IMPROVING AMERICAN JOURNALISM

SUBJECT OF NEXT "KALB REPORT"

Dec. 16  Forum to Focus on Convergence, Consolidation and
Teaching Veteran Journalists New Tricks

WASHINGTON – What are newsrooms doing to improve American journalism? How are reporters learning to cover such emerging issues as domestic terrorism and modern warfare. How are dot-com news organizations faring financially and are they getting along with their parent newsrooms? Journalist/scholar Marvin Kalb will bring together veteran news reporters and media executives to answer these and other questions in the next “Kalb Report.”

“The Kalb Report: Newsrooms in Transition – Convergence, Consolidation and Teaching Veteran Journalists New Tricks,” will take place on Monday, December 16, 2002 at 8:00 p.m. in the National Press Club (National Press Building, 14^th and F Streets, NW, 13^th Floor).

Panelists include: Christopher Shroeoder, CEO and publisher of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive; Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio Television News Directors Association; Frank Denton, editor of The Wisconsin State Journal; Richard Sisk, national security correspondent for the New York Daily News; and Caesar Andrews, editor of Gannett News Service.

"Once a journalist, always a journalist? Sort of," said Kalb "But one would hope a better journalist, with better training to meet the new challenges of the craft and the age. Who is paying for the better training?  Shouldn't news organizations and foundations be doing more?”

Next week’s “Kalb Report” will offer one of the most current examinations of the news industry, from reporters to employers.  Kalb and his guests also will discuss what a recently released John S. and James L. Knight Foundation study says about training and education in the newsroom.

The Kalb Report series is co-sponsored by The George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, The Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and the National Press Club.  GW and the National Press Club have produced 30 programs in the "The Kalb Report" series since 1994.  Forums have covered issues at the intersection of public policy and the press, including talk show democracy and covering the private lives of public officials. 

Over a distinguished 30-year broadcast career Marvin Kalb served as chief diplomatic correspondent for CBS News and NBC News, and as moderator of "Meet the Press."  Among his many honors are two Peabody Awards, the DuPont Prize from Columbia University and more than a half-dozen Overseas Press Club Awards.  He is currently executive director of the Shorenstein Center and has served as a visiting professor and visiting scholar at GW.

The executive producer of the Kalb Report is Michael Freedman, a vice president of GW and professorial lecturer in the GW School of Media and Public Affairs.  The former general manager of CBS Radio Network News is the recipient of more than 85 awards in broadcast journalism, including 12 Edward R. Murrow honors.