The Globe and Mail has a report from the annual Associated Press Managing Editors Conference on some of the new tatics that newspapers are using to build audience.

One strategy is the use of social media and collaboration technologies that enables readers to share content, opinions and perspectives with other readers. Examples of this can be seen on washingtonpost.com's blog page and NYT Blogs.

A second strategy is to build rich information and online database sites that enable readers to easily access data about issues important to the community. In the article, Jennifer Carroll, vice president of new media for the newspaper division of Gannett Co. Inc. noted:

A person, for example, can go online to The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla., to explore a database that allows users to search public records from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — records the paper won access to after a court battle. A user can type in an address and receive information on neighbors, relatives or others who registered for aid after Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in 2004.

The newspaper industry, like the printing industry is undergoing a redefinition. One similarity between the two industries is the need for more skilled IT practitioners to design and develop data intensive media applications. Adrian Holovaty, a pioneer is data-drvien news delivery is a proponent of bringing programmers into the newsroom:

Holovaty has repeatedly called on newspaper editors to hire programmers, and many of them are finally heeding his advice and considering ways of getting computer programmers onto their news staff and out of the trenches of tech support or doing work on web classifieds. Inspired by Holovaty’s comments at a convention, Dave Zeeck, executive editor for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, hired Aaron Ritchey as a “news programmer” who has helped streamline the work for reporters and page designers while also creating online databases and map mash-ups for readers. And John Robinson, editor at the Greensboro News & Record, is planning to replace a newsroom job with a programmer as well."

After seeing Holovaty speak earlier this year, Tim O’Reilly of O'Reilly Media, Inc noted on the O’Reilly Rader blog:

Programming itself is becoming an important skill for publishers and authors, as it allows a new kind of storytelling, a new kind of integration of automated data into the services that publishers provide. It provides the context in which other people can share."