Robert Peston blogged his lecture at Edinburgh, which shamefully slid under my radar amidst all the Sturm und Drang over James Murdoch’s speech.

It’s well worth a read.

One key quote for us:

Certainly my strong advice to any young person thinking of becoming a journalist is to acquire all the skills, don’t think of themselves as wanting to be broadcast journalists, or radio journalists or print journalists: increasingly it’s all the same thing. What matters is what has always mattered – the facts, the story. The skill for a journalist is unearthing information that matters to people and then communicating it as clearly, accurately – and if possible as entertainingly – as possible.

Spot on.

Another key quote

There already appears to be a consensus that in the provision of regional news there has been a massive market failure that will require state intervention and subsidy to rectify.

Spot off.

There’s no such consensus. Not outside medialand, anyway.

How is it a ‘market failure’ when businesses go broke because they can’t make a product people want at a price they’re prepared to pay? I’d say it’s quite the reverse.

And why should people subsidize failing media businesses? What about pubs, bakeries, video-rental shops, clothes shops?

It’s bad when businesses go broke. But it’s worse when they’re kept alive by hand-outs.