Jeanne Clark, Information Officer at the US Embassy in Accra, has urged members of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) to invest more into Research and Development (R&D).

According to her, investing in research would enhance the credibility of the print media and make them more appealing. Ms Clark was speaking at a day’s seminar organized by PRINPAG in Accra on the theme, “Challenges of the Internet Revolution in Ghana: Developing New Business Modules for Ghana’s Private Newspapers in the Digital Age.”

She called on media practitioners to use the internet to increase research and set practical agenda for national development.

The Minister of Information, Mahama Ayariga, in a speech on his behalf by Victor Kwashie Senaya, Chief Director at the Ministry of Information, urged Ghanaian businesses to learn and adopt ways of making profits from the internet, stating that businesses across the globe tend to make huge profits from internet activities.

He said the internet offers unprecedented opportunities for promoting economic growth through fostering competition and knowledge. The Minister said Ghana had gained additional benefits since the introduction of the internet.

He said the ensuing information revolution has generated a dynamic economic sector, incorporating web-based companies, virtual universities and cyber-stories, among others.

The success stories of the ICT industry becoming a pillar of economic growth elsewhere have inspired government to target the ICT sector as a strategic industry, Hon Ayariga said.

As a result, subsidies and incentive are generously provided. He urged private sector associations and industries to take enormous steps to train and their workers so as to sensitize them on the changing technological trend. Edith Dankwa, Chief Executive of Business & Financial Times, urged publishers to run their newspapers as a business.

“Not many newspapers are being run as businesses which does not auger well. Your newspaper has no life beyond you if there is no business plan. If you have to be taken seriously, you need a business plan.

Vita Sung-Park, a Fulbright Scholar from the USA, in a presentation, urged the print media to turn their attention to online media. According to him, online media has become the fastest way of reaching the masses, stating that “Online media can help print houses to reach a larger audience on time.

The digital age requires that print media also change its way of getting information to it readers as and when it happens, he indicated.

Sponsored by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Accra, the programme was chaired by Gina Ama Blay, President of PRINPAG and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Western Publications Limited, publishers of DAILY GUIDE and other allied newspapers.