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Recent Lectures

Sunday 16 November 2008

Lecture 3: The future of newspapers: moving beyond dead trees

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Rupert Murdoch at heart is a traditional newspaperman. But he sees the wood for the trees. Newspapers will thrive in the 21st century if proprietors fully comprehend what it means to be alive in the era of information.  Read Transcript

[GOPJ]

I see the same thing every day. Instead of finding stories that are relevant to their readers' lives, papers run stories reflecting their own interests. Instead of writing for their audience, they are writing for their fellow journalists. And instead of commissioning stories that will gain them readers, some editors commission stories whose sole purpose is the quest for a prize.

When I started out in the business, anyone who dared parade a prize for excellence would have been hooted out of the newsroom for taking himself too seriously. But today the desire for awards has become a fetish. Papers may be losing money, losing circulation, and laying off people left and right. But they will have a wall full of awards—prisoners of the past rather than enthusiasts for the future.

He is so right about this... the business is geared toward prizes - the ONLY real prize newspapers should be competing for is the respect and loyalty of their readers.