Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of the Guardian, watches the first session of the International Media Council at Davos and, observing the moguls of news meeting the moguls of new, finds a parallel:
There have been many such discussions over the years – but few with such a concentration of high-level engagement from the people running so-called old media organisations. The discussion was unfocussed and (as always) inconclusive. But it’s a bit like climate change. Five years ago a lot of time was wasted listening to the deniers. Now there are very few: The nature of the problem has dawned on everyone – and an industry which is notoriously uncollaborative is actually getting together to find some solutions.
Yes, I think 2006 was the year when all big, old media realized they were screwed if they didn’t utterly change their models and perhaps still screwed even if they do.
And I like this parallel. Perhaps it shows that there is a master plan, after all: Just as we need more trees to balance all that damned carbon, we stop killing them.
(I’m catching up on reading blog posts — let alone news — from my week in Davos. The irony of the conversation is that with unmissable things happening from 8a to 1a, one has no time for reading news and comment on it.)
