Keller says, “I believe the gravest danger to the future of newspapers is not a hostile administration in Washington, not the acid rain of criticism, not a business model upended by new technology, it is a loss of faith, a failure of resolve on the part of the people who make newspapers."

Right now, there is a demand for newspapers, says Keller, because there is a demand for trustworthy news. According to Keller, the Internet cannot provide the reliability that readers are looking for.

Keller says that things like blogs, search engines and Google News could never replace actual reporting. He says "What is absent from the vast array of new media outlets is, first and foremost, the great engine of newsgathering - the people who witness events, ferret out information, supply context and explanation."

Keller uses the war in Iraq as an example. He says, "There are lots and lots of places you can go for opinions about the war, but there are few places, and fewer by the day, where you can go to find honest, on-the-scene reporting about what is happening."

He explains that sources like Google and Wikipedia cannot replace traditional newspapers because they do not produce content. They aggregate material from many different sources, some of which are very unreliable.

Keller explains that it is the newspapers that need to step up and provide the supply of news. He gives the statistic that when Saddam Hussein fell, more than 1,000 western reporters were in Iraq, now there are only about 50. Also, in this time of globalization, almost all papers have eliminated their foreign bureaus.

Keller says, “I believe with all my heart that newspapers - whether they are distributed to your doorstep, your laptop, your iPhone or a silicon chip implanted in your cerebral cortex - will be around for a long time. Newspapers that stay true to their mission will endure.”

Source: Guardian Unlimited
Press Gazette