Yale Law School Conference on the Future of Journalism

Yale University News
Office of Public Affairs
Phone: 203/432-1345
Fax: 203/432-1323
http://www.yale.edu/opa

CONTACT: Gila Reinstein 203-432-1325 gila.reinstein@yale.edu
Or Kathy Colello 203-432-4854 kathleen.colello@yale.edu

For Immediate Release: October 23, 2009
Yale Law School Conference on the Future of Journalism

New Haven, Conn.—A dramatic shift in the way Americans receive news and information, stimulated by the growing dominance of the Internet and other electronic media, is the focus of the conference “Journalism and the New Media Ecology: Who Will Pay the Messengers?” at Yale Law School, November 13-14.

Internet media outlets have cut deeply into the circulation and advertising revenues of traditional news media and diminished their ability to practice the level of good journalism on which an informed citizenry depends. Only this week, The New York Times announced plans to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs by year’s end.

Yale Law School’s Knight Law and Media Program will bring together scholars, media leaders, journalists, faculty members and students to share their insights and explore new ways to support the work of the “Fourth Estate.”

Panels will consider such topics as “Who Uses the News and How?” “Preserving Local Journalism” and “Who Will Pay the Messengers?” Additional sessions will delve into “The Quest for Pay Models,” “Publicly Owned and Operated Media,” “The Changing Ecology of News Media,” “Non-Profit and Foundation-Funded Models” and “Direct and Indirect Government Subsidies.” The final panel discussion will consider “The View from the Newsroom.”

Speakers include Stephen Brill, co-founder of “Journalism Online” and founding editor of American Lawyer; Jay Rosen, author of “What Are Journalists For?” (Yale University Press, 1999) and PressThink, a weblog about journalism and its ordeals (www.pressthink.org ); Jonathan Leibowitz, chair of the Federal Trade Commission; Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism; and many others.

The conference begins at 10 a.m. on Friday with welcoming remarks by Yale Law School Dean Robert Post ’77 J.D. and Professor Jack Balkin, director of the Knight Law and Media Faculty Program. Jonathan Klein, president of CNN-USA, will deliver the keynote address on Friday evening to an invited audience. The conference concludes Saturday afternoon.

“We will meet at a pivotal moment, as major news organizations, the Knight Commission on the News Needs of Communities, and government confront and shape decisions in response to the urgent need to sustain high-value journalism,” said Stephen Nevas, executive director of the Knight Law and Media Program.

The conference is open to the public. There is no charge for Yale students and faculty. The registration fee for non-Yale students and scholars is $25; for non-profits, government representatives and the public, $75; and for corporations and trade associations, $225. Full details, the complete conference schedule, and required online registration are available on the conference website at http://www.law.yale.edu/lawandmedia. For more information, please contact Stephen Nevas at stephen.nevas@yale.edu or Perry Fetterman at perry.fetterman@yale.edu.

The Knight Law and Media Program, part of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, is supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Yale News Releases are available at http://www.opa.yale.edu

Comments