News Executives Discuss Future of Journalism on Kalb Report

Four top media executives—Associated Press’ Tom Curley, CNN’s Jon Klein, NPR’s Vivian Schiller and Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation—joined Marvin Kalb March 23.

By Julia Parmley

Four top media executives discussed the future of journalism and innovations
in news reporting with Marvin Kalb in front of a capacity crowd of GW students and other guests at the National Press Club March 23. “Down to the Wire: Journalism in Crisis”—featuring Tom Curley, president and chief executive officer of the Associated Press; Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.; Vivian Schiller, president and chief executive officer of NPR; and Alberto Ibarguen,
president and chief executive officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and former publisher of The
Miami Herald and of El Nuevo Herald—was the last installment of the 2008-09 series focused on democracy and the press.

In the face of massive newsroom layoffs and bankrupt newspapers, the panelists
agreed that generating revenue was a tremendous concern for news companies.
Ibarguen said adapting the way information is packaged and delivered, including utilizing new media tools, will be critical in keeping and attracting consumers.

“I think the bigger conceptual issue, and the one that’s very, very hard if you come
from a traditional media…is the psychological shift of a news consumer to a news
user,” said Ibarguen, who received an honorary doctorate from GW in 2005. “The
consumer now is the user of information. I think the next generation expects…to either
participate in the information or the discussion of it and use it in some interactive way.”

With the myriad ways to receive news “on the go,” the panelists discussed how sensationalism and inaccurate reporting can run rampant and the potential loss of
investigative reporting in print. Schiller said news outlets need to trust their audience.
“I actually think that most of the listening, viewing and using audience is pretty good at discerning clutter from real stuff and they will self select,” she said.

Curley expressed his belief that there will still be a place for newspapers in the industry. “I do believe [newspapers] will be doing at least as much investigative or context reporting as they do now, and probably more because some of the breaking news function might go elsewhere, to BlackBerry devices and mobile devices and other
ways that news gets covered,” said Curley. “But there will be other, new players, new
entrants. There will be more free newspapers, and many of them may be targeted at
things such as entertainment but also around issues.”

Klein said the demand for news is still strong and urged aspiring journalism students
not to lose hope. “The world is changing. There are many other ways evolving for humans to practice journalism,” said Klein. “And there are still going to be people
who are just dying to get out there and talk about and find out about what’s going on
in their communities, and they’re going to have more tools at their disposal.”

The Kalb Report is produced by the GW Global Media Institute in partnership with Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center, and the National Press Club and is under-
written by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
For more information, visit globalmedia.gwu.edu or call 202-994-6463.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu