The future’s bright, the future’s high resolution.

I went along to the Guardian last week to see what I could find out about online journalism. It was a drizzly afternoon, and I was nursing my first cold of the winter by eating codeine at far too regular intervals (by the way, this doesn’t work, it just stops you coughing, but plays havoc with the rest of your functions). Still, I was excited, maybe they’d just give me a job.

Sarah Crown, a fantastic editor of the new arts and entertainment blog, was brave enough to risk any contagion, and kindly offered to take me out for a cup of coffee and some cake. It quickly became obvious that our award winning online guru was spot on with the seemingly harsh warning he gave to us wannabe print journo’s.

Reiterating David’s point about the bleak future of paper journalism, she said the nationals are already beginning to axe jobs, and that for fledgling journo’s, resisting the tide of online is career suicide. She told me that the Guardian not only expect all potential employees to have a blog that’s been hit black and blue, but also to know about other interesting blogs out there.

One question she said to be to always be ready for in interview is ‘which websites are you interested in?’ Apparently this is likely to come up for most newspaper jobs, and must be answered by showing a good knowledge of certain websites. As everyone knows a bit about the web, we as journalists have to show not only that we know about it, but that we know how to use it as a tool.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom, she reassuringly explained that even the hardened bloggers down at Guardian towers don’t know exactly what’s going on all the time, and that everyone is still learning about online and its potential.