November 8, 2006 — At a Shorenstein Center brown-bag lunch, Neil Budde, vice president and executive editor of Yahoo! News and founding editor of the Wall Street Journal Online, spoke about the seeming tension between traditional and new media.
Budde asserted that a “sea change” has occurred in the industry over the last year. While publishers — particularly of smaller, local newspapers — were once reluctant to partner with portals such as Yahoo!, there is now a “huge appetite among local publishers to tap into this and work with us,” Budde said.
Budde also discussed user-generated content — particularly in the areas of photo and video — which has become a hallmark of Yahoo! News. Despite being criticized for embracing the work of amateurs at the expense of professionals, Budde maintains that he does not believe citizen contribution to journalism must be an either/or proposition.
“Our challenge is [to] skillfully blend the two together,” he said.
