For its relaunch, 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 Azu Ishiekwene, Editor-in-Chief of Punch in Nigeria.

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)

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

In the next 18 months, our plans to move rapidly to information/content provider would have reached a fairly advanced stage. We're right now working on exploiting the mobile phone platform. There are current over 40 million mobile phone users in Nigeria and our plans to stream the news on mobiles phones should be on before March 2009.

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 do not agree. I suspect that the print medium, and specifically the press, will continue to redifine itself and use existing platforms to get stronger. I see the multiplication of platforms more as opportunity than as a threat to forward-looking newspaper/magazine companies.

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?
 
Digital journalism remains a part of the unfolding story of journalism. We're still in the business of telling the news, what is changing is how it is told and delivered. Competition from bloggers and citizens can only expand users choice and make the profession stronger.

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?

The news is ultimately  produced for the user, not for the journalist. The increasing involvement of users complements professional effort

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

With more societies pushing towards greater openness, journalists will have to find more creative ways of getting under the skin of politicians and other holders of public trust who will also find more creative ways to keep things in the closet. We may actually be entering the Platinum Age of investigative journalism!

Stay tuned for the next interview in our series.