What’s projected for newspapers in 2013 and 2014? Growth! You read that right – according to several speakers at this year’s NAA (Newspaper Association of America) mediaXchange, the Newspaper Industry is due for an upturn, and much of it will result from new digital revenue initiatives.

According to a recent article on NetNewsCheck:

Newspapers need to ready their internal culture to make the shift from print to digital as part of the effort of finding new revenue sources, according to Deseret Digital’s Clark Gilbert and The Dallas Morning News’ Grant Moise, speaking at the NAA’s mediaXchange conference on Monday. “The nature of the transformation is fundamentally different around the business model for Web versus the business model for print,” Gilbert said.

Michael Depp | Papers Must Ready for New Rev Sources

Some of the digital initiatives discussed thus far at mediaXchange include:

• Native Advertising – i.e. Cleverly produced advertorials (sponsored content)
• Video – as a means of adding quality content for readers
• Social – to encourage audience engagement, in addition to audience development
• Network – a way to expand your digital reach (i.e. RealMatch’s TheJobNetwork for Recruitment Advertising)

Another article reporting from mediaXchange mentions that 2012 Newspaper circulation growth was fueled by digital subscriptions. It’s no longer a matter of whether or not to implement paywalls, but rather of how and when to do so. This article from BtoBOnline states:

Although advertising revenue slipped 6% last year, circulation revenue grew 5% and new revenue sources not tied to conventional advertising increased by 8%. Those sources included digital agency and marketing activities, e-commerce, event marketing and commercial delivery of products other than newspapers.

BtoBOnline | Newspaper Circulation Growth Fueled by Digital Subscriptions

With advertising revenue down, many newspapers are looking for new sources of revenue – and digital initiatives seem to be the answer.