Parting Thoughts — July 17, 2008 11:29 AM

Parting Thoughts: An Invitation

Give us your thoughts on journalism’s state and its future

By The Editors

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On the future of journalism:
The sky is not falling, but you wouldn't know that from the media, that seems so swift to not be scooped on its own demise.
A little background:
My father was a reporter from 1948 - 1980s at The Columbus Dispatch. I was a reporter/editor from 1973-2005 in Ohio, Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas. Also past president and chair of Investigative Reporters & Editors.
My dad saw TV news spark a major revenue dip for newspapers and watched as hundreds of papers closed when cities discovered they could only support one morning and one evening newspaper -- not four, five or six.
Layoffs, remakes for evolving culture and technical changes followed, much as today.
I saw the technical changes: cold press, computers, cable TV and, of course, the Internet radically change
how people get their news. Older reporters and editors who couldn't or wouldn't figure out the new technology retired or were laid off.
In short, this period is merely a radical, but creative time to exist.
Concentrate on local news that can be obtained no where else. When a school bus drives into high water and is stranded, don't just take a picture of the bus and says, "This is an example of our high rains." Talk to the kids on the bus and you may discover that some very frightened children crawled through windows and were lowered down to safety. Make the effort to BE there and create an angle no one else has thought of.
With all the technology and time restraints because of Internet and cable competition, you haven't had to do that. Get your reporters OUT of the newsroom and make it real.
Yes, journalism is losing and abusing some of it's best from the newsrooms. But for those left behind, there is a wonderful chance to create a new world -- not be a victim of it. Because you're not.
mary hargrove 918 369 7032

Posted by mary hargrove on Sun 20 Jul 2008 at 11:51 AM

There's no big mystery here. As long as publishers continue to divert most of the money they have available to print, while starving online, their publications will continue to free-fall.

And that applies fully as much to CJR as it does to any other publication.

Steve Lovelady, former editor of Campaign Desk and CJR.Daily.org.

Posted by Steve Lovelady on Sun 20 Jul 2008 at 09:20 PM

The future of journalism. Let's see, what can be said. First basics: reporters and journalists tend to be liberal while editors, managers, owners and corporations are the opposite. Newspapers are cutting back staffing citing the ever rising costs and unprofitability, but the reality is that newspapers are quite profitable; it's just that they plow profits into dividends for shareholders.

So what does that leave us. A media with no real motive for keeping an eye on corporate behavior, governmental behavior or providing truly fair and balanced information nor, for that matter, any real semblance of a platform for informed public debate.

And those things are precisely what made people read their papers. Yes, the technology has changed and, in my opinion for the better, but the political consequences of corporations "managing our news" is dire.

There are heroic voices, the truth can be found, but the challenging, "in your face", competitive dailies allowed diverse opinions to be heard - this is gone for the most part and the vast corruption of this administration, having gotten as far as it has, is the kind of thing we get as a consequence

Posted by D. Brady on Wed 23 Jul 2008 at 01:15 AM

What we are forced to face is that newspapering is a business rather than a sacred institution for those who own them and pay the bills.

I don't like it, either.

Posted by Sylvia Schon on Wed 23 Jul 2008 at 06:00 PM

I never had very high expectations for the people who ran newspaper companies and I must say, after 40 years at it, I have never been disappointed. That being said, I really miss it and I know a lot of other people do, too. I never had much luck identifying with "company values" statements at The Chicago Tribune or with cheerleading anywhere else. It was always a job for me, better than railroading, safer than coal mining and more interesting than almost anything else you could do. I believe we are just coming face to face, as reporters, writers and editors with something we always knew was afoot, a managerial thought that newspapers without staffs would be just jolly! We are, after all, where all the trouble starts, festers and explodes into pesky lawsuits, angry phone calls from important people and who knows what else. We conned ourselves into believing it had become a profession sometime post Watergate, but that was probably delusional for most of us, who continued covering the same wretched zoning conflicts and sewage treatment battles that defined so much of newspapering for so long. As the person who wrote many of those "From our Wire Services" stories or, worse, "Combined from Wire Dispatches" I say there was never any glory in it (although some fleeting fun and at UPI, great, great friendships.) I didn't have to do much scut and I am happy for it. I got to cover Philadelphia, Harrisburg, a little of Washington, some politics, the Soviet Union, the south and some of the Carib., the greater midwest and just about anything else I felt I needed to do. I got to bop off to Europe just in case something happened. Am I going to complain about that? No. All the time, there was that old character over in the corner, you all know him (or her). Went by the name of Ed something. He was there on D-day. Covered the Korean War. Got drunk, divorced and shot in Vietnam, had a little fondness for pot at first, and then, unfortunately, whiskey. He remained, but how he withered as we all thundered through our glory days. Or she would have too many drinks at the Christmas party and tell everyone what a peach some horny old, dead editor was. Most of us won't have to face that level of humiliation. So I say to my friends, squeeze your own self until you blush because at least you had the chance to walk out proud, honest and most important of all, standing.

Posted by charlie madigan on Fri 25 Jul 2008 at 05:40 PM

So what else is new? The late great A.J. Liebling said pretty much the same thing about newspaper owners in the 1950s and early 60s. Remember his prescient words: "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."

Posted by Gita Smith on Wed 30 Jul 2008 at 10:07 AM

This means that those of us who have not entered the field yet have to expand our horizon a bit. What I mean by that is college students have to rely on additional classes and training. Not only must we know the aspects of newspaper reporting, but radio, television and online. The people who can do this will be the ones who survive.

To those who have been in the professional field and suffered a layoff, I am a loss for words.

Posted by Matthew Wilder on Tue 16 Sep 2008 at 11:07 AM

I mean at a loss for words.

Posted by Matthew Wilder on Tue 16 Sep 2008 at 11:09 AM

I am not in the newspaper business but I can tell you all this. As manufacturing was suffering this and as it continues to suffer the erosion of any earnings, benefits, job security, self respect etc. how many of you spoke out against it. You want sympathy now because your glorious profession is soooo important and you are so unfairly treated. When the rest of us have taken these types of hits the newspaper stories and editorials usually read something like it's time those lazy over unionized so and so's got what they deserved. After all it is a competetive market and what's good for business is good for all. And besides there is a shift to a service economy so get over it. And you need to educate yourself to compete in the global marketplace. These and all sorts of other rah rah was repeated as the workers who built your cars or clothes or slaughtered your food got laid off and wages cut. Well now it's your turn. How does it feel folks?

Posted by Jim Jones on Fri 19 Sep 2008 at 04:47 PM

I have a tremendous respect for journalists. My husband is a former journalist and we are now screenwriters. We live in a time where truth is flaunted as unreality and our government performs mind bending acts of unaccountability. Your bravery, training and intelligence is needed more than ever. The future of journalism is the future of truth. You protect an important legacy for us all because your preserve the true history of our nation. Keep writing and witnessing our times--turn to other media if you are unemployed. Keep journals. We need to hear your authentic voices. You speak for those who cannot speak.

Posted by Kathleen Rivenbark on Sun 21 Sep 2008 at 07:26 AM

I have a tremendous respect for journalists. My husband is a former journalist and we are now screenwriters. We live in a time where truth is flaunted as unreality and our government performs mind bending acts of unaccountability. Your bravery, training and intelligence is needed more than ever. The future of journalism is the future of truth. You protect an important legacy for us all because your preserve the true history of our nation. Keep writing and witnessing our times--turn to other media if you are unemployed. Keep journals. We need to hear your authentic voices. You speak for those who cannot speak.

Posted by Kathleen Rivenbark on Sun 21 Sep 2008 at 07:29 AM

I once supervised student-run newsrooms at several prominent journalism schools. Not long ago we taught the civilizing techniques of professional journalism. Now the news industry has turned to the wild wild west of citizen journalism.
I wonder what news directors now teach in such circumstances? Especially where objectivity and fairness are replaced by subjectivity and self-centeredness. Does what the new-media student reports about what he or she ate for breakfast have the same import as what all of us ate for breakfast? What ethical issues and news values are taught in citizen journalism when teaching such matters are increasingly oxymoronic. The collapse of church and state is so thorough that only the old hands seem to remember there was a separation at all. So what do modern j-school professors and news directors teach when the news business itself is mired in shifting economic sand and presents ethics as a moving target? I actually have the modern answer. Teach students how to structure buyouts or bailouts, or how create a Plan B for their careers. Or maybe how to one-man band when the band itself has disbanded.

Posted by Cecil Hickman on Mon 10 Nov 2008 at 07:57 PM