It’s late and I have just made it back to teh Schatzalp Hotel, perched high above Davos and only accessible via a tram which runs every 20 minutes. Beautiful views in the morning and delays in the darkness when you are wiped out and ready to sleep.

I went to a dinner on The Future of News which was very interesting – largely populated by journalists understandably concerned about what technoloqy convergence means for their readership, their revenue — and indeed for their continued existence. I sat next to the Director of BBC Global News who joked that he had vied for one of the two blogging spots at BBC online covering Davos (which landed in my lap), and been denied as too “insider ball”. Things have changed, haven’t they, that someone like me with virtually no journalistic training is afforded an opportunity to report via blog on the BBC — still, according to one commentator tonight one of the most trusted brands amongst all markets in the UK. People commented that blogs have penetrated because the readers want authenticity, and that means more than a reporter’s pedigree. As one BBC staff member commented using a cricket analogy, “the crowd has invaded the pitch, and wants to play in the game.” Nevertheless, speaking of authenticity…as a second-time blogger I notice the instinct to self-censor. Who knows who may read this? When and where? And of course I’m aware that I need to make it by the BBC and WED editorial boards, which to their credit (or my discredit) haven’t bothered to censor me yet.

A consistent refrain at tonight’s discussion on the Future of News was the emphasis on the need for journalists to continue to uphold a standard for generating quality, credible news – as WITNESS board member Andrew Blau has said, in an increasingly noisy media environment, trusted guides become ever more important. But my favorite quote of the evening was from a US reporter, who commented that an editor’s job is to separate the wheat from the chaff….and publish the chaff. It goes without saying that when we’re all busy gourging on chaff, we wind up fat and malnourished.

One of the most interesting realizations for me tonight was that the US press was much more concerned about revenue streams and survival than their counterparts in countries like Nigeria, China, and India, who talked about how readership is increasing, even of print newspapers, as disposable income and literacy grows. Yet another reminder that we tend to live in our own universe in the US.

Signing off….Akamai’s CEO agreed to a meeting at 7am with Peter Gabriel and I to talk about our new web portal and I think I may need to sled down the mountain at 6.30am in the dark to make it on time (no joke!)