On the record
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, has come to the West Coast, he says, in search of enlightenment.
He doesn’t need tips on publishing a newspaper. His award-winning, recently revamped, daily is doing well, although like most British papers it doesn’t make money.
No, he and his entourage are pow-wowing with Silicon Valley techies. The people who understand the internet.
Why? Because The Guardian has just under 400,000 readers. Its website, however, has 11 million readers a month.
Rusbridger’s chat last night with Orville Schell, Dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, made for a diverting evening.
Much of the discussion centred on the vagaries of the British press, none of which was news to me. What I did relish though, was getting a reviving injection of essential Britishness. With his crumpled black suit, foppish hair cut and self-deprecating manner, Rusbridger couldn’t be anything but.
I did ask a question at the session, but have thought of another one since then. Why does The Guardian continue to pay such appalling rates to its freelance writers? (I declare an interest here.) Is it because, as some argue, they know they can get away with it because journalists favour writing for the paper they prefer to read?
Rusbridger seems like a nice chap. I hope the answer is not that cynical.
March 7th, 2006 at 10:58 am
The new center of the media universe
Tracey Taylor: “The Guardian has just under 400,000 readers. Its website, however, has 11 million readers a month.”
Tracey heard Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger speaking last night at Berkeley’s journalism school. He was here as part…