User-generated content has its place, but it won't come near replacing professional journalists or filmmakers, Australia's BigPond boss Justine Milne told The Age Thursday.

“The idea six months ago was that the days of newspapers and journalists had ended and that this was the age of user empowerment and everything was going to be built around blogs and so on. Wrong,” he said.

Telstra BigPond is Australia's largest Internet service provider.

User-generated content no longer seems to “knock people crazy,” Milne told The Age. “It turns out people appreciate expertise, which is what journalists are about, and they appreciate editing. We appreciate filmmakers' skills, which are incredibly difficult, and we want someone to tell a story the right way. Seeing a whole bunch of crappy home movies that people have made is not the same as seeing a well-made documentary.”