Here are some of the answers Niles was given:

Len Apcar (Editor in chief of the New York Times online)
"What I love the most is the challenge of trying to figure out how a great news organization like The New York Times can succeed in a big way on the Web. It is a daunting task trying to help lead a transformation from a newsroom focused on producing a daily newspaper to becoming a successful online publisher."

Robert Cauthorn (former vice president of digital media for the San Francisco Chronicle)
"the readers ... the whole community. Online publishing brings you so close to the readers that they become part of every breath. And that's one of the greatest feelings in all of publishing. The readers constantly amaze me with their insights, appetites, intelligence and sheer sense of fun. You learn from them."

Pete Clifton (head of BBC News Interactive)
"The deadlines never end, there is always a story breaking and a race to be first. You can't beat that buzz - and there are countless readers out there who want to help us with our coverage. That makes it even more intoxicating."

Chris Nolan (editor of Spot-on.com)
"Inexpensive publishing tools like Moveable Type, inexpensive "broadcast" support like that offered by our friends at Feedburner, the growing strength of on-line ad networks for small publishers - combined with the support and interest of larger, established "brand" sites on the Web - is going to make it possible for real reporters to get great stories and publish them to larger and larger audiences. This is an exciting time to be working online. Anyone who's still turning up their nose at what we're doing is missing the most fun we're going to have in the news business for a long, long time."

Source: USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review