The theme of last week’s Society of Editors conference was trust ‒ trust is important, we all need to get readers to trust us more by being more trustworthy.
Exclusives are all very well ‒ but not if they are wrong ‒ got it?
There you go, that’s saved you £700 and a trip to Manchester. But amid all the high-minded talk about trust (remember that trust thing by the way) an unexpected dissonant voice arose.
Axegrinder awoke from his post-lunch snooze to hear former Guardian editor and media commentator Peter Preston reminding News of the World editor Colin Myler of the need to keep things edgy (yes, I did get that the right way around).
Preston said: “When I wake up in the morning and start wafting around websites, the first one I turn to is Matt Drudge, the next one is Perez Hilton to find out what’s going on in Hollywood. They are not unencumbered by regulations but it’s where the audience goes.
“If you talk too much about regulation and trust you sound a bit boring, don’t you?â€
Well that’s next year’s conference theme sorted anyway.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
