‘Wash Post’ Editor Downie: Everyone in Our Newsroom Wants to Be a Blogger

From Editor & Publisher: 'Wash Post' Editor Downie: Everyone in Our Newsroom Wants to Be a Blogger. (HT Titusonenine)

WASHINGTON Speaking at the Online News Association's annual convention in Washington, D.C., Friday, Washington Post editor Len Downie looked back on the changes in newsgathering and production over the past decade, and listed some of what he thought would be the biggest challenges for news organizations in the near future.

Downie said that when it first became apparent that the Internet would change the news business, executives and editors worried that its influence would erode the quality of journalism, increase competition, and become a distraction for the reporters and editors working on the print edition of the paper. But he said instead that the increased focus on the Web has "improved journalism a lot, way more than we could have expected."