Some observations

Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 23:50

Some completley unrelated observations:

1. The Chatham House rule can be really, really infuriating.
2. When you get a group of newspaper editors and executives around a large table, it is not unusual for those who also maintain blogs to make the most consistently sensible points.
3. Even after hearing someone use “unbundling” and “reduced barriers to entry” in the same sentence, many newspaper executives find it difficult to contemplate media on anything other than a mass-market scale.
4. In discussions among journalists, the phrase “citizen journalism” continues to be a red flag — and a red herring.
5. Those under 20 don’t check their local paper for cinema listings — nor their local paper’s web site. See “unbundling” op cit.
6. Those under 30 won’t “grow into” the habit of buying newspapers the way their parents did.
7. If you think this has all suddenly happened in the last 12 months, you haven’t been paying attention for the last 12 years.
8. If you think the Internet’s effect on the newspaper business is at its peak, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
9. Paper remains a really cool medium. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be distributed the way it has been for the past four centuries. We don’t talk about distributed, digital on-demand printing enough ’round here.
10. POLIS is a very cool institution.

That is all. Good night.

Update: Charlie Beckett has more details.

Update2: … And Shane Richmond.

Entry Filed under: Journalism, Newspapers, Online