You have to hand it to David Montgomery. He is nothing if not consistent. I see that he is to axe 30 journalists from the Berliner Zeitung, almost a quarter of the editorial department.
The chief executive of Mecom was in Belgrade last week at the IPI world congress preaching a message that chilled the editors and journalists he was addressing: profits are good for news. He also said that the "ethos of our business is journalism, news and content", and this was underlined by having placed former journalists in charge of the company's five divisions.
But there was a clear warning about his frustration with the staff of the Berliner Zeitung because of their (alleged) refusal to adapt to the demands of integrated print-online journalism. "That attitude must be buried in short order", he said, adding: "Some in Berlin have crossed that bridge to the new world." Note the some.
In many ways his short speech, and his response to sceptical questioners, was uncontroversial. It was like listening to many digital missionaries. The difference between the majority of net visionaries and Monty, however, is his overweening desire to make money from online journalism.
I'm not saying that profits are not welcome to the news business. I am contesting that the lust for the highest possible profit margin is no longer tenable.
