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March 22, 2007updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Guardian future ‘probably in video’

By Press Gazette

Newspapers are too cheap and there are too many of them.

That is the view of the Guardian's deputy commercial director Adam Freeman, who today rejected the notion that newspapers are under threat as a medium and said the future for his newspaper will "probably be in video".

He told a fringe meeting at today’s Media Guardian Changing Media Summit: "We fundamentally believe in multimedia — we renamed our business Guardian News and Media — and we will give our audience content in whatever form the want whenever they want it.

"Today that means giving them 2,000 words on a piece of paper but in the future it will probably be in video. It's about changing our outlook to meet our consumers‚ needs.”

Freeman said there were “too many newspapers in the UK” and that their number would decline in the future.

BBC correspondent Nick Higham, who was chairing the panel on business models for giving away free content, then said: “That’s not too good for diversity of opinion and freedom of speech is it?”

Freeman spoke of how the Guardian had made certain content on its website — such as its Soulmates dating service and crosswords — is available to paying subscribers only, but stressed that this approach “could not be done” with news.

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