“I want interesting reading, quality writing, expertise in a subject” and if it can be moderated in a way that provides this than we have accomplished something great.

Thanks for the information,

Kenneth
Increase Sales

My point was to say that the sessions’ presentations for the World Editors Forum were rather balanced and I didn’t understand your opposition between the “good conference” set-up by publishers and the “wrong conference” established by the Board members of the World Editors Forum.

Regarding your criticism about the location of the Congress and the Forum, you may be right: the location is decided three years in advance and in 2003 the Russian media scene was “so-so” - not too bad - and it was decided to accompany Russian journalists, editors and publishers who wanted some international support. Now they are in big difficulties…

It will be our duty to speak frankly with Russian authorities, even within the Kremlin palace.

And for the next World Editors Forum, they will be located in 2007 in Capetown, South Africa and in 2008 in Göteborg, Sweden. Hope to see you there!

Bertrand Pecquerie
WEF Director

You need to understand that at the annual Newspapers Conference, there are two halls: one for editors - and it is called the World Editors Forum - and the second one for publishers: the Congress.

And surprisingly, we don’t discuss the same thing: editors are focused on editorial quality, new media journalism and newsroom management while publishers are focused on advertising, marketing and corporate strategies. Sorry to be classical, but it is not the same job and that is the reason why the conference is divided in two poles.

So, your presentation is rather vicious to consider that editors are Neanderthalians and outdated in opposition to publishers - the real Homo Sapiens Sapiens - welcoming innovations.

At the 13th World Editors Forum, we have invited Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, Jim Brady, Washington Post, Steve Herrmann, BBC News Interactive, Sanjay Trehan, Indiatimes. Are they representatives of the “old school”? Already Steve Yelvington, Morris Group, answered to your posting in his blog: thanks for his confidence to “Neanderthalians”.

What I don’t understand is how you can be so schematic: publishers and the good, editors and the evil. Just try to imagine a non-binary world!

We will be around 350 editors-in-chief in Moscow and another thing you need to understand is that what is good for America is not necessarily good for the rest of the world. Your call for innovation could be relevant if it was sided by a call for diversity. When circulation figures are falling in the States, they are increasing in Asia, when concentration reaches a peak in your country, it is more diversified in Germany and in continental Europe, when citizen journalism is the counterweigth of mainstream media, in many countries the public debate is rich enough.

As I said in a recent conference, “In America you blog and you don’t vote, in Europe we vote but we don’t blog” it was a joke, but half a joke: what you see as a solution for democracy is for others an ersatz of democracy.

So, no need to always repeat “innovation, innovation, innovation” as an “open sesame”: some are good, some revolting.

Just to finish, you quote this presentation headline - How Guardian Newspapers Limited changed everything except our values in just 12 months.” - as a pure marvel, but only a politician or an Orwell addict can think that: do you think it is really positive to believe that you can change everything in twelve months? Don’t forget that we are talking about human beings, not robots and algorythms

You just live in an Orwellian world and you want to convert people to this Orwellian world. But some will not, including me!

They’re so busy turning their coverage into “stories” that they miss the drama of the competition. Sports as soap opera.

(’Course, that’s what they do with the news, too.)

I saw on CNN that the last two groups were coming up, so I thought I could watch and work from home on my laptop.

NBC is NOT broadcasting this live. Not on MSNBC or anywhwere.

But Canadian Broadcasting is, so I’m working on my laptop., watching the competition on CBC, and also reading the incredible updates live online from CNN. Plus, I’m answering email, etc.

By the time NBC broadcasts this, everyone will know what happened. And by the time the newspapers come out, it will be ancient history.

BTW, it’s a nerve-wracking competition, and there are some big suprises and disappointments.

This is the first time I’ve cared about the Olympics this year, and I think it’s because I am watching a whole competition, without editing and without knowing who won.

Maybe they’re genuinely interested?

Besides, the panel for some of the sessions suggest that the organisers are open to ideas: Jimmy Wales and BBC News Interactive’s boss on the citizen journalists panel; Neil Budde of Yahoo News and the CEO of AFP for the portals session as a couple of examples.

I’d be more worried about the fact that champion of free speech Vlad Putin is giving the opening address.

Before I even started to dole out publishing advice, Tom Evslin had already founded a lucrative tech company, guided AT&T’s first Internet service, designed email products for Microsoft, and earned five U.S. patents.  As if that wasn&rsq…

And too often newspapers fail on all three counts. Their experts are old and tired, writing thumbsuckers on expense account from fancy dinner parties, and often knowing less than I do, let alone what people who really know the subject do; the writing is simplistic and hobbled by the need to speak to a broad audience without offense. And they tend to find out about things about a week after I do.

That’s why they’ve lost me. And yet I love the idea of newspapers still; if there was one printed for me I’d gladly pay for it, but there isn’t.