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Newspaper editors and publishers must face a future in which traditional forms of journalism will have to take into account the Internet, blogs and a wider involvement of the public at large, they were told this week.
"There's a new mindset required in the digital age," said media specialist Mark Glaser in a report submitted to the conference of the World Association of Newspapers in Moscow this week, which drew 1,700 participants from 110 countries.
"The old way of thinking, with editors speaking down to the readers from a height, is no longer possible. Editors must treat readers as equals and be as transparent about the news-room motivations for following a story or ignoring one," he told the conference, which ended Wednesday.
"With the rise of citizen journalism or citizen media, 'nouveau' editors must also consider the challenges of editing articles submitted by their readers."
"Perhaps the most visible manifestation of citizen journalism to date surfaced in the immediate aftermath of the London terrorist bombing in July (2005)," said blog pioneer Dan Gilmor, with pictures taken on mobile phones appearing in media around the world.
Another instance was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the United States last year when the New Orleans Times Picayune relied heavily on blogs and reader contributions during and after the hurricane.
The example had been set by the December 2004 tsumani in southeast Asia when amateur video and still pictures recorded the giant wave.
In some US papers the post of "citizen media editor" has become a specialist job.
Based in the Spanish Basque country, El Correo hands over two pages a day to its readers who can send in letters, texts, personal photos, questions for an interview, commentaries, memories, or jokes. In March there were 5,200 contributions and six journalists are assigned to the pages.
Proximity to the readers is the key, according to Bertrand Pecquerie, director of the World Editors' Forum.
"We absolutely have to rebase ourselves on the community," he said. "Newspapers have become too remote from their readers and the real world."
But participants left Moscow with some reason for optimism, based on a growing ability to incorporate technical developments. Newspaper sales rose by 0.5 percent last year compared with 2004 and have grown by six percent over five years, largely thanks to the booming Chinese media industry.
"It is clear that the press industries are no longer on the defensive," WAN spokesman Larry Kilman said at the end of the conference.
"Newspapers remain at the heart of the profession, even if everyone is talking about the digital age."
Timothy Balding, director of the WAN, said he was "more convinced than ever that the Internet and mobile phone are a windfall for press businesses.
"It gives them a new impetus. I am so tired of the question: 'Is the Internet killing newspapers?' That is no longer the issue. The method of distribution is secondary. The heart of the profession of journalism is quality, the value of the brand."
The freedom of the press was another issue at the conference. The choice of Moscow upset some who thought it gave a blank cheque to Russian President Vladmir Putin as the G8 summit of industrialised nations in Saint Petersburg approaches.
Gavin O'Reilly, president of the WAN, whch has 18,000 members, was openly critical of the role of the Russian state in control of the media when he addressed the conference.
cp/via/sj/smc
Russia-industry-press-media-WAN-Internet
AFP 071831 GMT 06 06
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