Can the net challenge the traditional news media? What's happened is that the more traditional news media became involved quite aggressively very early on. The BBC and the Guardian are examples. I'll be interested to know in 10 years' time whether newspaper sales have registered a significant drop because of the net. My impression is that they're feeding off each other rather nicely at the moment. From Newsnight's point of view, we feel we're still in a position where people also want the background to the news.

How long have you been using computers? I got an IBM G50 in 1994. I do remember thinking I would never buy a newpaper again. Then you end up with 20 different windows open and everything crashes. I realised that the best way was to go to the newsagents, hand over 45p and you can even read it on the move.

Does anything irritate you about the net? I got very frustrated about a year ago when trying to find out the date of the US election. I was logging on to every site conceivable and I just couldn't find it. With the net I think you tend to stumble on things by accident. When you want to search for a fact, it's phenomenally difficult. It's like the story of an infinite number of monkeys eventually typing the complete works of Shakespeare. Well, we now know they don't - they surf the internet.

Will unmetered access open everything up? I was always really conscious of paying for the time I was online at home. At the BBC I can keep a page open all day if I need to. When that comes into being for home use then I imagine that will be very exciting.

Have you ever been taken in by fake content on the net? No. I think mainly because one regards net content in the same way one regards everything else floating around. If it comes with a masthead that says the Times, the Guardian or the BBC you trust it, whereas if it's coming from an unknown source you do not necessarily take it on board. I did once get the Happy 99 virus sent in an email from one of Nelson Mandela's chief press officers. He hadn't realised that it had gone out to 200 of the world's press.

Any favourite sites? Your Mobile lets you choose a new tune then transmits it to your phone. So I now have Bat Out Of Hell on my mobile in rather unconvincing bleeps. I log on to the Chelsea website a lot but I feel they could do a bit more with it. I just logged into the Railtrack site and it says all the trains are running on time so I won't use that one again! I also really like Hotmail.

Any preferred gadgets? MiniDisc is great. You can now record on MiniDisc, play it into your laptop then cut it using a program called Cool Edit Pro. Ten years ago I was literally sitting with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a white pencil and a razor blade until three in the morning every night.

• For further information visit: www.bbc.co.uk/newsnight