Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University, runs a program called Studio 20 that aims to teach students all aspects of a journalism business. News outlets used to want journalism schools to churn out people who could be easily plugged into their system and who "wouldn't land them in court," Rosen said. But now, j-schools are increasingly becoming R&D labs.

He believes that traditional news organisations still don't put as high a priority on digital innovation as they should. He described the way that newspapers, having first used their websites to repurpose content and hopefully make a little extra money, started to 'integrate' their newsrooms in around 2005 after print editors woke up and realised the future was digital. These editors therefore asked the publishers for control of the website, but did not actually learn about what the web could offer.

Rosen quoted his friend Jim Brady, former editor of WashingtonPost.com and former general manager of TBD.com, who said that "Washingtonpost.com was 'integrated' with the Washington Post in the same way that Poland was 'integrated' with Nazi Germany."

The fundamental problem, Rosen explained, is that the people who run news organisations don't understand that their knowledge from the old system is not automatically transferable.

As an example of how a news company can be revolutionised, he described how John Paton took over as CEO of the Journal Register Company, which was struggling considerably financially, in February 2010. Paton let go the managing editors who he didn't think could help him, and promoted the director of digital content to VP of news, meaning that traditionally-print journalists were suddenly working under him He sold every asset connected to print production, and outsourced these functions instead. He created an ideas lab which anybody in the company could apply to with an idea, and if their idea was approved they were given 25% of their time to work on this.

In terms of money, Paton's only goal was to ensure that increases in digital revenue were equal to or more than the decline in print revenue. He also pledged that if the company made a profit this year, he would share it with the staff. And it seems that the company is indeed on track to profitability.

Despite what Rosen sees as an ongoing crisis in American news, which in fact, he said, consists of different crises that have come together: an advertising crisis, a cultural crisis in the newsroom following the growth of digital, and a crisis in the public's trust of the press, there are positive signs.

As well as the relative success of born-on-the-web outfits that take the new digital culture for granted, Rosen sees hope in the fact that The New York Times now has150 programmers on staff. These people bring a more experimental culture into the newsroom, he believes. He also believes that the Times is now focusing on how to channel the knowledge and wisdom of its readers to most effectively make use of this.

He reminded participants that when working with UCG, they must remember the '10% rule:' it is only 10% of your audience who will engage productively in any way with content supplied to them on the web, and only 10% of this group who will become reliable contributors. You need to find and really engage that 1%, he said, but it may take time to identify them.