The WAN president doesn’t seem smitten with the idea of multi-tasking journalists given this response to a question about converged journalism posed to him by Paul Horrocks, president of the SoE, during the Q&A on the opening night of the Society of Editors conference in Manchester.
“I don’t think that’s the core competency of writers… we are wordsmiths, not video and cameramen…”
Full Extract:
[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/convergence.mp3]Gavin O’Reilly, chief operating officer of Independent News and Media and president of WAN, launched a stinging attack on senior media commentators in the UK while speaking at the Society of Editors meeting in Manchester.
Listen here to some of his concerns and other points of his speech:
Failings of media commentators: too much rhetoric, overly simplistic digital vs print approach…
[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/oreillyone.mp3]Failures of US print papers, threat of reader apathy biggest threat not internet, real reasons for state of UK market – freesheets and enticements, search engines and ACAP…
[audio:http://www.journalism.co.uk/sounds/oreillytwo.mp3]