Media&Marketing:In the future, will aspiring journalists be judged as much for their web skills as for their writing skills, and will newspaper editors recruit journalists from blog pages instead of from journalism schools? writes Siobhán O'Connell

It is estimated that there are 110 million blogs worldwide and the boundaries between journalists and the general public are becoming blurred, as technology allows ordinary people to help shape the news, rather than simply being told it.

Media Predictions 2008, a report published by Deloitte, suggests that it may become increasingly commonplace for traditional media not only to acknowledge the existence of the online world, but also to concede, albeit only occasionally, that those stories are broken by 'citizen journalists'.

According to Deloitte: "Traditional media outlets have been loath to admit that they have based a news story on material that originated online. Blogs, podcasts, wikis - any user generated content at all - have simply not been considered legitimate, credible sources of information. But during 2008, traditional media companies are more likely to move towards a more active and dynamic online presence."

Deloitte's media and technology team note that the traditional path of creating a columnist is a major investment that may not always pay off.

Hiring journalism school graduates, training them for years, having them cover a beat and then giving them a column is not a guaranteed route to attracting healthy readership.

On the other hand, there is a growing number of bloggers and podcasters who have already attracted a loyal audience, sometimes amounting to tens of thousands of people. Says Deloitte: "A columnist with a devoted following would be an asset to most traditional media outlets, and hiring someone from the web is likely to be much less expensive that poaching successful staff from a competitor."

So should aspiring journalists make a blog their number one priority? According to Brian Trench, senior lecturer in the School of Communications in Dublin City University: "I can see the logic, because there is a readymade profile of work to assess. But I have no evidence that it has been happening in Ireland. In fact, established journalists are expected now to take on a blogging role as an adjunct to their job. It might happen more in specialist trade publications and in sports writing."

Trench added that it is increasingly common for journalists to work across a number of different platforms, including the web. However journalists don't yet require technical web skills as dedicated programmers work in the background performing the technical roles.

Such demarcation is rapidly disappearing in the US. Deloitte says that many newspapers have started hiring 'content creators' and staff who are programmers first and journalists second. The eport predicts: "As this trend continues, new online features like interactive maps and searchable databases are expected to become important differentiating features for websites. Traditional reporters are unlikely to have the skill sets to create and maintain this kind of content."

Newspapers in Ireland have been making big investments in their online presence. Peter McPartlin, strategic director with media buyer Carat Ireland, said a "very welcome change in 2007" was the redesign and redevelopment of a number of popular Irish sites, particularly Ireland.com, Entertainment.ie and Independent.ie.

He said: "Enhanced interactive features, such as streaming video, regularly updated content, blogs and user-generated content have become an integral component of these sites as more publishers place increased emphasis on audience engagement. As a result, all sites have witnessed significant traffic increases within the past year."

This investment has been rewarded with increased advertising revenue. According to McPartlin, some niche Irish sites now regularly run out of available advertising inventory.

"This has caught both the sites and media planners by surprise and the immediate response by some sales teams was to usher in overinflated rate increases. We estimate inflation for display activity came in at 15 per cent in 2007."

For the moment, established newspaper titles in Ireland rule the online roost. The potential for dynamic change in the future is highlighted by OhmyNews, the world's largest online community newspaper.

Published in South Korea, home of abundant and cheap broadband, OhmyNews has 65 full-time journalists and draws content from a pool of 40,000 'citizen journalists'. However while the publication is regarded as being influential, it is struggling to make a profit.

While 'content creation' is an important aspect of the media business, equally important is nailing down sales.