Regional newspapers are the unsung heroes of Australia's newsmedia industry, and delegates at Friday's Future Forum were told exactly what they could do with them.

It's as if predominantly profitable titles within the country's major groups were almost an embarrassment to publishers, some of which are more focussed on digital publishing or non-newsmedia activities.

Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood admitted at the event that regionals were "most profitable" and tended to be hit later by internet-based competition than metro titles, and claimed both had a "long, long life" in print at the group.

But despite his claim that big publishers "take their regional responsibilities very seriously", his opposite number at APN News & Media - a business built on regional newspapers but now more focussed on radio and outdoor - was missing from the debate. Under chief executive Ciaran Davies, APN is currently in the process of selling its Australian regional media to News Corp - for a bargain price which is about two-times earnings - if the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will let it. APN's New Zealand media business, NZME. has already been spun off and will be merged with Fairfax NZ if regulators allow.

Delegates from Australia's four major publishers - all of which have regional titles - were at the NewsMediaWorks conference in Sydney to hear speakers including Blanche Sainsbury, now commercial director at Trinity Mirror, talk of the reorganisation of more than 100 regional newspapers previously owned by the Daily Mail's Northcliffe Media and Yattendon's Iliffe newspaper group.

Sainsbury - no connection with the supermarket chain, she says - was part of the team when David Montgomery bought the titles in November 2012, consolidated and packaged them into LocalWorld, and sold them to her present employer for £220 million (A$386 million) less than three years later.

They're a mixed bag - market leaders and also-rans - but it wasn't her role to tell delegates that. A standout is the Manchester Evening News, a stablemate of the Guardian before it went to town, and with an 85 per cent reach in the UK's second-largest city.

Nonetheless, "a lot for a very little" was turning on 10.5 million uniques within months - digital revenue rising by more than 20 per cent a year to £30 million - with a £36 million first year profit (then £40 million and £44 million) made even sweeter by a £60 million return to shareholders, starting the "suitors circling". The aim is to turn the 75/25 ratio of print to online revenue in 2010 to 25/75 by 2018.

Of the structural challenges, Sainsbury says a career in media "isn't for the faint-hearted any more", and talks of the need to recruit believers, the best and brightest talent.

Centralised call centres are another move: It's a step better than Mumbai, but if you want to recruit staff or sell something through the once intensely-local Faversham Times or East Kent Gazette - a couple of North Kent weeklies I once competed with among the group's 100 - you'll need to talk to someone in the north of England now, where staff are cheaper. Even if you've a death to announce.

Another target is the SME market which accounted for 50 per cent of business turnover, but where 70,000 advertisers spending less than £1000 a year (A$1753) occupied "a disproportionate amount of time". Many were also using self-service advertising on Google, and could be persuaded to do the same on a LocalWorld site, saving billions from overheads. Meanwhile, local sales teams have time to show an interest in their high-spending customers' businesses, identified as a critical relationship characteristic.

Sainsbury is unapologetic: "I hope you see we can't afford to stay as we are," she says.

Whether the case history of the UK group - with two dailies, three Sundays, 81 weeklies, 60 news websites and 600 staff winning an apparent 5x multiplier - is a model for Australia, remains to be seen. And where's David Montgomery?

Peter Coleman

Pictured: Blanche Sainsbury: 'A career in isn't for the faint-hearted'