Newspapers will always have a future says Harris

Some uplifting remarks for the newspaper industry from the novelist Robert Harris in this morning's Independent.

Although he is glad not to be a journalist any longer, Harris remains a firm believer in the importance of newspapers. He reads several a day and it was an article about Pompeii that inspired him to write his book of that name. The role of the journalist remains vital, he says. "On the whole, I'm optimistic about the future because I think people will always want to read the filtered views of professional journalists. I don't think that's just comforting ourselves, it's just a fact. There is good stuff that's free on blogs and so on, but you have to wade through an awful lot of rubbish to get to it."

The author also appears to be a fan of bundling

should we pay to read content online? "Yes, I welcome that, but I think the future is probably in packages, whereby you choose which titles you want to read and pay a certain amount a year to get access to them.