Online Journalism Blog

[Keyword: online journalism]. Patience Wheatcroft, the editor of The Sunday Telegraph, is quoted in the Guardian on the future of newspapers. And if you’re expecting any pearls of wisdom from that hyperlink, don’t get your hopes up. “Newspapers will be with us for a lot longer yet,” she shockingly predicts. “When people have more leisure time, and this is particularly true for weekend papers, they will still want to sit down and read papers.” Let me guess: it’s their portable nature that gives them the advantage? You can’t read the internet in the bath, eh?

But there’s more. “Increasingly important in the multichannel world is the brand. People have to know who to trust. Old established brands equal strong relationships and that is what it is all about.” Ah yes, another original argument. You can’t believe what these scruffy bloggers are posting, can you?

Still, Wheatcroft does acknowledge “that the impact of the digital era on newspapers was “the most profound change in the way in which we communicate [with consumers] since the birth of the printing press”.” Next thing you know, she’ll be calling it ‘revolutionary’…