The Irish Times editor comments on 'Thinking Anew’ column

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Alan English in The Currency sits down and interviews Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, the editor of The Irish Times.

The writer of this blog agrees with Mr Mac Cormac and would add those who wrote the column could have been treated in a more professional and honest manner.

C'est la vie

Below is an extract from the interview.

Alan English: Have you made any mistakes that you’d put your hand up to?

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic: No doubt. There were some things we discontinued and that I feel I should have explained more. We discontinued a religious column called Thinking Anew. It had a very small readership but a very committed readership and we just stopped it. And in hindsight I should have explained why we were doing it.

AE: You got a lot of complaints then?

RMC: Many people did get in touch about it. You do have to be very careful not to lose sight of how your readers will react to something that you might think is marginal. They might strike most people as really small, insignificant things. But to many of our readers they’re really important. But the problem – or the issue – here is that the legacy and the history of The Irish Times is one of its greatest strengths. But if that stifles creativity, if it breeds complacency, that is also a problem. What worked in the print era doesn’t automatically work in the digital age.