This is an edited version of Ros Atkins’ speech to the Society of Editors on May 11, 2022.
I note my talk is called The Future of News — and that I have around 15 minutes to tell you what it is. I think at this point I should manage expectations. I’ve not got it all worked out. I definitely don’t know what the future is. But I have spent long enough trying to guess where we’re heading to have some rules of thumb — some guidelines that I hope give me at least a chance of working out how my journalism needs to evolve, and how organizations can evolve to give new types of journalism the best chance.
This work of innovation and modernization can sometimes feel like an extra. The form our journalism takes, the way we structure our staffing, the way we structure our daily output, developing products — this can feel secondary to the stories. And I get that: we all became journalists because of a desire to hold to account, to uncover stories — to tell stories. None of that has gone anywhere. But for me the moment we’ve reached is asking fundamental questions about where journalism fits into our world.
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