Do online media need a sub-editor?

David Montgomery, chief executive of newspaper giant Mecom, runs 200 papers across five countries in Europe. He believes that sub-editors are less and less needed:

Reporters out in the field can call up a page on their laptop and put copy straight onto the page without intervention. It means journalists can be freed from humdrum roles and the sub-editing culture can break down.

While he was talking mainly about print newspapers, this might be even more true for online media and blogs.

In a recent debate in Brussels, a well known French blogger on EU affairs statet that he enjoys very much the new freedom that his blog gives him: Without the need to convince his editor-in-chief about the relevance of the story and without any time or length constraint, he can publish basically everything he deems interesting directly to his blog.

In a media world where the blog culture and old journalism traditions start to converge the role of a sub-editor might need to be re-considered. David Montgomery puts it this way:

“I come from a world where editor-in-chiefs are control freaks who want to control every word. We’ve got to let that go.”

Your reactions are welcome.