Club Dinner: Why Journalism Matters More Than Ever – and How It Has to Adapt to Survive

In the last 10 years, The Guardian has grown from a national newspaper in Britain into a global news organisation reaching 160 million browsers a month. Its investigative journalism has exposed Edward Snowden’s disclosures about government surveillance programs as well as phone hacking and other unethical practices at News Corp. publications. But in a world in which 4 billion people now have the ability to publish, distribute and discuss the news themselves, news organisations must continuously adapt. The question of how to do that is urgent and crucial for the future of journalism.

Alan Rusbridger is Principal of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford, where he also chairs the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. He was editor-in-chief of The Guardian for 20 years, overseeing its transformation into a world-leading digital news organisation. Under his leadership, the paper became one of the most-visited serious English-language websites in the world. Investigations into WikiLeaks, tax avoidance, phone hacking and the Snowden revelations won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Rusbridger wrote about the transformation and challenges of the news industry in his book “Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now” (2018).