Tech & Biz

Newspapers must embrace digital future, NowPublic tells World Editors

by Actual News Geezer | June 5, 2007 at 10:33 am

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Leonard Brody, CEO of NowPublic, spoke at the World Newspaper Congress and 14th World Editors' Forum, being jointly held in Cape Town. The WAN is a major gathering of newspaper editors and managers who collectively are responsible for a $180 billion per year industry, with more than 2 million employees. It's also an industry that is struggling to deal with rapid technological change and disruptive news distribution networks such as NowPublic, Facebook, and by millions of bloggers who do not wait to be told what's important or what should be covered.

Brody's message was that newspapers can participate in social networks and ultimately, news consumers will benefit.

Leonard Brody, chief executive and co-founder of NowPublic.com, a website for "citizen journalism" with over 90 000 contributors in ordinary people worldwide, believed the monopoly of traditional media was being challenged by camera phones and other technology enabling anyone to find news.

"We are moving very quickly into an era where everything is being recorded," he told the meeting.