Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales quoted a metaphor from Matthew Freud, boss of Freud Communications this morning during his keynote at The Guardian’s Changing Media Summit, to demonstrate the flaw in the business model of traditional media.

“A baker sells fresh bread each day and gives away the previous day’s stale bread. By contrast the media gives away its fresh product [online] and sells the previous day’s product [print].

The concept of a news cycle shouldn’t exist in an environment where content can be published round the clock said Wales. He cited the example of an international story such as the international response to the Haiti earthquake.

“A newspaper might provide a daily news update but that doesn’t provide any context in the way that a Wikipedia entry would. Newspapers could easily provide contextual information yet they are focussed too much on the news cycle,” said Wales.

In his afternoon keynote Newser-founder Michael Wolff (@MichaelWolffNYC) agreed that traditional media remained focussed on news cycles but that consumers had an unsatisfied appetite for news in the morning as a kickoff to the day.

“Television, radio and print are all tied to a morning agenda,” said Wolff. But no one has cracked this concept online,” he said. In response Emily Bell said that although The Guardian was a continuous news operation it tried to deliver to a morning agenda.

“Entrepreneurs should spent time exploring new models. Morning internet is an opportunity,” said Wolff.