Quotes of the week

Les Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones: “These digital visionaries tell people like me that we just don’t understand them. They talk about the wonders of the interconnected world, about the democratization of journalism. The news, they say, is viral now – that we should be grateful. Well, I think all of us need to beware of geeks bearing gifts. Here we are in 2009 – more viral, less profitable.”

Business secretary Peter Mandelson: "A healthy culture of local news is a public good and the government can’t just wash its hands of some responsibility for sustaining that public good."

Mandelson on former PCC chairman Sir Christopher Meyer: "a slightly absurd individual"

Anthony Delano in the British Journalism Review: "A form of licensing that a journalist would require in order to work at a certain level, and which bound them to agreed professional standards, might do something to re-establish trust in the newsmarket."

Melvyn Bragg in The Word magazine: "I've never gone above the level of editor. I've been asked to do things up there, but as soon as you do that you've got to go to meetings. And they're killers."

Justice Secretary Jack Straw in the New Statesman: "Our libel laws are having a chilling effect. By definition, it's not hitting the most profitable international media groups, News International or Associated Newspapers and so on, though it's not good news for them.
"It is hitting the press that is vital to our democracy but whose finances are much more difficult, and that includes magazines, one or two of the nationals, and regional and local newspapers, and it's really bad for them. That's why I will be changing the law on defamation costs".