Report Proposes New Steps to Support Quality Public Affairs Reporting

By Leonard Downie, Jr. and Prof. Michael Schudson

- "The Reconstruction of American Journalism"

As the news business continues to confront fundamental economic challenges, a report, released on Oct. 19, 2009 by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, proposes new steps for maintaining a vibrant, independent press, with special emphasis on local "accountability journalism" that is essential to civic life. The report, "The Reconstruction of American Journalism," was written by Leonard Downie, Jr., former executive editor of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a Journalism School professor.

The report was released at an Oct. 20 event at the New York Public Library, hosted by Lee Bollinger, president, Columbia University; Nicholas Lemann, dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Paul Leclerc, president and CEO, New York Public Library; Julie Sandorf, president, Charles H. Revson Foundation; Clay Shirky, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University; and Aryeh Neier, president of the Open Society Institute.

"The Reconstruction of American Journalism," commissioned by Columbia Journalism School and underwritten in large part by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, takes full account of the well-known problems caused by deep cutbacks in reporting on public issues, especially in local newspapers. Yet even as advertising revenues continue to fall, budgets are further reduced and more news outlets shutter their doors, the authors also identify "abundant opportunity in the future of journalism" — especially in the very online medium that has caused the economic disruption of traditional media models. In particular, they point to a growing number of innovative online journalistic endeavors that can be developed on a broader scale to provide Americans with a diverse mix of for-profit, low-profit and non-profit sources of news and public affairs.

"It is a truism never to be taken for granted that a dynamic free press is essential to a healthy democracy, not just in our local communities, but in an increasingly global society,” said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, a noted constitutional scholar of free speech. “Yet our assumptions about the durability of the news business — as a business — have been fundamentally shaken with remarkable speed by the Internet. As a great university committed to finding solutions to society’s great challenges, it makes perfect sense that Columbia’s Journalism School would contribute practical ideas to this vital conversation about the future of quality news reporting."

The report’s authors were asked to take a comprehensive, clearheaded look at and assess the enormous changes taking place in American journalism and to make recommendations for the future.

"What is unusual about this report, aside from the stature of its authors and the breadth of their original research, is that it focuses resolutely on a particular function of the press: what it calls 'accountability journalism,'" said Dean Nicholas Lemann.

A shorter version of the report will appear in the November/December issue of the Columbia Journalism Review and on www.CJR.org/reconstruction, along with commentary from five responders and a podcast with authors Michael Schudson and Leonard Downie.

The School also held an event at the Capitol Visitor’s Center in Washington D.C. on Oct 21, hosted by Nicholas Lemann; Congresswoman Rosa L. Delauro; Congressman Dan Maffei '91; Mark Whitaker, senior vice president and Washington bureau chief, NBC News; Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer; and Bob Woodward, The Washington Post.

The Reconstruction of American Journalism
Download the complete report (PDF)
Watch an interview with Downie and Schudson
Press release (PDF)
A letter from Dean Nicholas Lemann (PDF)
Discuss the report on Twitter using #columbiajreport