Journalism has changed beyond all recognition over the past two decades – and while the exclusive story remains the basic unit of currency, the process of story conception, commissioning and production are radically different, reflecting a completely new era.

That’s what Irish Times editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic told a room of academics and students of journalism, when he delivered the annual John Cunningham Memorial Lecture at the University of Galway last week.

The lecture honours the late Connacht Tribune editor and long-time journalism lecturer John Cunningham.

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic reflected on his own journalistic career which began in 2007 – the same year as the iPhone first hit the market – at a time when the only version of The Irish Times that really mattered was the print edition.

“For us reporters, it was all about getting onto the front page. And if you couldn’t get onto the front, you pushed to claim the best bit of real estate you could get inside – a page-three display, a prime analysis slot, the cover of Weekend Review,” he recalled.

“We paid almost no attention to data analytics, and we seldom heard from our readers unless they felt so grateful – or, more commonly, so irate – as to email us their views (or their abuse), or write a letter for publication.

“We sent our stories out into the world and, in effect, said to people: ‘Trust us. This is the news.’

“Today, we still produce a printed paper. But it’s now just one distribution channel among many. We publish hundreds of items every day through our app and our website, through our social media accounts, via podcasts and videos and audio stories.

“Where once we sent newspapers out into the world and had hunches about what parts of that paper people were actually reading, we now have access to vast amounts of data showing us exactly what people are reading, at what time, on what device, from where and for how long,” he added.

Caption: Irish Times editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic delivering the annual John Cunningham Lecture in University of Galway.

Get the full story with more photos in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.