Publishers and Editors Roundtable: The Long View for Newspapers in the Digital Age

       Fred W. Smith forum quickly became standing room only for the Publishers and Editors Roundtable: The Long View for Newspapers in the Digital Age. The discussion started at 2:00pm, on September 11th. The moderator was Everette E. Dennis. Who spoke first about the history of the Misssouri School of Journalism and the part that newspapers played in the formation of the school of Journalism. The roundtable was led by a panel of discussion leaders, all Mizzou graduates, whose bios are listed here. Pam Maples, Managing Editor of St. Louis Post-Dispatch expressed a concern about how future media will maintain it’s journalistic integrity. 

          The first part of the discussion focused on the balance of the business side of newspapers and creating stories that affect the public and draw readers in. Ken Paulson, Editor of USA TODAY, talked about the effects that a down turning economy and the emergence of more digital media will have on the business model of newspapers.

         Janet E. Coats, Executive editor and Vice President of The Tampa Tribune talked about something that I saw in my high school newsroom. Newspapers face the problem of tailoring stories to the audience, writing the stories that the public wants to read. She explained that sometimes the information that journalists believe is important is not always what the audience want to read. It was interesting to see what such esteemed people had to say about a subject that I had dealt with, on a smaller scale, and to see how it affected majors newspapers. Coats also made an interesting comparison about making newspapers more specialized, like a iPhone Applications Store. Instead of specialized regional information, focus on the information that interests people most, the things they are passionate about.

          Once the discussion had somewhat wrapped up, the floor was opened to questions from the audience. A majority of the people who asked questions were current students.

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