At Newspaper Association of America’s Marketing Conference in Orlando this week, lotsa talk about, well, newspapers, and the future. Brian Tierney, owner of Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com, added his two inimitable cents on the trouble facing the newspaper industry, picked up here by Peter: The goal is to attract new audiences online, and be realistic about print readership, which isn’t about young people. “We’re targeting women 35+...We’re being very, very tactical” with beach promotions, etc. Then, about newspaper industry’s self-flagellation, picked up by NAA’s blog here: “No other industry kicks itself in the rear end more than newspapers. Nobody else even comes close. TV and Radio would never do that. Newspapers magnify their own problems to their audience. We don’t talk about the good things. The conversion from print to online at newspapers is the envy of radio and TV. We need to talk about audience. It’s a real thing, not spin.”

Then, Media News Group CEO Dean Singleton also spoke (reported again by Peter), and thinks the newspaper industry can recover its footing, especially on Wall Street, where newspaper stocks have taken a brutal beating. Singleton hopes to see MNG getting 20 percent of its revenue from online, up from eight percent today. Since online has higher margins, he would expect online to account for half of the company’s operating cash flow...“We have to be very aggressive to get to 20 percent” for online, he said. “Especially since a lot of online is based on employment” and needs to become more diversified. Meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly, Sigleton thinks “wireless is the biggest opportunity in 20 years..Consumers pay for relevant information 24/7. It is tailor made for newspapers.”

Then, he talked about the image problem as well, picked up by NAA blog: “Giving ourselves a bad image is a problem. It’s part of our DNA, and readers don’t care what is going on in the newsroom. We over-report it. If we need to downsize newsrooms, we maybe should start with the media reporters.”