers. It is a fact that young people secure circulation for the future. And it is a fact that young reader programmes can deliver profitability by themselves," he says.

"Without a concerted programme to attract young readers, many newspapers are going to die," he says.

Mr Chisholm presented research to support these facts and made a compelling argument for why young people need newspapers. He then presented several successful initiatives and examined the benefits of producing news for new media, particularly mobile telephones.

For more on the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper project, consult www.futureofthenewspaper.com.

Lessons from the Free Dailies

Eivind Thomsen, Vice President, Schibsted, Norway

For those who say that the new free newspapers are "cannibalising" the newspaper industry, Mr Thomsen has an answer: "we think this is a way to make young people build reading habits."

Schibsted, which publishes the free commuter daily "20 Minutes" in seven European cities, believes that publishers must approach young people on their own terms. "If we want to reach young people, we have to reach them as they want us to reach them," says Mr Thomsen.

That means providing information via internet and mobile devices, but it also means providing a paper product that, in the Schibsted vision, is reliable, quick and easy to read and provides a mix of news, particularly local, and lots of useful information.

The formula appears to be working. In all the markets where 20 Minutes exists - Zurich, Bern and Basel in Switzerland, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville in Spain, and Paris - the paper is at or near the top in readership, particulary among young people.

"We believe we have found one way to try to start to establish readership for a young audience," says Mr Thomsen.

The French Touch in America

Jean-François Mignon, Play Bac Presse, USA

The giant American news agency Associated Press is taking a lesson from across the Atlantic to help its member newspapers reach young readers.

The AP has teamed up with Play Bac Presse to transfer to America a winning model that has 200,000 French children subscribing to a daily newspaper written just for them.

Play Bac produces four age-specific dailies for children: for 4- to 7-year olds, 8- to 10-year old, 11- to 13-year olds, and 14- and 16-year olds.

Though a license agreement, Play Bac will bring its know-how in editorial content, research, direct marketing, advertising and events creations to the project, while The AP brings its member network and journalistic excellence to produce the newspaper, transmit it electronically and sell it to its member papers, starting with 15 US metro newspapers to launch the project.

Mr Mignon’s presentation examined 10 key points for the French success, and examined how this will be transferred to the US market.

A Brand New Planet

Mary-Deane Shears, Managing Editor, The Toronto Star, Canada

Why would the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper, launch a new weekly newspaper for youth when research shows that readership among young people is declining to record lows?

"I can’t think of anything more important to the future of newspapers than to engage kids," says Ms Shears. "Surely, if they read us when they are young, we will become an integral part of their adult lives. And we also saw an opportunity to get new advertising dollars. New advertisers and new dollars."

In fact, Canadian advertisers say the range of options to reach a young audience in the country was limited. The Star saw this as an opportunity. Brand New Planet was launched in January, targeted to the "tween" audience - the 9- to 14-year-olds who are savvy, trendy, have money to spend, influence parental purchases and can be encouraged to develop a life-long reading habit.

To reach this audience, a newspaper "will live or die on its content," says Ms Shears.

"While fun and verve are essential planks in the Planet’s platform, it doesn’t shy away from the serious stuff," says Ms Shears. Her presentation cited specific successful stories to illustrate the approach.

Since the January launch, home deliveries have reached 15,000 copies, with an additional 50,000 copies distributed in schools.