Any number of newspapers must have 150th anniversaries to celebrate at the moment: Italy's La Stampa made sure that its was an event to savour last week with contributions from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and the chief executives of News Corp and the New York Times, Robert Thomson and Mark Thompson.

Held at the daily newspaper's Turin printing plant - and with speakers and audience flanked by rolls of newsprint - the occasion emphasised the heritage and history of newspapers and the responsibility which still accompanies ownership.

Bezos told a panel discussion he bought the Washington Post because it was an important institution which he was privileged to be entrusted with. "I wasn't looking to buy a newspaper," he said.

On what he could bring to the enterprise, former chairman Don Graham told him the Post had any number of people who knew about newspapers: "He wanted someone who could help with the internet," said Bezos. Later he was to add that "independence, not deep pockets is the solution for the newspaper business".

Almost two dozen champions of the industry - representing publishers from all over the world - contributed to a discussion of industry issues at the one-day The future of newspapers event, which was sponsored by Milan-headquartered systems developer EidosMedia.

Each had also signed a succinct souvenir - their own priorities in 140 characters or less in a 'Torino to do list" - to which Bezos' contribution was, "When you are writing, be riveting, be right... and ask people to pay".

Bezos talked in a panel format with La Stampa publisher John Elkann, whose family has owned the newspaper - "always free because it was profitable" - since the 1920s.

The revenue aspect was emphasised by others including Mark Thompson of the New York Times, which has 150 million unique visitors a month - and Le Monde chief executive Louis Dreyfus who said 80 per cent of revenues were still derived from print.

Briefly, Facebook, Google and other social media giants were mentioned, but "complaining is not a strategy", Bezos added.

The programme took the views of editors Maurizio Molinari (La Stampa), John Micklethwait (Bloomberg News), Lionel Barber (Financial Times), Antonio Caño (El Pais), Bobby Ghosh (Hindustan Times) and Lydia Polgreen (Huffington Post), chief executives Robert Allbritton (Politico), Louis Dreyfus (Le Monde), Gary Liu (South China Morning Post) and Mark Thompson.

An industry view was moderated by Mario Calabresi of La Repubblica, referencing questions raised by students and readers, with Tsuneo Kita (Nikkei), Jessica Lessin (The Information), Julian Reichelt (Bild Digital), Andrew Ross Sorkin (DealBook, The New York Times) and Robert Thomson (NewsCorp).