Quality journalism is in "the fight of its life," the editor of The Times James Harding told the Society of Editors conference in Stansted today.
Harding said to save quality journalism The Times was taking on the "culture of free" after seeing the impact it had had on the music industry.
He revealed it had cost The Times £1.5 million to staff its Baghdad bureau during the Iraq War and added "we are involved in the fight of our lives to make sure we can put independent reporting on an economically sustainable footing."
Harding said to do this The Times from next Spring would introduce a 24-hour subscription to readers accessing the digital version of the paper. Longer subscriptions would also be introduced. He told the conference that The Times would also take better care of its readers with loyalty schemes and home delivery.
"People will absolutely pay for news. What sells is quality, independent news," Harding said.
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Interesting that he cited what has happened to the music industry as a warning about the risk to quality journalism. This interesting graph suggests that, while big music labels might have suffered, the freeing up of them music business has actually led to professional musicians earning more money - presumably stimulating more quality music: http://bit.ly/4nQA8Q
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