Photos submitted Above: Kriss Johnson, a past president of the Kentucky Press Association and educational outreach manager for the Lexington Herald-Leader, addresses the World Newspaper Association conference in Amsterdam. Below: Johnson accepts the award for the Woody serialized story project which teaches children about U.S. history.

By Kriss Johnson
Educational Outreach Manager
The Lexington Herald-Leader

Leigh Anne Florence and I entered Kentucky’s statewide literacy project, sponsored by LG&E/Kentucky Utilities and the Kentucky Secretary of State’s Office and KPA, in the World Association of Newspapers “World Young Reader” contest and the next thing I knew, I was looking out our hotel window watching hundreds of bikes go by in the middle of a very flat Amsterdam, Netherlands. Really, there were hundreds of bikes with bells, brakes and baskets. I tried to imagine what my life would be like if I rode a bike in Kentucky and I laughed as I pictured myself trying to ride up the steep hill out of my neighborhood.

WAN awarded euros to help pay for my trip to Amsterdam to attend the WAN conferences: “The Digital Revenue Gold Mine,” “Shaping the Future of Newspapers” and “The Audience-Building Conference for Publishers, Editors, Marketeers and other Senior Executives.” I was there to get a road map to the future. It was very refreshing for me to attend a conference that wasn’t NIE based.

Presenters from multiple countries stressed online, digital, mobile and advertising trends. We were told that the next morning’s paper is just “old news” and journalists need to focus on online news writing and then write the newspaper with a second-day approach to the story.

It was exciting to be in a room of 200 people from all over the world - Slovenia, Egypt, Bahrain, Russia, Greece, France, Japan, just to name a few.

The presenters (who spoke in English) spent three days dishing out strategies on how to make newspapers profitable. By the end of the presentations the themes were the same: don’t worry about circulation numbers, focus on advertising revenue, enhance your products to what your audience wants, offer multi-platforms, offer new products constantly, diversify offerings in online and print. Get out of the box.

At the beginning of the conference a question was asked about selling subscriptions to the digital-formatted newspaper. We were told to forget about the boring, stagnant digital newspaper and not try to sell it or use it. “It’s a waste of time when readers can get all the news they need for free and in an updated format all day long.” “Another news site is just a FREE click away.” “The web alone can’t fix our business.”

I thought about how NIE programs all around the U.S. are being told to “do digital newspapers to schools or die.” I gave a big sigh. “E-edition doesn’t drive readers or revenue.” “It’s the NEWS NOT NEWSPAPER that brings in revenue.”

All that information made me squirm in my seat. We were told to focus on multi-media products to excite advertisers. Newspapers need to focus on online and mobile marketing. “Newspapers can’t be one “media” strategy.”

According to Caroline Little, a consultant to The Washington Post, the web staff should contribute to the newspaper design and not be too conservative. Also, encourage readers to contribute with photos and stories. “Readers come back when given a chance to participate,” she said.

The Washington Post offers 80 real-time blogs. All articles have a link to see what readers are saying. “Go where “non-traditional” readers might be,” Little said. She suggested Face Book and Twitter. Other ideas she offered included coupons on mobile phones and contests to bring readers back to the site.

The food at the hotel was interesting. One lunch buffet offered eel mousse in a little cup and there were lots of herring and salmon dishes. No, I didn’t try the eel mousse. Red and white wines were offered with lunch and dinner.

During the nine-hour flight home I pondered all I had heard. Changes are needed and some changes are here. Are journalists ready to write tomorrow’s newspaper as if it were yesterday’s news? Will the print newspaper accept not being number one in reporting the news and give way to online? And what about NIE? Students are already diversifying with their technology, but is the technology in schools new enough and are our teachers ready to integrate online news content, blogging, mobile coupons, contests, citizen journalism?

For many of us absorbing these new ideas and implementing them might be like trying to ride our bikes up a very steep hill.