News International’s Future

The Guardian reports on a speech given by the chairman of News International, Les Hinton, at the World Newspaper Congress in Moscow. It gives some interesting insights into the future of newspapers.

On revenue generation:

Revenues at Times Online had risen 45% year on year. Revenues were being created by online activities and mobile phone games such as sudoku, quizzes and crosswords that could be sent to mobile phones.

On Platforms:

The Sun had three parts to its brand: “best Sun” was the printed newspaper; “more Sun” was the internet, which could add additional content; while “instant Sun” was the paper’s mobile operations.

On Video:

“We are going to launch in the Times a video menu option [on the Times website] which will be video of events,” Mr Hinton said… “In the long term text-based newspapers online are not going to be the answer. There has to be a merging of both.”

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Times turns to TV