Simon Waldman interviewed

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Journalism.co.uk have finally pinned down the much-in-demand Guardian's Director of Digital Publishing Simon Waldman for a lengthy interview. Here's the key quotes:

"I still think we're way ahead of the pack among newspapers and the BBC only ever nudges ahead because it has such a vast resource to play with.

"I think the WashingtonPost has done some interesting things recently with mash-ups and Technorati, and at the other end of the scale I think the way that the Newbury Weekly News has adopted video is really quite spectacular given the scale of its operation."

"... Everyone is on podcast alert at the moment and that's not a bad thing, although there is a danger of oversupply into the market.

"Within 12 months we'll have a much clearer picture of the real value of this, both in terms of audience and advertising. I have no doubt video will be next and we'll see an increasingly wide range of offerings from different organisations.

"The point about homogeneity is an important one and we need things to kick against it.

"The first is truly distinctive content - in particular for newspaper sites that means original news reporting and informed analysis.

"The second is the community of users - and the way that publishers let them interact with the site and with each other."