A new trading system for newspapers?

Newspapers will evolve to a trading system that combines print and digital, Guy Zitter, MD of Mail Newspapers, told delegates at MediaTel Group’s Future of National Newspaper event yesterday morning.

Zitter (pictured) believes the trading process will evolve “quite quickly” because the industry “want solutions”. However, he said newspapers “needs to take it seriously… we have to find solutions to specific issues but also run whole brand solutions in parallel”.

News International’s commercial director Dominic Carter added: “It is still early days for newspapers in digital so none of us have the right trading model yet. Digital is still only a fraction of the amount of money compared to the traditional print model.

“We need to keep experimenting and make sure we give consumers what they want… turning it into a currency will take time. I don’t think it’s a good idea to silo – it’s about selling Times content to audiences as one, not selling platforms.”

Meanwhile, Vanessa Doyle, head of press & cinema at Initiative Media, urged the industry to “work together” and adopt a “unified approach” to move on from the traditional print model.

Carter said the whole industry wants to work more collaboratively and create partnerships in a bid to offer clients communication solutions across platforms. However, he explained that newspapers need be wise when it comes to facilitating technology in trading models to save time and be more efficient. “This will allow us to move more resource over to providing the solutions everyone wants,” he said.