The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Pana Janviroj, President of The Nation in Thailand.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We're evolving quite fast. For our mass circulation newspapers, it will be a while (that they are still considered print). But I think our company will be multimedia in the near future, in the next five years, maybe it will be closer to 50-50 in terms of print and digital revenue. Right now print is still up over 80%.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I think print newspapers will still exist, but maybe in different forms. They may evolve to become freesheets, because free papers still have many readers and offer effective advertising - advertising on the digital format isn't as effective. The paid-for newspaper may become very rare. In the (longer) future, the format will still be the format of the newspaper, but the carrier itself will change to mobile or e-paper.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Continuity. It won't be a breakaway. People still need help choosing the news and finding an angle. Content will come in video form, etc., but the compilation of news will not change. Reporters will do more things than they do now, but the news angle will remain. If you look at today's world, there are actually more consumers of news thanks to the Internet and TV.
But the problem is that newspapers don't make as much money as these media. The economics of the Internet will drive changes in newspapers after a while, because Internet advertising in newspapers is still only 7% of revenue. In 5 years time, it might be 15%, but not much more. Newspapers online might end up being part of commercial sites such as Google or Ebay. A news website alone will not generate enough money.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

Yes, it's an opportunity to widen the range of news. but user-generated content is not always news. It can be used other ways, as a comment or in a forum. Of course, when you open up to the mass, you will get a share of news stories, but there's a limitation to it.
Is it a threat? If you look at the phenomenon of reality TV, you'd call it a threat to (traditional) TV drama shows, but reality TV won't replace drama. UGC enables newspapers to have more journalists without having to hire more reporters. It will change the ability of journalists to cover certain areas.
The problem of UGC is that it needs a lot of editing, and it needs a (specific) channel to go out. I don't see at this point any very successful example of a citizen journalism site. UGC has a place, but it's still not an overwhelming media channel at the moment.

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

Neither. Investigative journalism is a job that always has been and there will always be more investigative journalism to be done. The problem will be whether the newspaper or website can afford to hire investigative journalists. I don't know. Maybe the Internet will allow individual investigative journalists to do their work and get paid for it. I don't think the digital format will affect the need for quality journalism though: there will always be a shortage of quality investigative journalism.


Stay tuned for the next interview in our series.