Newspapers should take a lesson from consumer products and invest more in product and promotion, according to Brendan Hopkins, chief executive officer of Australia’s largest regional newspaper, radio and outdoor advertising group.

“Increasingly, it is product and promotional innovations where we must invest more to attract our time-starved audiences,” said Hopkins, who heads APN News & Media Ltd. “How many newspapers are investing more than 10 percent of their revenues on their product and promotion? Consumer products spend as much as 25 percent of net revenues.” Hopkins, who will be a featured speaker at the 57th World Newspaper Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, May 30-June 2, believes that newspapers are the most exciting sector of the global media market.

But to be successful, they must free up additional resources for marketing and promotion by controlling costs across all areas and restructuring traditional cost centers, he said.

“We must provide (consumers) with what they want or, better still, what they believe they want.

“Editorial content must excite and entertain, and be relevant, particularly to the younger end of our markets,” he said, adding that he describes newspapers as “the ultimate browser in our time-starved environment.”

In addition to Hopkins, other speakers at the World Newspaper Congress include Karen House, senior vice president, Dow Jones & Co. and global publisher of The Wall Street Journal; Lord Rothermere, chairman of The Daily Mail & General Trust; Pradeep Guha, president of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., publishers of The Times of India; and Donald Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Post Co.

The Congress will be held in conjunction with the 11th World Editors Forum and Info Services Expo. More than 1,000 publishers, chief editors, managing directors and other senior industry personnel are expected to attend the event, organized by WAN.

More information is available at www.wan-press.org.