Maurice Lubbock lecture

Yesterday Tordie returned to Canada after a whirlwind visit, far too short as usual.

In the afternoon, to Oxford for the Maurice Lubbock Memorial lecture at the Said Business School, delivered by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of The Guardian [www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1793964,00.html]. The contrast between the dilapidated and modest Victorian building from which Craigslist operates, and its zero charge to users on the one hand [www.flickr.com/photos/itinerant/4505103/in/set-113507/], and the 52-storey glass tower the New York Times is building [http://www.flickr.com/photos/annwarren/142464023/], with its $500 for a small ad, was a striking illustration of the threat to print media's advertising revenues, while the existence of a huge variety of web-based information sources undermined their circulation. The Guardian had invested heavily in its website, and that was the only way to survive.