Intelligence Squared: The Future of News March 24, 2010

"The newspaper is dying, they tell us. It will follow the dodo into oblivion. How could it be otherwise? A newspaper is costly to produce, its news costly to gather; yet we live in an age when people expect to get their information free online. And there’s been no shortage of people to oblige them – not just moguls like Murdoch but an army of bloggers around the world, who can send us reports from the scene of the action faster than any newspaper or TV company ever could. And as readers switch allegiance and desert to cyberspace, so do the advertisers. But is all this pessimism really warranted? In the end, quality reporting, in whatever form it comes, has to be paid for: and when this basic fact of economic life finally asserts itself, the obsequies for our well-loved newspaper or favourite TV news show may prove premature."

Speakers:

David Elstein Chairman of DCD Media plc and the Broadcasting Policy Group, formerly Chief Executive of Channel 5.
Claire Enders Founder of Enders Analysis, a research service focusing on technology, telecoms and media across Europe.
A. A. Gill Journalist and author, currently the Sunday Times's restaurant and television critic.
Turi Munthe Founder and Chief Executive of Demotix, a citizen-journalism website which takes user-generated content and photographs from freelance journalists and amateurs, and markets them to the mainstream media.
Andrew Neil Former editor of the Sunday Times; publisher of Press Holdings and Chief Executive of the Spectator, broadcaster and business consultant on media matters.
Matthew Parris Times newspaper columnist, television and radio broadcaster.
Jacob Weisberg Editor-in-chief of the Washington Post's Slate Group of online magazines.

Chair: Simon Jenkins Columnist for The Guardian and the London Evening Standard and former editor of the Times newspaper. He is also Chairman of the National Trust.

Official Website: http://events.intelligencesquared.com/current-events.php?event=EVT0215