Wordblog

I have long avoided making predictions about the future because the one thing I have learned is that they ae invariably wrong.

Reading David Leigh, an assistant editor of th Guardian, yesterday on the question of whether reporters are doomed, I hoped my theory stands up this time.

The media and journalism is certainly changing and a commercial model that will work online is elusive. As a result, say the doomsters, reporting as we know it is dead, because the people who do the job will not be able to afford a crust for their babies.

All I can really say in response is that something will turn up, things happen. We will find a new business model.

The future for reporting, according to some, is in networks of amateur citizen journalists working with paid journalists. Actually, I see that as a development of what has happened for a long time. Yes, it may be important but unlikely to be more than a part of the answer.

Leigh writes about the impact of stories coming from the influence of the places they are published. He continues:

That is perhaps one of the biggest dangers of the media revolution. When th media fragment — as they will — and splinter into a thousand websites, a thousand digital channels, all weak financially, then we will see a severe reduction in the power of each individual media outlet. The reporter will struggle to be heards over the cacophony of a thousand other voices.

Is that really what is going to happen? More likely there will be consolidation resulting in a smaller number of media organisations. That is a concern, but a different one.

The web is already bringing us global news brands. The BBC’s website has been called Brtain’s biggest newspaper, and it is being increasing read around the world. The Guardian of which David Leigh is an assistant editor, is also read around the world and draws advertising revenue from these distant places.

Rupert Murdoch having recognised the reality of the internet is embarking on the development of the Wall Street Journal global brand.

The trade press, some of whose titles have a fine record in investigative reporting, remains strong as it adapts to the web which is enabling publications to overcome some of the restraints of weekly, or less frequent, publication.

Overall, my belief is that good reporting will survive. Whether it will of not is a very different question to one of whether newspapers will survive which Leigh’s colleague Roy Greenslade has also discussed recently.