Rusbridger on the future of journalism: “I don’t think we would ever go back to having a little pool of elite commentators”

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger’s (@arusbridger) thoughts shared with the web this week:

• Here, in yesterday’s lecture at Queen Mary, University of London, part of the university’s Art Week 2009.

• And a video of Alan Rusbridger at the Institut für Medienpolitik in Berlin on April 22, speaking on the future of journalism and explaining how the Guardian opened up its site to a wider pool of contributors. Some extracts:

“I don’t think we would ever go back to having a little pool of elite commentators, who help appeal to themselves.”

“(…)Bad things are going to happen where newspapers are going to die. There are going to be fewer journalists and the really pricey business of quality journalism is going to require subsidy from somewhere. It’s a broken model.”

On Twitter: “You harness this brilliant pool of knowledge out there. It’s a fantastic marketing tool. It’s a fantastic journalistic tool.”

He says reading Clay Shirky, Adrian Monck, Jeff Jarvis and the Niemen Foundation, via Twitter, is like receiving a personalised wire feed on the world’s press each morning – a service you’d have paid a consultant a lot of money for, in the past.

(NB: We’re glad to note that he’s following @journalismnews too…)

Alan Rusbridger on the Future of Journalism from Carta on Vimeo.

Similar posts:

• Adrian Monck: A response to Clay Shirky on newspaper paywalls
• ‘Why Journalism Matters’ by Alan Rusbridger (@arusbridger): the video
• Press Gazette: Rusbridger says integration of Guardian and Observer will ‘unlock creativity’ of staff
• Alan Rusbridger invites MP Tom Watson to morning conference
• links for 2008-06-25