“I don’t believe news will be fully disintermediated – I think there will continue to be a strong role for professional journalists and news organizations, but it is changing. We are no longer gatekeepers to information who can say to the audience ‘sit down at 6 o clock and we’ll tell you what we think you need to know,’” said Sambrook.

Since information is now widely available, he said, journalists have a new role, “…to add value through analysis, explanation, verification and by reporting from places that aren’t easily covered. We also have to host a conversation about the world, incorporating public views and material alongside what we generate.”

He emphasized the importance of staying true to one’s editorial values, saying that this is where the Los Angeles Times erred in allowing readers to control its online editorial page. “It is important to provide a framework and to protect your brand,” said Sambrook. “In the new information world, if you lose your brand, you lose everything.

“I think there is a strong and important future for news and journalism – but it will be different from role we played in the last century. The Internet is producing social and technology changes that will profoundly affect what we do. We are only at the start of a long journey!”

You can hear more from Richard Sambrook at the annual World Editors Forum to be held this year in Cape Town, South Africa, 3-6 June 2007. Click here for more information.

Source: Follow the Media