Opening Remarks

Michael Williams began the day with a video clip entitled “Epic 2015”, by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson. The video plays like a video version of 1985, only instead of the government taking over the lives of the people, information technology does. Thompson and Sloan describe a world where Google and Microsoft battle against one another for dominance in the media market. In this media market, there are no more powerful newspaper or broadcast companies. Thompson and Sloan predict a showdown between The New York Times and Google for media dominance, and in the end “all the news that’s fit to print” goes dark. In this new world, the role of news and information has reversed. Instead of media sending out information and helping to shape the opinions of the public, the public is now in charge. Blog posts and user-driven content become the main source of news gathering and dissemination.

“Today is the day we will stop talking about what you are going to do with your newspapers,” Williams said.  “You have to focus on how you are going to take what you learn here today and tomorrow and make your online content better.”

Williams called on the editors around the room to work towards stronger online content, and move away from the worry over printed editions of their newspapers. As a lover of the printed word, everything from the smell of the crumpled papers and the smear of black ink it leaves behind on my fingers, this is a hard truth to face, but a necessary one all the same.