At its new media conference earlier this month (June 2001) new research showed that 40-50 per cent of regional newspapers in the US were making profits online.
A Newspaper Society spokesperson said: "Given that many analysts view the current internet revolution in the US as 18 months ahead of the UK market, this was welcome news. It was supported throughout the conference by evidence from regional UK publishers that they are already generating hard cash from online ventures."
Several speakers pointed to statistics showing internet advertising revenue increasing year-on-year, with a 203 per cent increase in 2000.
Tom Stevenson, MD of digital media operations at ECNG, said: "The hype is over but sound business models are emerging."
There were mixed findings for online journalists, however. According to Forrester Research - which surveyed the habits of 90,000 internet users - only 0.3 per cent said they read online magazines purely for content.
On a more positive note, FT.com news editor Clay Harris attacked the prevailing view that online journalists are second-class citizens compared with their print cousins.
He said reporters at FT.com did not have a second-class image; adding value to stories and often collaborating with the print version news team.
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