Prediction 2007: Newspapers will have to open up
Number 5 on a list of predictions from a iA, a multinational information architecture firm (and makers of this interesting 2007 interweb map): Newspapers will have to open up.
This is what they write:
What we experienced in 2006 was just a first round in wild independent journalism. The newspaper will learn to integrate their readers and act as filters with the help of their readership. That they have not figured out yet how to do that is nothing else but pathetic. Wasn’t the reader’s opinion section always the most read section of a newspaper (at least in Switzerland that is the case). The first Newspaper that manages to integrate key readers as democratic representatives of their readership, while building up a in interactive base concept in how they generate and structure content - will rule the online landscape of newspapers.
Newspapers are still far easier to read than online information. Imagine what the New York Times could be if it leveraged the intelligence of its readership. Imagine how that paper would sell.
I guess it’s a good thing that newspapers made some non-journalism web-oriented top-10 list. The prediction itself is reasonable. Information when done right is flexible, and right now most newspaper-dot-coms have a real inflexible approach to their information. Considering how much info passes through a newspaper every day, that’s a darn damn shame.