Tom Silvestri, president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and chairman of the American Press Institute, spoke to Business of News SmartBrief editor Adam Mazmanian at about issues facing the news business in 2012. The full interview appears on SmartBlog on Leadership.

Q: In 2011, newspapers including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and others rolled out some form of metered access to their Web content. How do you think pay walls fit in as part of a newspaper's overall revenue model?

A: The key word in your question is "fit." Our entire industry is trying to diversify its revenue sources and find new sources of revenues. What we're finding is that pay walls, and there are some people in our industry who don't like this term, are not a silver bullet or an elixir. I wouldn't bank on it for a substantial injection of revenue, but it does help broaden the revenue model by stressing the importance of content and our need to produce premium, distinct content. Markets are going to discriminate on what's worth paying for and what isn't, and it gives us the opportunity to get back to the premium content arena.

Putting my publisher hat on here, we've been able to study pay wall initiatives, and our approach is to take a more holistic, long-term view -- not ignoring the potential dollars that come in from a pay wall, but to do it in a way that mirrors our "digital first" effort. But it's going to be a slow go, and I wouldn't bet the ranch on it. It's a piece of the puzzle that includes content, distribution and vendor partnerships. But hats off to those who have tried it, provided us with data points and have been learning as they go.