RIDDER: ONLINE PRODUCTS WON'T KILL PRINT COUSINS

Good journalism, an eye on the bottom line and innovation are what will keep newspapers around 'long after you can I have cleaned out our last desk'

Frank Daniels III, founder and ex-president and publisher of Nando.Net, was quoted in Presstime as saying: "Newspapers are going to die." Tony Ridder has a much different view. Ridder, chairman and CEO of Knight-Ridder, sees an "extremely positive" newspaper outlook.

Ridder's sustained optimism comes with a clear understanding that newspapers aren't what they used to be - and more importantly, won't be in the future what they are today.

The advice he gave editors in a session called "The Future of Newspapers" not only included the necessity of change and new technologies, but also the understanding that quality journalism and business profitability must be achieved to sustain newspaper franchises.

Newspapers are "in the midst of profound change," Ridder said, adding, "this change can have a happy outcome." Contrary to Daniels' prediction, Ridder said newspapers will continue to inform and entertain readers "long after you and I have cleaned out our last desk." Still, the survival of newspapers won't be without a great deal of effort and possibly some pain, Ridder said. "From now on, change will be a constant for all of us." That change is also substantial. It is manifested from market conditions that have made the newspaper business significantly more challenging.

"The real challenge is that the world has changed," Ridder said. "There's a lot of change being imposed from without. To respond, considerable change must come from within. The people creating the paper need to talk with the people promoting and selling it. The people selling it need to read and comprehend what their colleagues have created.

"And everyone needs to understand the marketplace dynamics that bear on success or failure. This includes business fundamentals, competitive trends and technological threats and possibilities. Everyone needs to be thinking of new ways to generate revenue and everyone needs to listen to readers." Ridder stressed the significance of change as it affects the future of newspapers by saying: "If you cannot be interested in change, excited about the new technologies, intrigued by the marketing challenges and still devoted to the values we have always stood for, maybe you should find something else to do."

Technology is one key change affecting newspapers. "I foresee a larger and larger role for information providers, including newspapers, using online technology," Ridder said. "Online advances will change the shape and scope of newspapers rather dramatically. But it will not replace ink on paper. Instead it will capitalize increasingly on the advantages of cyberspace - timeliness, searchability, information storing.

"You have only to look at your own children to know how computer comfortable, e-mail proficient and online literate tomorrow's America is going to be. ... Will online newspapers have a financial impact on what we do today? Almost certainly. How great? I can't tell you." Newspapers' future, though, is equally dependent upon financial security.

"We have to be financially healthy," Ridder said. "Is that incompatible with all else we would like to accomplish? No, emphatically no!" Good journalism, according to Ridder, is an essential element of financial security.

To ensure quality journalism, Ridder said newspaper companies should make base level commitments, no matter what the economic climate, including "reasonable newshole boundaries below which they will not go."

Ridder's confidence in the future of newspapers comes from essentiality and being able to make a difference. "Newspapers exceed every other media in the range and comprehensiveness in what they offer, particularly local news," he said.

Newspapers, at their best, he said, are "protectors of the disadvantaged, forums for dialogue, setters of the community agenda, champions of diversity ... these are our values. These are things we don't, won't, can't overlook in the immutable onrush of change."

Ridder concluded by talking about the tradition and future of newspapers.

"We are caretakers of a great trust," he said. "We count in our communities. People care about what we do, and that's precious. ... creativity, passion and drive will remake newspapers into the next millennium. ... dedication to the values that brought us into these enterprises will ensure their credibility and power.

Irby is executive editor of Thomson Los Angeles News Group.