#WANIndia2009: Newspapers must stop 'pandering to advertisers', says Bangladeshi editor

Newspapers have pandered to the needs of advertisers for too long and have betrayed journalism, a Bangladeshi editor passionately pronounced yesterday.

Speaking at the World Editors Forum (WEF), which is running alongside the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) conference, Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of the Bangladesh's Daily Star paper, said relationships with advertisers had killed newspapers as a democratic vehicle.

The US is a good example of the problem, said Anam.

"For the last 20 years with a few exceptions (…) they have devalued their content; pandered to advertisers and neglected the readers on whose will and empathy their futures play," he told delegates.

"We have taken that exalted position that society has given us and given it to the advertisers. That this is the fundamental betrayal of the ethos of journalism.

"We have allowed it to corrupt our thoughts and we have destroyed the basis on which the public give us trust."

In the session on print's place in the future of journalism, Anam said newspapers must remain central to all new technologies and platforms taken up by publishers.

Saving journalism does not mean abandoning newspapers, he said.

"In South Asia we have not neglected the readers. We have tried to find out what the readers want and not neglected their needs. If we want to rebuild the place held by our newspapers, we must take a step backwards," said Anam.

"The future of newspapers lies in its past with some amendments. If content is king, then let newspapers be the empire in which it flourishes most."

In a presentation that laid blame at the industry's door rather than pointing the finger at online business and search engines, Anam said newspapers have a bright future as a medium, but only if the industry itself is not compromised by its own actions.

All coverage of #WANIndia2009 from Journalism.co.uk can be found at this link.

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