FT’s Barber on the future of financial journalism

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber gave the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture on Nov. 22, at City University of London on the state of business journalism.

Here is an excerpt:

Today’s business and financial journalist has never been so versatile, never so tested. On multiple platforms: print, audio, camera. They code, they compose, they collaborate in ways unimaginable a decade ago.

And that’s a very good thing because quality business and financial journalism has never been more important. Too big to fail, if you like — not only in terms of the stories but also because of their contribution to an informed shareholding democracy.

The bad news is that the threats to serious financial journalism are hiding in plain sight:

• The army of public relations advisers employed by individuals and companies with thin skins and deep pockets
• “Black PR” — sometimes pushed by ex-spooks — that uses social media platforms to attack and undermine reputations and independent journalism
• The rising power of private markets versus public markets, making it far harder for journalists to access information
• The encroachment of the law via gagging injunctions, non-disclosure agreements and the chilling new notion of confidentiality
• And, yes, the spectre of state-sponsored regulation of the press

Read more here.