L.A. Weekly noted that CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan was involved in crafting the 1990 ballot initiative Measure H, which created the City Ethics Commission, among other Los Angeles City Council reforms…….
Month: February 2009
Newspapers search for business model
American Public Media's "Marketplace" interviewed Senior Fellow David Westphal about the problems facing the newspaper industry. The business is in limbo, with no clear version of what the next phase will be, Westphal said. "A lot of people make the good point that the public's demand for news and information has really gone up – not down or stayed the same; it's gone up," he said. "The problem is that there is not … a business model around the next bend that we can look at and say with confidence, 'Oh, I can see where the money's going to come……
Watchdog journalism: Hardly a newspaper afterthought
I've just helped judge a journalism contest for my alma mater, McClatchy, and have a couple of observations to report: First, don't believe those who argue that newspapers' investigative reporting is so minimal that it's easily replaced. It isn't small, and if newspapers couldn't do it anymore, the void would be very deep. Second, high-quality watchdog reporting isn't simply the province of big national players doing "secret prisons" or "secret eavesdropping" stories. It's also the heart and soul of newsrooms across the country that keep watch over their communities and regions. I say these things not primarily to brag about……
State of the Black Union: Young Scholars Forum
In association with USC Annenberg’s Johnson Communication Leadership Center and the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, the Tavis Smiley Foundation presents the Young Scholars Forum as part of the foundation’s 10th annual State of the Black Union symposium. The program, hosted by Tavis Smiley, features remarks by Dean Ernest J. Wilson III and a panel of distinguished contemporary young adult leaders before an audience of outstanding student leaders from high schools and colleges in Southern California. Lunch follows discussion. This event is free, but registration is required. For more information, click here. 8:30 a.m. – 12 noon. USC Bovard……
The public gets a voice in the ‘future of news’
The media revolution has reached a new and important stage: The American public is being let in on the discussion. In the last two weeks' articles in the New York Times and Time Magazine have helped push the question of "whither news media" before a much bigger audience. I say it's about time. Of course, it's not as if the industry's increasingly dire business outlook has been a secret. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of the Tribune Co. and the Minneapolis Star Tribune were plenty telling. So was the Detroit newspapers' decision to limit home delivery to three days a……
Public policy and the crisis in the news business
Newspapers are for sale across the country. National Public Radio and television news shows are laying off staff. The Tribune Company is in bankruptcy. It's clear that journalism is in crisis, and in the current recession, things are likely to get much worse. That's alarming. A robust press is vital to our democracy. And while bloggers and other new-media news operations have enriched the public dialogue in important ways, their work still depends on the painstaking – and expensive – reporting supplied by traditional journalists…….