Despite Report, Future of News Media is Bright

State of News Media Panel

Panelists at the State of the News Media event hosted by George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs said they’re bullish on the journalism market, despite nonstop layoffs and shuttering newspapers in recent years.

Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism said his research shows that media has a revenue problem, not an audience problem. People still want the news, he said, but these days they’re going to more than one source to get it. Consumers are more interested in public discussion and debate than ever before, he said. Modern journalism is as much about soap boxes as original reporting, he said.

An all-star panel of out-of-the-box thinkers debated the pros and cons of paywalls, aggregation, multimedia and other issues that have arisen from a focus on online journalism.

“We’re firing on all cylinders,” said Tina Brown, founder of The Daily Beast.

Jim Brady, former WashingtonPost.com editor , declined to announce details, including the name, of his forthcoming local news project with Allbritton Communications. Allbritton also owns Politico, the must-read for Capitol Hill staffers and everyone else who cares about how their tax dollars are being used. But Brady did say that he won’t charge readers who want to view content on the news site. No news model should be built around the idea that consumers “should” pay for news, he said.

Web sites won’t likely pull in the big bucks, he said, but programs for phones and other mobile devices could. Brady also plans to partner with other local media.

“We’re not going to act as though we’re alone in this ecosystem,” he said.

Charles Sennott, executive editor of Global Post, said his reporters, who are based around the world, aren’t forced to shoot video or do other multimedia. If the story is best told in video, and the reporter is competent in that medium, Global Post will publish it, he said. But there’s still room for solid narrative writing, he said.

Antoine Sanfuentes of NBC’s Washington bureau said his agency offers news when readers want it.

“We’re keeping up with ‘now’ journalism,” he said. “If you missed something, you can watch it instantly.”

Susan Page of USA Today said the poll results predicting disaster for news agencies don’t scare her.

“I don’t find these poll findings to be descriptive for the future,” she said.

————–

You can also find an archive of the hashtag of the event.

Article by UPIU mentor Krista Kapralos. Photo by Aram Zucker-Scharff.