Abstract
From the British Journalism Review of ten years ago (vol. 25, issue no 1, 2014)
‘When the internet arrived in homes in the 1990s it took time for papers to recognise that this distressingly effective model for the free distribution of information posed a threat to an industry that did it for the money. While some adventurous titles began to put up a few stories on a website… many “old media” wished “new media” would go away, When the first dotcom bubble burst in 2000, it looked as if it might. Once it became clear it was here to stay and was going to put them out of business, they set about trying to make it pay, The remarkable thing is that there is so little agreement about the way to do that.’
– BJR editorial
‘What cannot be doubted is that Pope Francis is good business – he sells newspapers… He is a moral voice, not afraid to speak out. People want to hear what he has to say.’
– Paul Donovan, writer on social justice issues for many titles
‘Some of us fought hard to prevent “content” becoming the default description of pieces you can read. We failed utterly. An industry that took pride in “stories”, “features”, “articles” and “journalism” is now happy to reduce its activities to the provision of something with so little obvious appeal it might well as come by the bucket.’
– Kim Fletcher, BJR editor
‘A Sun poll suggested that 57% of the readers thought he [late recaptured criminal Ronnie Biggs] should go free and 43% that he should “rot behind bars.”… The Sunday Mirror ran a story on his return headlined, “Biggs will be dead in a month.” Well, it was only 12 years out.’
– Duncan Campbell, freelance crime writer who worked for The Guardian for more than 20 years