PRINT NEWSPAPERS MAY BE GONE IN 10 YEARS, SAYS MEDIA MAGNATE

MELBOURNE, March 24 (Bernama) -- Printed newspapers could be gone in as
little as 10 years after evolving online news reports incorporate TV broadcasts,
magnate Kerry Stokes says.

The billionaire's comments at a business briefing in Perth came as
Stokes was promoting West Australian Newspaper Holdings Ltd's planned
A$4.085 billion acquisition of Seven Media Group, the Australian Associated
Press reported today.

Stokes is the chairman of both West Australian Newspaper and Seven Group
Holdings Ltd, the owner of Seven Media Group.

He said printed newspapers were a "sunset industry".

"How we actually transform into what is needed in the future, that's going
to be the challenge, and neither technology nor youth are going to wait for us
to find out what works," Stokes was quoted as saying.

"Part of that will be producing news both visually and written online,
instantly... somehow marrying our news services with social networks, which
deliver news as they (consumers) want and when they want."

Stokes said the days of easy profits in the newspaper business were gone.

This was illustrated by West Australian Newspaper's first half results which
fell short of analyst expectations and saw the company's share price sold down
despite improvements made in the past three years under Stokes' leadership.

"The Australian retail industry actually died in October when the last
interest rate (rise) came in and since then, it has been suffering.

"As a result, newspapers across the land have struggled with revenue.

"We know the golden days when papers could easily increase their profits by
increasing the cover price, increasing (advertising) rates - those days of easy
profits are gone."

Stokes said if West Australian Newspaper tried to recoup revenue by raising
the cover price by 10 cents, it would drive five percent of readers away.

"I'm not about to do that."