News

Len Downie addresses class of 2009

August 14, 2008

Len Downie, the executive editor of The Washington Post, was the opening day speaker at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism on Monday, August 11.

His talk, and the Q&A that followed, dealt extensively with current trends in journalism, his experience at the Post and accountability journalism. He sprinkled his discussion with examples from Post stories and colleagues.

What follows is an annotated version of the unedited notes from which Downie spoke.

• Audience shifts from print newspapers and television to Internet
• Classified advertising (jobs, cars, houses) from print to Web
• Print advertising revenue decline accelerated by economic slowdown
• Television news audience shift from broadcast to cable networks

• Newspaper profits shrinking, even losses ($30-40 million a year at Newark Star-Ledger, several million last quarter at Washington Post)
• Chains, heavily in debt, selling some papers (Tribune sold Newsday, McCatchey sold Phi Inquirer and Minn. Star-Tribune) and may break up
• Some major metro dailies may fold
• A few smaller papers are moving onto Internet only one or more days a week or completely
• Newspaper newsroom staffs are shrinking rapidly – between 25 and 50 % so far
• Television network and station newsrooms also shrinking

• Total readership of newspaper content in print and on-line is steady and may be growing.
• The problem is the sharp decline in print advertising revenue.
• The challenge is creating new economic models for the content produced by newspaper newsrooms.

“I am worried about the future of the printing press. But I’m not worried about the future of journalism.”

• Print newspapers are getting smaller in physical size and news hole.
• But many papers are putting more stories in less space in their printed newspapers and more content onto their Web sites.
• Their newsroom staffs are rapidly getting smaller.
• But they also are getting much younger, more tech savvy,
• And much more oriented to multi-media, multi-platform journalism.
• Their reporters and editors are under much greater time and productivity pressure to cover news on-line, in print, in blogs, on podcasts and even in still photography and video.
• But they also have the opportunity to present their reporting in much more dynamic ways that have greater impact on readers, viewers and Web users.

“Newsrooms now produce print and digital (news) that marry up the urgency, vibrant technology and creativity of on-line presentation with the credibility, depth and consequence of newspaper journalism.”

• journalism that holds accountable those in power,
• journalism that brings critical issues to light,
• journalism that rights wrongs,
• journalism that matters.

• Washington Post: treatment of wounded Iraq war veterans at Walter Reed.
• Washington Post: how Dick Cheney worked his will behind the scenes as vice president.
• New York Times: a glycerin imported from China for use in toothpaste and cough syrup contained a deadly ingredient for anti-freeze.
  
• Chicago Tribune: the dangers to American children of Chinese-made products from cribs to lead-tainted toys.
• Salt Lake Tribune: dangers to Chinese factory workers of carcinogens used in many of these and other products for export to the United States.
• Newsday: safety hazards on the Long Island Railroad.
• Palm Beach Post: government corruption in Palm Beach County.
• Jackson (Mississippi) Clarion-Ledger: poor reporting on disease outbreaks and infant mortality by state officials.
• Washington Post and several newspapers in Virginia: how the university and the state of Virginia responded to the Virginia Tech shootings and the issues raised about gun ownership and the mentally ill.

• 32 students and faculty shot and killed by student Seung Hui Cho, who shot and killed himself as police entered classroom building.
• First knowledge: 2 people shot in dorm
• Then: growing number of victims and classroom building
• Sent reporters and photographers to campus and hospitals in Blacksburg (couple hours away)
• Assigned other reporters to phones: campus, cops, fire, hospitals
• Reached May Angelou, who had taught Cho
• Internet: Facebook (Jose Antonio Vargas found student survivor - Vargas pieces 1 and 2)
• Running coverage – washingtonpost.com and print newspaper
• Ledealls, first person accounts, bios of victims
• Accountability – how did univ. react, not shutting down after dorm, why not more done with Cho, Virginia law and procedures for mentally ill, state investigation and recommendations for change.
• Michael Shear sources around Virginia Gov. Kaine
• Narrative reconstruction – David Maraniss - April 19, 2007 A1 story, "That Was The Desk I Chose to Die Under."
• Platforms:
  Web site: bulletins, blog, breaking stories, updated stories, photo galleries, videos from campus.
  TV interviews

• Dana Priest – intelligence beat reporter
• Not a leak. Gathered string over long period from many concerned sources. Went up ladder of intelligence officials.
  
• Visited location of one black site in eastern Europe (located there by CIA officials, who were monitoring her reporting and movements)
• Reporter discussions with intelligence officials about their concerns about what we would publish
• Meeting with reporter and senior editors with intelligence officials at CIA
• Meeting at White House
• Decisions about publication were made and why
• What we withheld and why
• Aftermath:
  Sites closed, “high value” prisoners moved to Guantanamo Bay (and other locations?)
  Unrest inside CIA about keeping secrets, possible prosecutions
  Alleged disruption of intelligence activities?
  Countries not trusting American intelligence?

• Tip to Dana Priest (also Pentagon beat, including Special Forces)
• Brought in Anne Hull (good narrative reporter and writer)
• Soon brought in photographer Michel DuCille (2 previous Pulitzers)
• Later: David Maraniss to coach narrative writing and edit stories
• Went inside Walter Reed with families
• Secret but no misrepresentation
• Interviewed wounded vets and relatives, in depth, repeatedly
• What they saw and heard
• Followed some home – photography (photo galleries narrated by duCille)
• Found some sources inside military medicine
• Went last to senior military officials for explanations
• Print series
• Multi-media presentation on Web with additional material and photos
• NBC Nightly News kickoff segment with w/Web site URL
• Over 5 million page views, thousands of comments, many tips
• Walter Reed commander and Secy of Army fired
• Immediate changes at Walter Reed and longer range changes going on
• Congressional investigations and new funding
• Follow-up stories on remaining problems,
• Especially Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome diagnosis and treatment problems

• Americans and Iraqis, rotations
• Visiting Pentagon beat reporters
• Location and security
• Reporting and travel
• Independent and embeds
• Print stories, Web files, Podcasts, reporter-shot photos
• Current special assignment photographer writing her own stories w/photos of how Iraqis impacted by war
• Special project reporters:
  Steve Fainaru – behavior of armed private contractors
  Rick Atkinson – Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

• In print and on Web
• The Trail group blog (with videos and photos) (reverse publishing)
• The Fix blog by Chris Cilizza of washingtonpost.com (on Web, reverse published highlights on Sundays, webcam videos)
• Fact-checker blog by Michael Dobbs in print newsroom (on Web, reverse published)
• Ad Watch by Howard Kurtz (on Web, reverse published)
• Rough Sketch by Dana Milbank (on Web, in print, sometimes video)
• Databases, interactive maps, games
• Podcasts and Webcasts
• In print: Determining and covering big themes of campaign (race, women, voting groups, working poor, major issues)
• Polls (and exit polls)
• Biographical narratives

• Newsrooms trying to protect resources for it.
• Increased impact and audience on Web with interactive graphics, documents, multi-media.
• Washington Post investigations blog
• Independent investigative reporting blogs, such as Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo network of blogs, including. original investigative reporting and aggregation of investigative reporting by other bloggers – Trent Lott’s praise of Strom Thurman's 1948 presidential campaign and the apparently political firing of U.S. Attorneys by Bush administration.
• Movement in non-profit world to subsidize accountability reporting. Pro Publica (free to partner news organizations).
• University-based investigative reporting projects.
• Consideration by foundations to underwrite investigative reporting inside news organizations.

• Read it throughout Web.
• Use IRE site and go to workshops.
• Be prepared to start on smaller newspapers or web sites
• or intern with investigative reporting projects.
• Seek mentors wherever you work.
• Find great stories – editors won’t turn them down.