Rusbridger: Express will “fall off a cliff”

Posted by Martin Stabe on 23 March 2006 at 15:00
Tags: Craigslist, Express, Guardian, Journalism, Online

Before winning Newspaper of the Year (and then being turned away at the door of the Met Bar after-party) this week, it seems Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger was busy recycling bits of the Craig Newmark speech he gave at Queen Mary, University of London, back in February.

In the speech’s recent incarnation, delivered at the Royal Society of Arts on 16 March (MP3, 21Mb) and reported by Mike Butcher, Rusbridger added a few snipes at those who don’t don’t share his foresight about the Internet’s effect on the newspaper business model:

He noted that Richard Desmond’s Express Newspapers are trying to “pretend the Internet doesn’t exist” - and Desmond himself is drawing a large salary in the meantime. “At some point,” said Rusbridger dryly “The Express titles will fall off a cliff as the last reader dies.”

Tags: Craigslist, Express, Guardian, Journalism, Online