"If you want to be in print in ten years you have got to have a very good Newspapers in Education programme," WAN-IFRA director of young reader programmes Aralynn McMane told participants at the 9th International Newsroom Summit in London.

Newspapers need to be on all platforms, she said, and to be there for 'life-stage firsts.' Getting children interested when they're young is important, as is trying to catch adolescents when they leave home.

Roxana Morduchowicz, director of media education for Argentina's Ministry of Education, described a project she has worked on with Clarin newspaper on Internet safety among children. The paper launched a series of supplements on how to supervise children's and adolescents' social networking, chatting and blogging activities. Following a marketing campaign, sales of the paper went up on the day that the supplement was released, and radio and TV programmes picked up the issue.

Marcelo Rech, general director for products at Brazil's RBS Group, attributed the group's flagship paper Zero Hora's growth to its "young spirit." He urged newspapers not to accept that they will lose readers to the web. "We decided we wanted to keep all the readers, especially the young ones. Don't give up on any of them."

Zero Hora believes that young subjects don't alienate older readers, so the paper has an overall young feel. One third of the newsroom is under thirty years old. It also has regular supplements for children and young people, on videos games or music for example, and has a kids' club that organises events for children, and gives them discounts. Writing contests reward children with published articles.

Rainer Esser, managing director of Die Zeit, said that young people are exposed to the brand "from cradle to student... We try to get them at every stage, and it works." Die Zeit publishes a bimonthly magazine for children, and provides Die Zeit and accompanying materials to high school teachers to use in the classroom. Die Zeit currently has the most subscribers it has ever had.