The Very Best Newspaper in the World

Free online… but I can get the hard copy in NY for $3.50

It is, in my opinion, the best newspaper in the world.

It’s insightful, intelligent, in-depth and a great read. Every day.

The Guardian, formerly, The Manchester Guardian is a vibrant, living symbol of why Britain is still the journalism center (or centre) of the world.

How is it that such a small country consistently delivers such outstanding journalism, from The BBC and The Guardian?  (The other papers are not so bad either, even The Daily Mail, though tabloid to the core, is extremely well written and entertaining.

There is a long tradition here of sharp, intelligent journalism and clear cut advocacy.

The Guardian is a liberal paper and makes no bones about it.

I am in the UK because I have been invited by The Guardian to spend two days with them talking about video.

There is a lot to talk about, but there is also, I think, a unique opportunity to drive a new kind of video – one that is as smart and sharp and accurate as the print version of The Guardian.

Papers like The San Francisco Chronicle or The New York Times are in trouble. They are in trouble, to a great extent, because they failed to adapt to a changing world.  The Chronicle, which is a very good paper, is on the verge of bankruptcy.  US papers have been eviscerated because of Craigslist.  It stole the classifieds and their income.

Ironically, the offices of The Chronicle are just a few blocks from Craig Newmark’s apartment in San Francisco.  The Chronicle could have started Craigslist, they could have bought it, they could have owned it. A Chronicle that was married to Craigslist today would have no financial troubles whatsoever. They could afford to send the best journalists all over the world to do the best journalism. But they didn’t … so they don’t.

The New York Times once could have bought Google for $1 million. But they didn’t.  They didn’t because they didn’t think that internet search engines had anything to do with their business.  A strange postion for a paper whose very motto is ‘all the news that’s fit to print’. If The New York Times owend Google (or part of it), there would be no question about their becoming the engine for journalism in the 21st Century. But they didn’t.. so they aren’t.

The Guardian, on the other hand, owns, among other things, autotrader.co.uk, the busiest auto trader site in the UK and the British equivalent of owning Craigslist.  They understood, way before anyone else, that the future of newspapers was not just in paper.