It may be considered by some to be impertinent posting my first blog about the future of publishing. For some time the traditional means of publishing, the newspapers and to a lesser extent free to air television, have been worrying about the viability of what has been a well-established business model. Social media, an internet connection and blogging have led some to think that the future of publishing as we knew it, is bleak indeed.

It is remarkably easy to set up a blog. It is incredibly difficult including expensive to set up a newspaper. Yet while tweets and blogs are publishing in one sense, they are also not publishing at all.  To be of value, published material must have survived a rigorous editing process. Easy on-line publishing should not be confused with valuable content that can attract a price. Supply of words has increased hugely over the recent years. Supply of content worth reading has not changed much at all. Anyone with anything interesting to say has always been able to say it to a wide audience. Now, people with not much to say can also say it, but does anyone really care? Will those extra words replace published content as we know it or just add noise?

Publishing has a bright future. Newspapers have a bright future. Any outlet that produces quality writing, analysis and opinion has a bright future.