What Keeps Newspaper.com Execs Awake at Night?

By: Carl Sullivan What keeps newspaper.com executives awake at night?

Staying relevant in a world where media is increasingly fragmented and users have multiple choices for information, said Hilary A. Schneider, president and CEO of Knight Ridder Digital in San Jose, Calif. She was responding to a question posed Wednesday to a panel of executives at the Newspaper Association of America's Connections conference.

Schneider said she also worries about managing inter-company turf battles so that they don't distract the organization from its ultimate goals. Schneider won knowing laughter from the audience when she said her job is not unlike the experience of driving down the road with her three sons in the backseat. Inevitably, the trip is punctuated with disputes along the lines of "his leg is on my side of the car." Sometimes, print and Web groups have to be reminded that they're all part of the same (hopefully happy) family.

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive CEO and Publisher Christopher Schroeder answered the "how do you sleep at night" question by modifying the words of former presidential candidate Bob Dole. After he lost the New Hampshire primary, Dole said he slept like a baby; he woke up every hour and cried.

Schroeder said he wakes up every hour and thinks -- about advertising inventory management, for one thing. As ad targeting becomes more sophisticated and more advertisers are drawn to the Web, publishers will have to become sophisticated air-traffic controllers, directing ads into the appropriate slots amid a crowded airspace.

The reliance on advertising brings up another issue near to Schroeder's heart: the spread of downloadable software that automatically strips advertising from Web sites. If more consumers (fed up with pop-ups and pop-unders) use this software, how will publishers respond, Schroeder asks.

Tribune Interactive President David D. Hiller said the recruitment battle with Monster.com occasionally deprives him of Z's. Another question that preys on his mind: What will the industry do about paid content?

New York Times Digital CEO Martin A. Nisenholtz is haunted by the question of scalability. What is the formula for growing his organization, he wonders.

Belo Interactive Vice President and General Manager Eric Christensen concurred. It's one thing to be a $30-million business, but quite another to become a $300-million group, he said.