Newsroom Summit: Change is opportunity for quality journalism

"Never before have we had access to so much information and never before have the possibilities been so limitless for doing journalism," said Paul Lewis, special projects editor for the Guardian. He was one of the speakers at the World Editor Forum's Newsroom Summit, which drew editors from around the globe to Hamburg, Germany, last week.

If one theme emerged from the presentations and discussions, it was that new practices and innovation are emerging from an environment of constant change.

"I think the next two to three years will be even more revolutionary for news organisations than the last few," said Mathias Müller von Blumencron, editor-in-chief of Germany's newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

Tomas Brunegard, CEO of the Stampen Group in Sweden, said the rapid pace of technological change, particular the "tornado" of mobile growth, was a positive development for news media today.

"We are in the right spot and the right time with the right tools, and it is up to us not to screw it up," he said. "We were taken by surprise by the internet. We were not taken by surprise this time."

The 11th annual Newsroom Summit offered a variety of presentations on all issues of concern for editorial operations of news media companies. Exclusively for members of the World Editors Forum and the World Association of Newspapers and Newspapers (WAN-IFRA), a full executive report on the event can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/summaries.

Non-members can access an abbreviated version of the summary in return for a tweet or a Facebook entry at http://www.wan-ifra.org/events/11th-international-newsroom-summit.