The chief executive of the European newspaper publisher Mecom, David Montgomery, has announced plans to increase its digital revenue by €100m (£90m) over the next three years.

Despite an 11 per cent fall of digital revenue in 2009, to €67m, Montgomery believes that the company's target is achievable. He pointed out that turnover of Mecom's online news newspaper websites had increased by 5 per cent in 2009 and that web traffic had increased by 31 per cent over the same period. The revenue decrease was down to various standalone sites, he explained, including recruitment and classified advertising, that had been hard hit by the recession.

Mecom owns 30 newspapers and operates 200 websites across Norway, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands.

Montgomery said that they plan the digital growth to come from advertising and various paid-content products, rather than paywalls.

"We are not contemplating direct paywalls. We watch standalone [paid-for] products [working] only for highly specialised or unique content. Online newspaper revenue has continued to grow and we have started 2010 strongly," he said.

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