Leonard Downie Jr. is vice president at large and former executive editor of The Washington Post. He is the author, along with Michael Schudson, of "The Reconstruction of American Journalism." The following are notes from his remarks delivered at the Federal Trade Commission’s “News Media Workshop” held on December 1 and 2, 2009:

The Columbia University Journalism School Report: The Reconstruction of American Journalism details the transformational moment in American journalism, in which era of domination of newspaper and television news is rapidly giving way to a new era of journalism in which the gathering and distribution of news is more widely dispersed.

Conclusions:

Newspapers and television news are not going to vanish in the foreseeable future. And they are restructuring their news operations for digital news gathering and distribution. But they will play greatly diminished roles in cities around the country because their news staffs are being reduced to a fraction of their former sizes. Their resources for local news coverage and accountability reporting are steadily shrinking.

They are being joined in news gathering by a variety of new kinds of local news organizations being started by some of the thousands of journalists who have left newspapers and television. Rapidly increasing number of small, new state, local and neighborhood news websites. Both for-profit and non-profit, most still small and financially fragile. See examples in report.

Slower growth in number of public radio stations gradually expanding their local news coverage to fill a bit of the gap left by shrinking newspapers – a few collaborating with startup local news websites.

Some pioneering university journalism schools operating local and neighborhood news websites with professional journalists on their faculties directing student journalists. Launching of non-profit investigative reporting projects by investigative reporters who have left newspapers – often based on university campuses where those journalists are joining the faculties and supervising student reporters.

Bloggers who are becoming reliable sources of news reporting in their areas of expertise (national: politics, government, business and economics, legal affairs, health care policy; local: crime, housing, parenting, sports), some even assembling their own full-time and free-lance reporting staffs. (John Marshall Talking Points Memo; Baltimore Brew). Aggregators (national and local) of news content from other media and their own stables of bloggers.

There is new competition between these startups and established news media, including newspapers and their websites. But also increased collaboration. Newspapers sharing news reporting. Newspapers and television stations and networks using news reporting from startups and bloggers. This new ecosphere of news has great potential, but it lacks dependable economic models because of the collapse of advertising revenue.

Our report makes recommendations about ways to provide financial support for these new forms of news gathering.

We are not recommending an anti-trust exemption for newspapers to take collective action to charge for news on the Internet. Some newspapers already are experimenting with ways to seek payment for their digital content. Others considering it. And a number of entrepreneurs are offering new technologies and approaches to doing it. We leave it to the marketplace to decide what, if anything, will work.

Instead, we are recommending other ways to support diverse sources of news reporting, especially local news reporting, in communities throughout the country.

1. The Internal Revenue Service or Congress should explicitly authorize any independent news organization devoted to reporting on public affairs to be created as or converted into a 501C3 non-profit – or a Low-profit Limited Liability Corporation.
2. Philanthropists, foundations and community foundations should substantially increase their support for non-profit news organizations and public affairs reporting to the levels of their support for other vital public service, educational and cultural institutions.
3. Public radio and television should be substantially reoriented to provide significant local news reporting in every community served by public stations and their web sites. This requires urgent action by and reform of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, increased congressional funding and support, and changes in the mission and leadership for many public stations.
4. Universities, both public and private, should become ongoing sources of local, state and investigative reporting as part of their educational missions. They should operate their own news organizations utilizing journalism faculty and students and be laboratories for digital innovation in the gathering and sharing of news and information.
5. A national Fund for Local News should be created with money the FCC now collects from or could impost on telecom users, television and radio broadcast licensees, or Internet service providers – which would be administered in open competition through independent state Local News Fund Councils.
6. More should be done – by governments, nonprofit organizations and journalists – to increase the accessibility and usefulness of public information collected by federal, state and local governments, and to facilitate the gathering and dissemination of public information by citizens.