Nikesh Arora, President EMEA Operations & Vice President, Google Inc., UK, presented participants at the 15th World Editors Forum with food for thought as to the way in which the media consumption habits and the media landscape in general have radically transformed with Web 2.0. Arora opened the Forum's first session, entitled "Will Web 2.0 give birth to Journalism 2.0?"

Arora spoke about how Web 2.0 is bridging the gap between generations. Younger people today are growing up with high speed, wireless connections and will be completely digital savvy their entire lives. The expansion of broadband, which will reach 420 million people by the end of 2008, and the democratization of content production and distribution on the Web, are two facts of today's world that are shaping the media industry and creating social repercussions. Arora used the example of the recent earthquake in China. The first news of the natural disaster was reported on Twitter, a website on which people document their lives minute by minute, in 30 seconds.
In this respect, newspaper companies and newsrooms need rethink their operations. They have fantastic opportunities and challenges:
Opportunities:
1. 1.3 billion people are connected to the Internet. Every media outlet now has a true global audience.
2. People around the world want to participate, they want to be engaged with the news. Media companies can leverage their participation for more complete coverage.

Challenges:
1. Un-bundling the package: where media companies have traditionally published general information, now it easy to find specific information on virtually any topic consumers desire.
2. Brand challenge - publishers' brand are associated with trust and credibility. What publishers need to figure out is what their brand means on the Web.
3. Multimedia is rapidly becoming the norm across media that were traditionally separate.
4. What is the business model of the future? Arora believed that there are means of monetizing content on the Web.