Newspapers in the age of blogs Manifesto Challenge: Developing a Capable Population / Encouraging Enterprise Speakers Alan Rusbridger Editor , The Guardian Chaired by: Paul Crake RSA Programme Director Date: 16 March 2006 Venue: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ NB This is a part edited transcript of the event. Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy there may be phonetic or other errors depending on inevitable variations in recording quality. Please do contact us to point out any errors, which we will endeavour to correct. To reproduce any part of this transcript in any form please contact RSA Lectures Office at [email protected] or +44(0)20 7451 6868 The views expressed are not necessarily those of the RSA or its Trustees. www.theRSA.org RSA | Newspapers in the Age of Blogs | 16 March 2006 Page 1 Paul Crake: Good evening, I’m Paul World so tonight I am not speaking about Crake, the RSA’s Programme Director, it’s my India or China or Eastern Europe or Russia pleasure to welcome you to the Great Room where print-on paper newspapers are still this evening. This evening’s speaker is thriving; this is about newspapers in the extremely distinguished in the field of developed world in Europe and in America. journalism, Alan Rusbridger has been editor of Very crudely, if I can get my little mouse The Guardian since 1995; he was educated at working, this blue line is very approximately Cambridge and worked for a number of what people think is happening to newspaper newspapers including locally the Cambridge circulation and revenue so it’s rather a crude Evening News, the London Daily News and The amalgam of the two and generally speaking, Observer and indeed The Guardian before and I’m speaking in very broad brush terms, becoming its editor. I think it’s true to say that it’s a picture of decline. Generally speaking, his editorship has seen some extraordinary newspaper circulations are struggling and changes at the newspaper, most recently revenue is beginning to walk out of changing format, both The Guardian and The newspapers. Over here, which is the red Observer to the Berliner format but also the line, which is internet traffic and again it’s a launch of Guardian Unlimited which is now crude amalgam of what we hope is going to one of the UK’s and possibly one of the happen, or think is going to happen, to World’s successful newspaper websites. He’s people reading newspapers on the internet, also a member of the Scott Trust which owns not just newspapers but all kinds of news The Guardian. Alan’s going to be talking this providers and of course we also hope that evening about some of the changes taking place there’ll be a stark rise in revenues at the in journalism and in the environment in which same time. The green bubble is roughly it operates. Will you please join me in where we are at the moment and the more welcoming Alan Rusbridger? discerning amongst you will have noticed Alan Rusbridger: Thank you for that. there’s a big gap between there and there - It’s rather intimidating to be recorded in so that is a big problem for all of us so my guess many different formats especially as I haven’t is that we’re somewhere like there at the got a text; I’m going to speak with some slides, moment and we are all working out how to so I shall try and be as guarded as I can in my get to there. Depending on our ownership remarks. The subject I’m going to speak about structures; who owns us; why they own us; is about the most fundamental subject that I pressure from shareholders etc, etc, will could be speaking about I think which is about depend on how newspapers play this coming the future of newspapers. Some people think period. If you’re in America and you’ve got it’s even more of a fundamental question than shareholders breathing down your neck that of whether newspapers have a future and saying we want ever increasing returns, wrapped up in all that is whether newspapers you’re probably going to do what a lot of deserve to have a future and, if they do have a newspapers in America are doing which is cut future, as what, so why does it matter that we your expenses, you sack a lot of journalists should be talking about this tonight. crudely and backroom staff. If you’re the Daily Mail and General Trust you try and sell I’m going to show you a number of your local newspapers, you say well actually slides, some of which I have drawn myself and let’s get out of this business altogether you’ll understand rapidly when you see my because we don’t want to be in this business drawings why I never went into the graphic of manage and decline and they’ve found, I art’s department of The Guardian but stuck think rather to their shock, that they couldn’t with words but I just find it easier to scribble get the price for them that they thought they than send it out to people that actually know were going to get. Knight-Ridder have just what they’re doing. If I start with this very put themselves up for sale so some people crude diagram which I think a version of this is are trying to get out of this business in every newspaper office in the Western altogether; some people like Richard RSA | Newspapers in the Age of Blogs | 16 March 2006 Page 2 Desmond don’t believe in the internet so surprised by books that you didn’t know they’re just going to pretend it doesn’t exist existed and it’s a very nice feeling, but and will see what happens to the Express titles simultaneously there is a site like although he’s taking a very comfortable salary “abooks.co.uk” which if you are looking for a out of the Express titles while they still exist particularly book, is much better than going but probably at some point the Express titles to a local bookshop. I think it says there that are just going to fall off the edge of a cliff as the when you search “abooks”, you’re searching last reader dies. That is very crudely the 13 and a half thousand booksellers position that we’re looking at tonight and you simultaneously and 80 million titles so it’s an can tease that out a tiny bit with some awesome tool if you just want to get that one research that’s just happened, that’s just been volume that you’ve been looking for all your released by the Pew Research Group that’s life. You’re much better off going to tracking all this in America. If you look at the “abooks” than you are you’re local 18 to 24 year olds and the 25 to 34 year olds, bookseller and I have to confess that when there’s not a great appetite to read I’m looking for a book now, my first port of newspapers there if you compare them with call is “abooks” and it’s not my local 65 year olds and 55 year olds so it’s an almost bookseller. If I’m honest, my action in doing exact correlation in age and appetite to read that is probably going to kill my local newspapers. The next generation that’s bookseller off unless he or she can find an coming up at the moment seems not to be economic model that is going to save them very interested in this business of words on so my act of shopping on “abooks” is killing paper and simultaneously if you look at the my local bookseller off even though I value growth in online revenue in the United States, and treasure my local bookseller. That’s the those are very considerable leaps in kind of metaphor for what’s happening, I percentages so they’re starting from very low think, in the print industry today and a lot of base but if you compare the decline in revenue it is down to this man. Now, he’s a guy that you see in print and the 30 to 50% leaps in called Craig Newmark; he’s a little bit revenue online, I think that just gives you a bit younger than me; he lives in San Francisco; more depth in trying to flesh out that original he’s an archetypal West Coast liberal; he diagram of mine which was so poor. reads the novels of John Irving and all the By way of just saying where I come coolest West Coast music you can imagine. from in this; I love newspapers, I have worked He is almost single-handedly destroying the in newspapers for nearly 30 years and I would American newspaper industry through this love newspapers to go on so all the people tool which is something called “Craig’s List”. who, if I can anticipate some of your questions; I’m sorry if I’m going too slow for some of you are going to say at the end that some of you, I may be going too fast for you can’t read a computer in the bath; I like some of you but I’ll try and sort of pitch it at that feeling of print on paper; it’s very portable the canter at what I imagine to be the median and all that is true.