Among the many opportunities awaiting the printed press, there is one in particular that will transform the newspaper business, according to Michael Golden, publisher of the International Herald Tribune (IHT).

"This opportunity is to move much closer to our audience, to become much more customer-focused."

"For news organizations, this means we should be working harder than ever before to make sure that we are providing the content that these consumers want," he said. "We should be working harder than ever to give consumers a choice of which platform they prefer to read or view or listen to or log on to."

Golden told about the New York Times Company (owner of the IHT), which set out on a reader research project nine years ago. "On the basis of this research, The Times was able to define a group of loyalists who are committed readers of the paper as well as a group of like-minded non-readers who are good prospects to convert to readers," he said. "That research has become the basis for the newspaper’s plan to expand nationally."

Since the national expansion launch in 1998, the Times has seen significant gains. Golden’s presentation examined those gains and how The Times and the IHT have changed as a result of that research.

These include:
  expansion into other media, including cable television
  the addition of colour to the newspapers
  expansion of the IHT’s European and Asian coverage

"For four centuries, newspapers have played a critical role in joining communities together, in serving as a forum for exchanging information and ideas," said Mr Golden. "We should and we must maintain and build this relationship in the future. But in order to do so, we should spend more time finding out what our audience needs in this fast-changing world -- and what we can do to provide it to them. We should find out their news consumption habits. We should enhance our journalism and expand our footprints across platforms and geographies."