• Watching Over California

    Josh Stearns
    January 7, 2010

    After a few delays, a few new staff and a few solid investigative projects under its belt, the California Watch Web site launched this week.

    California Watch is a project of the longstanding nonprofit journalism organization, the Center for Investigative Reporting. With new journalism projects launching every week, what’s interesting about California Watch? I mention a few specifics below, but in general, California Watch embodies a number of the key ideas that we at SaveTheNews.org think will shape the future of news in America.

  • 10 Journalism Resolutions for 2010

    Tracy Van Slyke
    Josh Stearns
    December 17, 2009

    If 2009 was a year of study and debate about the future of journalism, 2010 must be a year of action. We must come together around a core set of ideas to create a better ecosystem for sustainable and high-impact journalism. Based on the various reports and conferences from the past year, we've compiled the five most important areas that journalism organizations (and those invested in the future of journalism) must tackle in 2010—and suggest some initial steps to begin moving forward.

  • Celebrating the Life of C. Edwin Baker

    Josh Stearns
    December 10, 2009

    We at SaveTheNews.org and Free Press learned today that the eminent communications law scholar C. Edwin Baker died this week at the age of 62. Baker was a passionate defender of the First Amendment and a longtime advocate for media and democracy.

    Baker took part in the early planning meetings before SaveTheNews.org was launched, and his ideas have helped to shape much of our work. Robert McChesney and John Nichols, the co-founders of Free Press, offered remembrances of Baker.

  • Continuing the Discussion that Began at the FTC

    Josh Stearns
    December 7, 2009

    The Federal Trade Commission’s two-day workshop on the future of news, “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?” brought together an incredibly wide range of commentators, including publishers, nonprofit journalists, media reformers, academics, bloggers, foundations, online game developers, programmers and others. The workshops touched on many of the core issues at the heart of the debate around the future of journalism.

    We are gathering many of the remarks, presentations and speeches delivered at the event so that we can continue the conversation online and engage those who couldn’t be in the room or online for the event. Below is a (growing) list of all of the documents we have collected thus far. Check back often for new content and join the conversation in the comments section of each post.

  • Waxman: Policy Does Have a Role in Saving Journalism

    Josh Stearns
    December 2, 2009

    Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Tuesday called for policies to help revitalize journalism and keep reporters on the job.

    Speaking at a two-day Federal Trade Commission workshop on the state of journalism, Rep. Waxman said that market forces aren’t the only solution to the current crisis – a position argued by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch on Monday. Rep. Waxman instead described the crisis as a "structural problem," with new polices and tax incentives as part of the remedy.

    Rep. Waxman expressed concern about the decline of quality journalism as more news outlets close their doors. "Consolidation of the media business has not helped," Waxman said. "This is a policy issue [and the] government is going to have to be involved in one way or another."

  • David Westphal on the Future of News at the FTC

    Josh Stearns
    December 1, 2009

    David Westphal is the former Washington Editor for McClatchy Newspapers and joined USC Annenberg as executive in residence. He spoke today at the Federal Trade Commission’s future of journalism workshop. Below are his remarks. Westphal and his colleague Geoffrey Cowan also published an excellent article in the Online Journalism Review today.

    Check back at SaveTheNews.org where we'll be posting more commentary and interviews with speakers at the FTC's journalism event.

    Westphal:

  • Preview: Two Days at the FTC Journalism Workshops

    Josh Stearns
    November 30, 2009

    I’m packing my bags and heading down to Washington, D.C. for the Federal Trade Commission’s two-day workshop on the future of journalism. There are bound to be some useful insights regarding what's next for U.S. media, and we’ll try to capture it all for you at SaveTheNews.org, on Twitter or on Facebook.
    Check back for speakers’ remarks, guest blog posts, video interviews and more.

  • Eight Values for the Future of News

    Josh Stearns
    November 23, 2009

    I just returned from the Future of News conference in St. Paul, Minn. Although the conference inspired Richard Gingras to cheekily tweet, “The future of news is a future of conferences about the future of news,” there were some interesting threads worth noting.

    One presenter who stood out to me was Tom Rosenstiel, from the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism, who proposed eight values he believed were core to the future of news. Some, he noted, were long-held values of legacy media organizations that we should carry over to new models. Others were values rooted in the changing media system and people’s responses to it.

  • Is the Future of Journalism a Drought or a Flood?

    Josh Stearns
    November 20, 2009

    Journalism students may be short on jobs, but they certainly aren’t lacking reading material about their industry. In the last twelve months, there have been a number of landmark essays on journalism written by academics and journalists. In addition, at least six major textbook-sized reports on the future of American media have been released, as well as innumerable lectures, conferences and roundtables on the topic.

    The list of materials produced this year could easily make up a respectable “open-source” syllabus for the aspiring journalism innovator. But until a week or two ago, this makeshift seminar wouldn’t have been complete. Just when I thought little else could be written about the future of news, Tony Deifell of Q Media Labs and a coalition of independent media outlets – The Media Consortium – has released a remarkable new report that deserves a slot in your reading list.

  • Editors Make the Case for Smart Journalism Policies

    Josh Stearns
    November 12, 2009

    The editors of the Columbia Journalism Review published an important editorial this week outlining why they feel public policy must be a central part of the discussion about the future of news in America.

    They wrote: “The idea that a purely commercial media alone can continue to deliver the journalism we need is becoming difficult to swallow. If we don’t get beyond the rational but outdated fear of government help for accountability journalism—if we just let the market sort it out—this vital public good will continue to decline.”

Pages