Netimperative reports on Simon Waldman’s, Director of digital publishing at The Guardian, UK, thoughts on consumers’ desires to create news. Consumers also want to control and challenge traditional media owners online. Speaking at Internet World UK, Waldman shed some light on the Guardian’s vision for online publishing and media in the future. Citing the websites Wikipedia and OhMyNews as examples, Waldman said that readers want media owners to provide the necessary tools to interact with content. He also referenced the power of sites that are managing communities, such as Craigslist. Furthermore, RSS and distribution networks such as Google News are gaining great momentum amongst consumers. In response, Waldman said that the Guardian is about to reveal a new and improved search engine for the site. The Guardian will also work with Consenda to create dedicated RSS reader software. Waldman concluded by confirming that the underlying trends resulting from tools like Flickr (see former posting) and podcasting (see former posting) are here to stay.

Source: Netimperative