It seemed like a breath of fresh air in a trying day: A news publisher who wasn't apparently capitulating to the power of platform giants Google and Facebook.

Pointing to the FT's having got page render times down to a second, Times Digital deputy head Nick Petrie challenged: "Why do we need them to make speed improvements - it's better than handing content over to a tech company."

It had been another day of speakers who told how things were better with Facebook's Instant Articles of Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages - nothwithstanding the control over readers relationships and data they ceded in the process - not to mention sponsor Google's own presentations during the first day of Digital Media Asia and during a trip into the "lion's den" yesterday evening.

But not everyone has the strength of Rupert Murdoch behind them.

Petrie's message was also a challenge to established thinking in other respcects: The News UK unit had abandoned constant live online coverage in favour of an strategy which delivered one daily edition and three updates, concentrating on new social formats and showing readers why they should pay for content.

A new cross-departmental audience development team worked to drive traffic with social media used "to make people see the depth and breadth of our coverage," he said.

Since July, the site has given free access to two articles a day to readers who provide their details, accumulating 100,000 such registrations, "without negative impact". All the social media focus is on building that, but Petrie acknowledges that a decision to upgrade to a £26-a-month subscription "is not taken lightly".

There have been a variety of experiments - including Facebook Live, video in social media and chat apps - and notable successes including the use of "very focused" newsletters, which have become an advertising revenue source in their own right, and average a 40 per cent open rate.

About 240 media executives from 28 countries had gathered for the first full day of WAN-Ifra's annual digital conference for the region, with speakers sending a variety of messages about how they saw success. And as the day developed, so did the reality of a Trump victory in the US, clouding optimism and distracting attention.

Earlier, WAN-Ifra chief operating officer Thomas Jacob had recalled the changes and challenges which had emerged since the first Digital Media Asia event, most in the last six years, including the transition from search to social media, and the growth of Facebook and Google to now take revenues of $90 billion from the industry.

Of the debate on distributed platforms - called "homeless publishing" by some - he said the trade-off was between losing control and reaching a much bigger audience: "Most do not have good experiences of bringing readers back to their websites," he added.

On structure, Deseret Digital Media president Chris Lee reprised themes from his workshop the previous day, explaining his company's decision to set up a digital publishing organization separate from its print publishing, TV and radio parent. And the statistic he had quoted that the next three years will see 73 per cent of each additional dollar brought into the segment going to Facebook and Google: "Can we exist with this," he asked.

His view was that publishers had to find new, mobile-ready revenue streams to replace display, including listings, e-commerce, data insights services, native advertising, social promotion, events and experiences. One DDM initiative had been a family-focussed site - monetized by native advertising - which now has 120 million social followers.

There was more on La Presse+, the $40 million tablet app developed ahead of the Quebec daily's decision to cease weekday publishing, sold to English-language neighbor the Toronto Star and being offered to publishers in this region.

It had delivered on all goals, expanding readership, winning back a younger demographic, building engagement and revenue: "Advertisers who had 'left the building' came back," he says.

As in Lee's experience, there was also value in having salespeople who didn't have 'printed newspaper seller' stamped across their foreheads.

A range of different positions on engagement and paid content followed, with Dow Jones international managing director Jonathan Wright, Bild's Tobias Henning, and Libération head of digital Xavier Grangier joining a panel discussion after explaining their approaches. Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal encourages subscriptions at a variety of levels, Bild even uses an "ad blocker blocker" to enforce its paywall, and Libération uses a visit-based freemium model, freeing its left-wing readers from tiresome advertising. Grangier, however, was happy with the $2.6 eCPM received as a result of letting Facebook sell its ads, and "better than we could do ourselves".

Another with a tale to tell about wooing subscribers was Mi Li of FT in Hong Kong, where "fly-bys" are eschewed in favour of quality reach - "people who come to the website three times are five times more likely to subscribe," she says. A new access model offers a low-cost trial and then heaps benefits on subscribers in a welcome package.

Like News Corp's Times, the distributed content focus is on protecting the business model, working with those who can provide a clear path to subscription and a share of advertising revenue. Among partners is Instagram, where PunkFT uses tattoos to explain complex issues.

Another approach to attracting a young audience came from R.AGE, the youth news and lifestyle platform of Malaysian daily The Star, which prospered when it stopped patronizing its audience. Ahead of the Asia Digital Media Awards presentation, the Young Reader award winner presented a short-form documentary on child sexual grooming which had led to the drafting of new laws within weeks of its publication.

Digital Media Asia continues tomorrow with more sessions, including a focus on video and virtual reality. Finally "growth consultant" Scott Anthony keynotes on "dual transformation", the concept which embraces the evolution of legacy business and a new business that encompasses, beyond just digital advertising, e-commerce, marketplace services, digital consulting and other emerging revenue streams in which tablets, mobile and social are integral part.

-Peter Coleman

Pictured: Times Digital deputy head Nick Petrie