Edinburgh: ‘IPod moment’ could render print extinct, predicts Guardian editor

Posted by Colin Crummy on 25 August 2007 at 16:33
Tags: Channel 4, E-paper, Edinburgh 2007, Edinburgh International Television Festival, Guardian, ITN, Journalism, Podcasting

The newspaper industry could be rocked by its own “iPod moment” where a device reads text so well that renders print extinct, according to the editor of The Guardian.

At a session entitled “Who’ll Win the Web?” at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Alan Rusbridger said: “For the newspaper there will be an iPod moment where someone creates a device that is so brilliant at reading text, the newspaper becomes irrelevant.”

Rusbridger also said the death of The Guardian in print would “in some ways make life simpler” and said that he was confident his team would continue to produce the product within the same Guardian spirit elsewhere. “I’d be quite relaxed about it,” he added.

He admitted that The Guardian was tying up people experimenting with podcasts that gained few listeners but said it was because the newspaper was experimenting with everything. “There’s a fair amount of wasted effort at the moment but we’re learning all the time.”

The debate centred on whether print media or broadcasters might prosper in the digital age.

Rod Henwood, new business director at Channel 4 said: “In some ways we are less threatened than newspapers because free broadcasters don’t have paying customers to lose. We have paying customers to gain through the internet.”

He said that broadcasters could better retain exclusivity on products in a way that news providers could not. “News is very much commodised on the net. Immersive, long form video entertainment is harder to commodise. For broadcasters that have got rights that are their own, have a chance to stand out on the internet more than purely news providers.”

ITN chief executive Mark Wood said newspapers were more than just news and it was crucial to make those elements – like lifestyle sections - pay in a multimedia strategy.

Rusbridger said: “The BBC, CNN, ITN – it’s sort of an article of faith that they are impartial and unbiased. We can be as impartial and biased as we like and on comment is free we have thousands of robust opinions.” He foresaw this as “an interesting battleground” which would be partly settled by regulator.