Strengthening India-China trade relations will foster newspapers’ growth, keynote speaker Pichai Chuensuksawadi told IfraIndia delegates today.

Chuensuksawadi, who is editor-in-chief of the Bangkok Post, contrasted the falling circulations of western newspapers with the booming sales of those in Asia. Discussing the interaction of print with other media platforms, he said it was important that newspapers understood their stand.

For the ‘Bangkok Post’ a ten-year journey had seen the publisher develop from a single newspaper to three newspapers and a venture into television.

The two-day event is being held at the Marriott Convention Centre in Pune, and opened with welcome messages came from P.G. Pawar, chairman of Sakaal Media Group, and Jacob Mathew, WAN-Ifra’s president and executive editor of the Malayala Manorama Group. “Good stories and story-telling will never go out of fashion and this will ensure that newspapers never die,” Mathew told delegates.

World Editors Forum president Erik Bjerager had a list of 17 top trends in journalism, while as the day continued, a recurring theme was how to how to make money from digital publishing.

Gehan Blok, who heads digital media at Sri Lanka’s Wijeya Newspapers, discussed the cross promotion of print and online advertising.  The country’s high mobile take-up – 19 million of its 22 million population – made text message alerts a good way of telling people about news and events… and earning revenue as well.

From India’s DB Corp, Gyan Gupta talked about media and platform convergence, led by customer choice., but he says, “it is the content which will get you results, not the medium.”

Pictured at the traditional lamp-lighting ceremony are chairman of Sakaal Media P.G Pawar, WAN-Ifra president Jacob Mathew, Bangkok Post editor-in-chief Pichai Chuensuksawadi, WAN-Ifra South Asia managing director Magdoom Mohamed, and WAN-Ifra deputy chief executive Thomas Jacob