Newspapers could lose the trust of readers if standards are not maintained.

This is the stark warning from NCTJ chairman Kim Fletcher, who discussed meeting the demands of the internet but not neglecting print at the council’s annual meeting in London.

He said media companies had professional reputations to maintain and couldn’t use economic necessity for change as an excuse for bad journalism.

“Unless we maintain high standards, newspapers will lose the very qualities that currently give their ‘brand’ such value on the internet,” he told delegates.

“People come to them because they can believe what they publish.

“If that trust evaporates, they will be no better off than every other site fighting to gain an audience.”

Speaking about the challenge this posed for the NCTJ, he said: “With old distinctions between print and broadcast breaking down fast and internet websites demanding a mix of skills, we are working hard to see that trainees are properly equipped for the new world.

“But for the long term good of the industry, we must never lose sight of the basic tenets of journalism, of the importance of traditional values such as accuracy and of the reality that the law applies to new media just as it does to print.”