Media

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before the committee about the rapid changes unfolding in American journalism and what steps Congress might consider in response.

American journalism has entered a phase of what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction." It is an apt framework in this case because both creative and destructive forces are at work on American journalism simultaneously -- and at a stunning pace.

As conceived by writer and New America Foundation fellow Douglas McGray (billed as editor in chief), Curiosity Shoppe owners Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith (creative directors), designer Maili Holiman (design director) and New Yorker contributor ...

Howard Kurtz, media columnist for The Washington Post, and Reihan Salam, associate editor of the Atlantic magazine and co-author of the "Grand New Party: How Republicans can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream," offer analysis. Link to audio

Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, has noted that the Washington Post could be endowed for $2 billion. Forget for a moment where all those billions would come from. Endowing an entire news staff is a solution that exceeds the ...

...Guest Host Linda Wertheimer talks about the future of the GOP with Reihan Salam, a fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Grand New Party, and Michelle Laxalt, a political consultant who has worked for Republican senators and the Reagan administration... Link to audio

While many publications have drawn in their paper tentacles and forged ahead with digital versions, Douglas McGray has a project that takes magazines in an entirely different direction.

Almost ironically, we read in the newspapers every week that their industry is in crisis.  Newspapers across the country are shuttering overseas bureaus, offering buyouts to dozens (even hundreds) of talented journalists, and in the process imperiling their capacity to serve as vital watchdogs over our constitutional system.  How did we end up in a situation where a newspaper like The Washington Post, a fountainhead of Watergate and so much other skeptical and investigative reporting critical

My relationship with my Los Angeles Times subscription is extremely contentious. Three times in the past six months, I have called up and cancelled the paper (you get an operator in Manila--much of the old circulation department has been outsourced), only to reconsider a few days later and restart my subscription.

Newspapers won't die. They'll survive, along with local TV and radio news broadcasts, by publishing and showing content produced by others. Those old media brands still have value in a fragmented world. I live within walking distance of Hollywood, so forgive the metaphor: The publications and broadcasts will be like movie studios - marketers and distributors.

Journalists, the folks who make the movies ... er ... news, will work for content-production companies.

... expensive functions such as investigative reporting and foreign correspondents as newspapers transition to the Internet, said Steve Coll, former managing editor of The Washington Post and now president of the New America Foundation think tank. ...