Will data finally kill the newspaper star?

Here's my latest column for today's MediaTel's Newsline, an exploration of the - seemingly - profoundly negative implications for quality journalism that derive from personalisation services on one hand, and so-called targeted advertising on the other.

A pretty bleak picture, I'm afraid ... I continue to find that wherever I look, data is clearly not much of a friend to media.

And I can't help but grieve a little - as one must also for the parallel casualties in music, literature and film - for the collapse of "quality for quality's sake" that this trajectory forces on our culture. Would the great journalists of today and yesterday ever have emerged, let alone made a living, in such a punishing climate? Of course not.