John Paton

James Rainey, who covers the news media for the LA Times, has profiled John Paton, who replaced Dean Singleton as the head of the MediaNews Group chain. Paton is pushing digital media hard. Rainey says Paton’s goal is to have one-third of MNG’s content produced by staff members, one-third by the community and another third aggregated from other sources. Paton tells Rainey that the formula isn’t intended to reduce the need for paid staffers but instead will increase the net flow of information.

Paton also told Rainey that his remark that traditional print journalism has a value of “about zero” has been misinterpreted. He said he meant only that the ability to present stories immediately online “makes it very difficult to say that stories in the morning paper about, say, what the mayor said last night, have any real value.” (Photo credit: Tim Thompson, The Oakland Press)