I’ll be participating in a New Media Knowledge debate tonight entitled What Happens to Newspapers?.

Also on the panel are Neil McIntosh of the Guardian, Justin Williams of the Telegraph, Mike Rowley from Northcliffe Media and Tim Gopsill from the NUJ’s magazine The Journalist.

It’s a hugely broad topic, so I’m curious which direction the conversation will take. Chairman Nico Macdonald has sent round a set of questions, which give an indication of the themes he’s interested in exploring:

  • What is driving change? IT, social trends, competition?
  • What value do people get from newspapers? Has this changed?
  • How has the moral authority of and trust invested in newspapers changed?
  • How is the relationship to broadcasters and other media, local news, wire services changing
  • Who are the new competitors: non-UK newspapers, broadcasters, free sheets (eg: Metro, Short List), the Drudge Report, Daily Beast, Huffington Post, DayLife?
  • Will all content be free and, perhaps, follow music into the ‘loss leader for physical experiences’ model?
  • Why when we are wealthier than ever (OK, were) we have been so reluctant to pay for the products of the news media?
  • What new editorial models are being developed: newspaper as curator/aggregator
  • New other developments have we seen: MyTelegraph, Comment is Free, instant feedback and correction
  • What new business models are being developed: commerce related recommendation, exploiting the distribution chain to attract new forms of advertising (eg: Observer Sport Monthly), recommending local services
  • What technologies do newspaper publishers need, eg: e-paper
  • What role does quality of experience have in newspapers: increasing materiality of print?
  • What ideas exist for radical change: oursourcing non-core competencies, etc.
  • Is there a role for ‘co-opetition’, between established and new/small publication?