Reportr.net

The findings of the News Barometer survey of newspaper editors has been extensively covered, so I just wanted to pick up on a few of items from it.

• “35 percent believe print will reign supreme”. This is a spurious question. Editors should not worry which form of media will reign supreme, but rather which is the most suitable format to use for a story, considering the audience for that story.
• “Half believe that shareholders and advertisers present threats to editorial independence”. Perhaps the future lies in non-profits, trusts and family ownership, rather than commercial interests seeking to maintain profits as high as possible for as long as possible.
• “Two-thirds believe opinion and analysis pages will grow in importance”. This could be seen as a reaction to the rise of blogs and the challenge they pose to the traditional op-ed and analysis pages in a newspaper.
• “One in ten say mobile devices will be the most common platform, while 7 percent cite e-paper. And two out of 10 respondents say it will be technologies that are still in the emerging stage”. Essentially we simply don’t know what kind of devices or formats will become the primary vehicle for journalism. Chances are, these will be nothing like we envisioned.
• “Training journalists in new media is cited most often by editors as a priority to increase editorial quality”. Good news for journalism profs like myself who are creating new courses in multiplatform story-telling.

What’s your take on the survey? Please add your thoughts in a comment.