Newspapers face a major dilemma in trying to hold governments to account while also trying to be commercially successful and popular with readers, a leading South African publisher told the WAN conference.
It might be necessary for lifestyle supplements to subsidise more worthy types of journalism in future, predicted Ms Connie Molusi, executive director of Johnnic Publishing. She said powerful currents were sweeping the mass media "as well as the social systems in which they operate".
Newspapers were no exception. "The greater array of channel choices for our readers mirrors the greater array of choices presented by our democracy. As newspapers, our role is to put those choices before our society along with the channels. "Only by deepening the democratic discourse and cultivating the concept of rights will we ensure our democracy's and our society's future and, of course, our long-term business viability," she said.
Ms Molusi said holding governments to account was often easier than gaining commercial success. "This is so much harder to achieve in the face of a plethora of choices and in an environment of ongoing transformation," she said.
She then quoted the British MP, Mr David Curry, who recently lambasted the modern media for a journalism "that entertains, rather than informs" and which chooses "to ignore the international dimension of news".
She presented his views in further detail to the conference, saying that newspapers were increasingly going downhill, with more lifestyle stories, trivia, scandal, celebrity gossip, sensational crime and sex in high places.
Ms Molusi said: "Can we withstand the trend described by Mr Curry when the rest of the world is succumbing?
"Can we build a new rights culture and cultivate democracy, inform, educate and entertain in the right proportions, so as to retain and build readership? Can we cost effectively deliver to advertisers?" she asked.
"If the lifestyle, entertainment and gossip supplements have to subsidise the reality checks on poverty, the stories about marginalised people's lives. . .then we must do them in the best way possible. If added value will ensure our success we must think and work smarter to add to it."