Simon Kelner has made his views known on the internet and the media's failure to incorporate it into a workable business model on making occasions.
Yesterday evening,speaking to students at UCLAN,he reiterated those views describing the net as the "most serious threat to journalism"
The editor in chief of the Independent is an old boy at the University ,back in the days when it was simply Preston Polytechnic and the journalism course contained just thirty individuals.
The relationship between print and online was to Kelner,a conundrum.But the media made a big mistake when it decided to join the rush to put its content online.
People got use to free content and to turn back the clock now was akin to shutting the barn doors after the horse had bolted.
The Independent,he felt, should opt out of the inflationary rush to put all its content online,instead concentrating on niche output which may sustain a paid content model.
The revenues from online advertising will not sustain quality journalism
He is still optimistic about the printed word,believing that newspapers are not simply a medium for content but an intrinsic product themselves.People prefer to hold a newspaper and feel the pages and get the print on their hands.
He displayed a passion for journalism and asked that if the media crumbled,who would hold the legislators to account? Newspapers had to change and should concentrate on giving some meaning to the stories.
We have heard the viewspaper model before.It was a model that he firmly stood behind at the Independent and since being moved upstairs is no doubt pressing to the newspaper's board.
Kelner is a journalism enthusiast and it was heartening to hear his passion coming through.However as with his paper,idealism has to make way for the economic realities.
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