New Products, Advertising Models Needed To Keep Quality Journalism, News Executives...

New Products, Advertising Models Needed To Keep Quality Journalism, News
Executives Tell National Press Club Forum at Drake University

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- New thinking in how to attract
advertisers will be essential to regenerating the income necessary to keep
quality journalism alive, leading news executives said at a National Press
Club forum at Drake University Wednesday.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080917/NPCLOGO )

"The business model is clearly broken," said Laura Hollingsworth,
publisher of the Des Moines Register, part of the Gannett Co. that announced
this week another 10 percent cut in personnel.

Supporting quality reporting and investigative projects is the essential
piece of what the company is doing, she said, but it is only one piece.

"The vision for the Register as a regional information center is knowing
the household, knowing the players in it, and layering products and services
that are both digital and print," Hollingsworth said.

She said she is seeing a split between news and advertising, and
advertising is not following news to the Internet. Advertisers want to reach
people where they are active, through information that connects to their
lifestyles, she said. But the company cannot give up its core responsibility
in civic engagement and watchdog journalism.

"I am protecting with my life all I can right now the number and the
depth of investigative reporting that the Des Moines Register is built upon
and is our mission and value," she said.

Hollingsworth was speaking at one of the National Press Club's forums on
"The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Future of Journalism" the
Club is holding around the country to mark its 100th anniversary. At each
forum, the Club gathers a panel of leading local journalists to talk about
where the news business is going and how to protect its core values.

This forum was co-sponsored by Drake University's journalism program.

Michael Gartner, who had been president of NBC News as well as a Pulitzer
Prize-winning print editor, publisher and columnist, said the newspaper
industry should take a lesson from what happened to television news when cable
and satellite television challenged the three major networks.

"I lived through all of this 25 years ago at NBC," he said. "It was the
same dire threat that these folks are facing now. You lost exclusivity, you
lost your immediacy, and you lost a big chunk of your audience and a big
chunk of your revenue."

Television networks fought back by embracing cable television, he said.
ABC has ESPN, and NBC has MSNBC and CNBC and Bravo and Oxygen and Lifetime.
Television networks found ways to cooperate with each other on routine news to
free up more money for competitive journalism.

"I understand the short-term panic," he said, "but I don't understand the
long-term dismay and distress."

Dave Busiek, who is news director at KCCI-TV and a past chairman of the
Radio-Television News Directors Association, said his station is re-examining
everything it does as it faces revenue shortfalls. Across the country, he
said, television newsrooms are embracing the Web and new technology for
delivering news to people where they are.

But that still doesn't answer the question of where the money comes from
to pay for it, he said.

"Any newsroom needs a certain number of feet on the street to do original
reporting," he said. "I don't think there is one right answer. All I know is
that if we are not out on the leading edge of trying some of these new ideas
and figuring out what works and what doesn't, we're not going to be around
very long."

Steve Buttry, the editor of the Gazette of Cedar Rapids and GazetteOnline,
said news organizations have to look at Web advertising differently.

"Think of how much of the content of a traditional newspaper is related
to someone's decision to buy something," he said.

A person reading a bridal announcement will want to buy a gift or two.
If it's online, a person could click on the bridal announcement and be
connected to the bridal registry and can buy the gifts right there. The same
is true in sports, he said. Read about a game and click on it and buy the
tickets.

"You can see that if we start becoming the community marketplace where
you actually conduct the transaction, that is so much more valuable to the
advertiser than just the advertising model of selling eyeballs," he said.
"That's where we need to go."

Details and highlights of these forums can be found at the National
Press Club's Web site: www.press.org.

The NPC Centennial Forums program is sponsored by Aviva USA, one of the
nation's fastest-growing life insurers (www.AvivaUSA.com). In addition, the
company is funding the production and distribution of 12,000 DVD copies of the
Club's centennial documentary, "The National Press Club: A Century of
Headlines" and supplemental education materials.

Tom Godlasky, chief executive officer of Aviva North America, said, "Our
partnership with the National Press Club is based on shared values and a
belief that the First Amendment, freedom of speech and professional
journalism are fundamental to democracy, personal freedom and free
enterprise."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Gil Klein - National Press Club Centennial Project director, 703-338-2721.
E-mail gklein@press.org.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB:

The National Press Club is the world's leading professional
organization for journalists. Founded in 1908, the Club has 3,500 members
representing most major news organizations. Each year, the Club holds more
than 2,000 events including news conferences, luncheons and panels, and more
than 250,000 guests come through its doors.

SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING NATIONAL PRESS CLUB FORUMS

Oct. 30 Milwaukee, Wis.

Nov. 6 Salt Lake City, Utah

Nov. 10 Washington D.C. Webcast to the University of Alaska (Anchorage
and Fairbanks) University of Nebraska, University of Idaho, University of
South Dakota, and University of Montana

Nov 12 Cleveland, Ohio

Nov. 13 Norman, Okla.

Nov. 13 Houston, Tex.

Nov. 17 Phoenix, Ariz.

Nov. 17 Minneapolis, Minn.

Nov. 18 San Diego, Ca.

Nov. 19 Los Angeles, Ca.

Nov. 19 Philadelphia, Pa.

Dec. 2 Indianapolis, Ind.

Dec. 3 Ann Arbor, Mich.

Dec. 8 Naples, Fla.

SOURCE National Press Club

Melinda Cooke, +1-202-662-7516, mcooke@Press.org, or Gil Klein - Centennial
Project director, +1-703-338-2721, gklein@press.org, both of the National
Press Club