Our old mate Roy Greenslade has come in for something of an pasting for his doom and gloom reporting from the World Association of Newspapers conference in Gothenberg last week. Greenslade was one of two Guardian reporters covering the gathering of editors and publishers, the other being my old colelague Stephen Brook, formerly of this pariosh, who is now assistant news editor on the grauniad's media section.

Rightly or wrongly, Greenslade is beginning to be seen as the self-appointed undertaker of newsprint. This, as he pointed out to our Future of Media summit, is rather unfair as he sees himself as simply reporting what he sees and hears.

And, in any case, while the WAN's Timothy Balding is right to say that more titles and readers are emerging year on year, there is plenty of data to suggest that in the developed markets (of which we are very much part) the prospects for print are not so rosy as in some of the newer markets where general strong economic growth and rising prosperity is funding new papers.

Being lovers of newspapers, we at Wired Scribe are hanging in for them al the way, but the latest ad revenue figures from the UK tell a pretty bleak tale Fine for online of course: a 39.5 per cent rise is good in anyone's books (temper that with a bit of Economics 101 - 40 per cent of very little is not that much more), the real number to fear is that the press, whioe still attracting the largest proportion of total ad spend, declined last year by 1.6 per cent.

Now read on...

Online and upwards in the West

And it's a big "hello" to WA Today, the long-heralded Fairfax spoiler aimed at taking advantage of the breakdown in communications between Paul Armstrong's West Australian and - well, just about everyone, but especially the Carpenter Government. As at the time of writing the site is not up yet, but I'll be keping an eye out and will try to bring some information and reaction to the venture as it appears.

The Oz flags a meeting between Fairfax execs and WA Governmen officials late last year which was convened to discuss: "news format, editorial stance and media mix along with advertising opportunities, promotional activity and other matters of interest". That and "unbiased news". Nothing unbiased about the WA Governmen's approach, then. Nothing unbiased about sending your goons into the newsroom at the drop of a hat to put pressure on the West's journalists either, Mr Carpenter.

WWRD (what would Rod do?)

Huge thanks and respect to the mighty Rod Peno, of News Digital, for his regular ImMEDIAtely newsletter, which goes out to a network of media pointy heads each week and is generally chockers with interesting links to all the latest yarns re new media.

In this short piece, Nikesh Arora, the chief of Google UK, told the World Editors' Forum that  paid-for news online would become a viable business model - and  don't we all thank heavens for that. I always love the way Google's talking heads seek to reassure the rest of the media community that they are NOT content creators. But then why take on the most expensive part of the equation when what you do is so lucrative and you are som dominant.

When he spoke to the future of Journalism conference last month, Karim Temsemani, who runs Google's operations in Australia, saidthe company had raised US$17 billion in ad revenue last year, $4.5bn of which it had shared with its partners (ie: the content creators).That's about 25 per cent by my calculations.

Blair shows flair

Just a quick note to congratulate my old mate Tim Blair (take a peek to the right of Attila theHun and you'll see Tim chatting with Margaret Thatcher, Milton Friedman and PIers Akerman) on defying the curse of the major league and seemingly translating a lot of his formidable online community from his personal blog to the news Ltd-moderated version over at the Daily Telegraph.

Make it simple, stupid!

More from the WAN conference where a poll of editors found 85 per cent  were optimistic about the future of newspapers. Let's overlook that this is like saying that a poll at the Synod found a majority think there is a god and examine the numbers - and the background - a little more closely.

George Brock (of The Times) tempered the enthusiasm by noting that the biggest challenge is getting down with the kids: "The challenge for us is the generation shift. Young people have new habits and they are not going to change," said Brock, reporting exclusively from the land of the Bleeding Obvious. "If we would deliver more depth it might raise their interest level. It's not only the content that needs to change but it's the way we deliver it as well."

I'm with John Zogby, who has identified the key issue as that of training in the newsroom. Far too many journalists are finding that - in an era of cash-strapped parent companies - there is simply no really comprehensive training program. Even in the mechanics of doing their job, reporters are expected to pay for - and find the time for - their own training. Only when skilling, reskilling and that vision thing are routinely addressed by the mainstream media organisations will our industry have the smarts to attract and keep the next generation of consumers.    

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