A word of caution and a world view of the newspaper industry from the man, who heads the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA) and the stress was on the emerging trends in newspaper business.
At an interactive meeting at the Deccan Herald office on Wednesday, Earl J Wilkinson, executive director, Inma, warned the print media in India of the fast approaching digital storm. “One has to be prepared. Re-invent yourself; shift to multi-media. Be creative and invest more in advertising. Also, fulfil the need of consumers and advertisers. Newspapers should create a strategic framework for transforming into multi-media companies because the writing is on the wall,” said Earl. 
He said to keep up with the changing value chain in newspapers, it is better to target a niche audience and create a product to serve a tightly defined audience.
Speaking about latest trends, he said “The shift now is from print to online newspapers. The gameplan is to go multi-media because even the advertisers have migrated to online newspapers.
Earl highlighted the space for “popular newspapers” which is not being tapped adequately anywhere in the world. “There is a lot of room for the popular newspapers to grow. Readers want something that they can forge a connection with,” he added.
 Regarding India, he said though the number of English-speaking Indians is on the rise and English newspapers garner half of
India’s press advertising, the sharpest rise in newspaper readership in the last three years has come from non-English newspapers.