Opinion: On the Campaign Couch ... with JB.(Jeremy Bullmore answers on questions related to advertising)(Interview)

Q: I'm the commercial director at a national newspaper. Its circulation, along with that of most other nationals, is spiralling downwards each month. I tell our advertisers that everything is healthy but is there really a future for a printed daily newspaper in this internet age? And, by extension, is there any future use for me?

A: Here are just a few of the things whose demise has been confidently predicted over the years: paper, marriage, the handheld countersink drill, the office, Brillo pads, motor-cycles, history, internet companies, giraffes and porridge.

The introduction of every new medium has prompted dire prophecies about the prospects for all older media: TV would kill radio, the cinema would kill the theatre, colour would kill black and white, the internet would kill TV. Yet all survive. What endangered species do is adapt. That's why giraffes have long necks.

When newspapers first faced the reality of TV, they chose to ignore it.

No listings; no behind-the-scenes soap stories: if TV was ignored, then perhaps it would go away. Today, popular newspapers are dependent on TV for their popularity. The Cannes festival was started by cinema companies as a defensive measure against television; only cinema commercials were eligible. Today, thanks to television, Cannes rides high.

That's one reason why you should stay cheerful. You've a lot more adapting yet to do but newspapers are not about to die.

The second reason for cheer is that newspaper ownership appeals irresistibly to the vain, the rich and the power-crazed. To become a newspaper proprietor is still the surest ticket to Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, Wimbledon and the House of Lords. Unlike a television channel or a website, a newspaper (it is still widely believed) can make or break governments and political careers. While this remains true, and while there are otherwise perfectly sane businessmen happy to abandon all fiscal prudence in order to control one, both you and your paper are safe from extinction. But don't forget to grow that longer neck.