Reunions: Journalists, authors discuss future of publishing

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Four alumni journalists and authors discussed the rapidly changing nature of print journalism and book publishing in a forum on Saturday morning titled “Off the Page: The Future of Print Journalism and the Book.” The forum, part of the weekend’s Reunions programming, was held in McCosh 46 on Friday and drew a packed audience.

The discussion was moderated by Wilson School professor Paul Starr and panelists included Kate Betts ’86, author of “Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style” and a contributing editor for Time, Josh Conviser ’96, a writer and producer for Red Point Entertainment, Richard Just ’01, editor of The New Republic, and Zachary Woolfe ’06, a freelance writer.

The panelists addressed a wide range of issues during the form, including the increasing role of technology and search engines in journalism as well as changing ideas about trustworthiness and authorship.

“We’re seeing the proliferation of a blog culture in which people are not expecting to pay or be paid for original work,” Woolfe said of the modern journalism industry. “We’re living in this intensely transitional time.”

Several panelists said that reputable news institutions would probably be able to retain significant influence, even with the popularization of less traditional media outlets such as blogs and Twitter accounts.

“It’s not necessarily the end of print media,” Betts said. “It’s just more and more media all the time ... [Readers] are looking for trusted sources, which is why the established media will be able to survive.”

She added that, with the journalism industry’s rapidly changing practices, it was not clear where the next generation’s most reputable and credible reporters would learn their craft.

The panelists addressed several challenges that journalists will continue to face going forward.

Just said that three values long prized in print journalism — originality, nuance and self-doubt — had lost some of their clout due to the ease and time pressures of online reporting.

He added that the successful business model of The Atlantic Wire, a website developed by The Atlantic to aggregate existing content from various sources rather than produce original content, was pushing journalism away from rewarding firsthand reporting.

“I worry that one day we’ll wake up and we’ll be aggregating all of our aggregations,” Just said, a remark that was met with laughter from the audience.

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Betts said that the traditional barrier between editorial and advertising had already begun to dissolve and would continue to do so online.

They also discussed the rapidly changing nature of communication, which has posed its own challenges for the publishing industry today, they said.

“Book publishers call themselves licensors,” Betts said of the way in which publishing companies have been slow to adapt to the changing commodification of the written word in forms such as e-books. “It’s a slow transition for a business that is really archaic in some sense.”

Still, Conviser said he did not expect the traditional book to become obsolete in the near future.

“What’s wonderful about the printed word in book form is that it’s still a great format to tell a story or intake a story,” he said.

Members of the audience said that they found the panel engaging.

“I was pleasantly surprised with the way they engaged with the cynical nature of some of the questions about the impending doom that some of us were expecting about print media,” said Lily Gold ’14, who attended the lecture.