BBC Radio 4 - Can newspaper survive?

Listening live to a series of excellent analysis of the media on line on the BBC - Can Newspapers Survive? by Industry heavyweight Kim Fletcher

Guardian Editor, Alan Rusbridger says he's excited by change, adding before hand the precariousness of the industry and how things are changing.

Online advertising does not generate enough compared to newspapers, but overtime this will change, but will this go to newspapers in their current guise, was a question raised.

Andrew Gowers formely editor the FT spoke about mistmatch in online advertising and in the newspaper, despite the fact that online was growing fast.

David Montgomery, formerly Mirror exec is building a newspaper in Europe - Newspaper will be run by those from the online world he says.

Different technologies to read newspapers will appear; Alan Rusbridger talking about if someone creates the ipod to read newspapers, while another interviewer says the mobile phone is the next battle ground.

But adds another pundit Alan print will always be here.

Rupert Murdoch, Kim says, has just invested 650m in new printing plants. A shrewed operator with knowledge of the internet, so this investment is saying something.

Kim concludes that it's about journalism, so if there's a newspaper or not, it's the journalism that matters.

The credits said broadcast produced by City Productions. Is that Adrian Monck's at City Uni?

I'm about to find out.

Listen to the next programme tomorrow if you work in the media or not.

p.s There's the Society of Newspapers Editor's conference going on. Be interesting to see what emerges from them given the frenetic nature of this debate and in light of the NUJ exec saying web 2.0 is rubbish.

Read Shane and the Telegraph's exchange