"What we're really competing for is the non-renewable resource that our readers have, and that is time. And it's slipping away to Facebook and the like. The question is, how does your journalism stand out? Where is your place among the many other outlets available?," says Raju Narisetti, managing editor of The Washington Post, speaking at WAN-IFRA's first America Latina conference in Bogota, Colombia.

More than 180 editors and publishers from around Latin America are gathered in Bogota for World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers' (WAN-IFRA) Latin America Conference.

Narisetti's presentation provided several approaches for increasing audiences in an increasingly fragmented media world. These included:

- Making the most of your unique content and brand. "The challenge is, how do you compete against The Huffington Post, that doesn't have 630 journalists, that doesn't have to cover traffic and snow? The answer is, you have to fall back on your brand, fall back on your content. Our brands are really strong - we have to capitalize on that."

- Adopting a growth strategy that uses new venues where your content can be found and taking advantage of search. This means investing in blogging and social media.

Stella Dawson, Reuters global editor for Treasury, told the World Editors Forum about how Reuters both provides newspapers with outsourcing solutions and runs its own off-shore operation.

"Outsourcing is not anything new" in the news industry, she said. For years, newspapers have been outsourcing production of some news to wires such as Reuters.

What Reuters has been doing recently, however, is trying to find "customised solutions," rather than just giving all newspapers the same selection of articles to choose from.

For example, the news agency works with the International Herald Tribune to provide the paper's business section. Rather than producing the section independently, "we developed a model whereby we would work together collaboratively throughout the day," Dawson explained. Dedicated editors help the IHT to get the stories that they want. Outsourcing "really can be a partnership," she said.

Reuters has also developed customised financial graphics, "something that fits into the style and feel of your newspaper," Dawson added.

With regards to off-shoring, Reuters has a big news operation in Bangalore, Dawson confirmed, which handles the more repetitive tasks such as handling press releases. It is not a whole newsroom.

In an iconic scene, Mahfuz Anam gave the World Editor's Forum attendees a persuasive, passionate speech illuminating the errors of newspapers and the keys to turning it around.

Anam, who is editor and publisher of The Daily Star in Bangladesh, stated that "we are killing consumers with our ads." While still admitting that 80% of the revenue of The Daily Stars comes from print ads, Anam went on to say that newspapers have pandered to the whims of advertisers, and in the process, neglected their readers.

"The future of Newspaper lies in the past", he says. Anam tells us that as journalists, we must regain the moral highground in which society has placed us. Freedom of speech and press protects our democracy, our human rights.

Anam says that the demand for information has grown exponentially and that journalism still has a bright future with new platforms. He believes newspapers should adopt new technology, but still have print as the central figure, "it should all be to make a better newspaper."

Three months ago, the Times of India launched a new weekend edition of its publication called the Times of India Crest.

Editor in chief, Jaideep Bose, said the Times looks for pieces that are eccentric, unpredictable and engaging to address the needs of a globally sophisticated audience.

At the WAN-IFRA 2009 World Newspaper Congress, Bose said newspapers need to be long form and analytical. "The response so far to this paper has been quite amazing. People have said this is a paper that is long overdue. They're willing to pay a higher cover price."

The numbers so far have exceeded the paper's wildest expectations.

"I don't think there's anything that shakes a reader up in the morning like a good rocking exclusive," Bose said. "I don't think a good story will ever go out of fashion, and I don't think good storytelling will ever go out of fashion."