Powerful editor as web optimist

Washington Post editor Len Downie with a very upbeat assessment of the web’s impact on journalism:

Downie said that when it first became apparent that the Internet would change the news business, executives and editors worried that its influence would erode the quality of journalism, increase competition, and become a distraction for the reporters and editors working on the print edition of the paper. But he said instead that the increased focus on the Web has “improved journalism a lot, way more than we could have expected.”

And he added, bloggers and media aren’t competitors – the relationship is symbiotic.