Speaking at a debate organised by enterprise charity the RSA about young people and trust in the media, Yelland said: "There is a general trend to be critical of young people in the media. But the newspaper industry is not booming and if we don't get young people buying newspapers there ain't going to be a newspaper industry."
Yelland also defended his former paper's Shop-A-Yob campaign, which urged readers to identify people suspected of committing crime and published photos in The Sun, including those of many young people. "If yobs were shopped that has to be positive," he said.
PR guru Max Clifford told young people not to trust the media and advised them to launch their own newspapers. "Not only will you have a lot of influence, you'll make a lot of money," he said.
The event was chaired by Channel 4 News presenter Alex Thomson and speakers included Steve Barrett, editor of Young People Now; David Seymour, group political editor of The Mirror; John Bird, editor-in-chief of The Big Issue; and Sunday Express editor Martin Townsend.
