At the ANA’s Print Forum, Laura Davies Fine, a Wall Street analyst who follow newspaper stocks, applauded Gannett for its online services (CareerBuilder.com and LocalShopper.com and said in general the newspapers need to get with it.

Chief Marketer: Newspaper Advertisers Want Web Action Too.

[Newspapers] hold the potential to become excellent vehicles for the Procter & Gambles of the world, a top Wall Street analyst said last week. But to garner more advertising, they need to align their Web offerings with their print product.

Among her recommendations to newspapers

• Help local merchants get online
• Tame their aggressive online advertisers and make their web sites more user friendly
• Focus on metropolitan news, where they have the competitive edge.

Makes perfect sense to me. I don’t want newspapers to go away, I want them to get smarter.