Are working to close the gap between journalism and civic engagement. The Knights Program really needs that vision headon. The most important journalism that happens in the city is done by regional reporters. Should i say they can . [laughing] i really believe it. The most important journalism that happens in the city is done by regional reporters. [applause] regional reporters are watching washington for americas hometowns so that the people of the United States can make informed decisions about their lives and about their democracy. And this type of journalism and the selfgovernment that it enables is one of the most Important Reasons we have a First Amendment protection for freedom of the press. So on this 30 anniversary of the Regional Reporters Association, youre going to about the challenges reporters face. You already know what they are, drinking resources, diminished public trust, and growing fake news but youre also going to hear about the impact of regional reporting from some of the very, very best in the business on this panel and in this room. And were going to look ahead to the future of regional reporting. As a look at the future of journalism it will rest in the hands of people like to knights moderator, Tamar Hallerman who is a washington correspondent, president of the Regional Reporters Association and a very valued member of the National Press club. So thank you, tamara, for the conversation were about to have and thank you again for all been your tonight. Thanks, julie. Thanks everyone. [applause] thank you for coming. Im from the Atlanta Journal constitution and i am the president of the Regional Reporters Association. Rra is professional Development Group for print, tv and radio reporters. We all covered d. C. For News Organizations aced outside the beltway. We form 30 years ago under the idea that we could offer tips and pointers to one another without compromise in competition. We also found that we could secure more interviews with highprofile newsmakers if we worked together. Weve had some pretty cool opportunities over the last 30 years. As regional reporters were facing the same pressures as every other report in d. C. From the white house to federal agencies and capitol hill, the access is tightening. The president seeks to undermine our credibility, public trust in the media has been on the decline and doctored videos and stories spotting up online on making our life any easier. We regional reporters face her own unique challenges. Craigslist, facebook and free online news new sites have takn massive bites out of the local news businesses, this is. A lot of our Parent Companies are tightening their belts. Many have close or consolidated their Washington Bureaus and laid out some really wellconnected reporters. I would know if my newspapers owned by Cox Media Group which two decades ago had about two dozen reporters based in the Washington Bureau covering politics and policies. With the sale that expected go through at the end of the year, often ill be the sole cox reporter based in d. C. Well know the work regional reporters do is vitally important to democracy if no one else keeps close tabs on state congressional delegations like we do in the local impact of a a federal policy like we do. With the closing of small and medium size newspapers across the country our work is as essential as ever. That leads me to today and our great panel that we have. I want to look at how the landscape for regional reporting has changed since rra was created and how we can rebuild trust and best inform our readers at a a time of civil discourse seems to be cratering. On that note i like to introduce our panel. I have Michael Barthel from the pew research center. We have Jerry Zremski from the buffalo news. Is been coming d. C. For 30 30 years, was exactly as long as rra has been around. Hes had some amazing work lately. And we also have two like to stay with former members of congress who been kind enough to join us and it will help they can give us candidates of what its like been covered by undoing regional reporters like us. We have congressman jim moran a democrat who represented in Northern Virginia House District for 24 years before retiring in 2015. Before getting elected to caucus he was mayor of alexandria, virginia, and now he is at the firm of mcdermott will and emily. Dextran with former congressman ryan costello, a republican represented a air district to turn a retired last year after leaving the congress he start his own Public Policy and Strategic Communications firm. So thank you so much for being here. Just housekeeping for we begin ill keep an eye out in case anybody has questions and we do want this to be a conversation with rupert uncoated save time at the end for question. I want you about your experiences been regional reporters and how people have enacted in this new environment. With that lets begin. Jerry, i want to start with you to give any regional reporter in d. C. Since 1989. Can you paint a picture for us about how your job has changed over the years . Entre spending a lot less time the facts machine and a lot more time on twitter. Things have really changed. When i tried it i covered i called the named bill paxton and i called and faxon paxton. Things have changed. The changes i think the regional reporters face are very similar to what reporters face generally. First of all we are filing all the time now. Something is breaking, i filed it right away or i tweak it right away. I kind of feel like my job never ends now. And yet at the same time there are certain kinds of coverage that i pulled back from. When i get it as part of a two person. And we to cover everything. We had a member of congress who charity committee. We would try to go to all veterans and cover this event. Over time we cut back. Im the only reporter now and i and cast with doing mostly enterprise work, work thats going to either end up on the front page of print paper or get a a ton of hits online. One can ask is this a good change or is this not a good change . Im uncertain. It really would be great to still be able to be the newspaper of record in washington for buffalo, new york, but at the same time i think regional reporters can also and i seen this happen get too much into the weeds. And not like the really good, important impact stories about whats really happening for their readers and what the delegation is really doing. The way regional reporting testing for me is i have gotten much more into that direction, much more away from process stories. Does social media maker job easier or harder . In the way you know the second summerlike congressman costello tweets. We can get that instantly. Right. Its made both easier and harder. Its made it such i had to be alert to social media and follow it all day long and have to use it when appropriate. So thats made it more complicated. Like i i said i feel like im never not working. They could think about it is i do feel much more interconnected. A lot of reporter say dont read the comments. I read the comments and, believe it or not i get stories on the comments. Ill give you an example. A couple weeks ago i did a story about the delays in the construction of a new Veterans Cemetery in western new york. There was this vague comment from a guy who said im a veteran and i own a business and i wish the government would stop trying to help me. So i figured, im going to reach out to this guy, and to do it turns out, he tells me all about these rules that i did not know the outcome legislation that Congress Passed in 2006 that required at this cemetery be built by a Company Owned by a better with the serviceconnected disability. Well, they are having a hard time finding a company that qualifies. I got a really good frontpage story only because of social media, only because i could interact with a reader i would not probably have even heard from 30 years ago. I want your from the former congressman never im interested because both of you certain local government before you meant to capitol hill. Congressman costello, you on the board of commissioners and congressman moran, you on the city council you dealt with local reporters picky to washington and you both a regional reporters come you for hometown audiences and you also National Reporters who are interested in you. Im curious what that is like an particularly have a relationship with the Regional Press might have different from of those other reporters . Its an excellent question. One thing i want to lay preliminarily is for as frustrating as it might be as a regional reporter to deal with the changes in the industry, i found it very frustrating as an elected official. Because the rules of the game had changed. By that i mean, the cultivation of a relationship with the reporter. Im looking to earn your trust that what im saying is actually true. Im looking to earn your trust that the what im working on something that might be newsworthy. The generation of stories to feed for your consideration so that over a period of years, your local electorate is reading your independently verified we citation of what im doing to validate me as an elected official, someone who is working hard, is really, i mean, that is the nutrition that a politician needs in order to withstand a wave come in a way for an election year, and to engender goodwill in the community. Soccer practice, kids in school, professional life. People dont Pay Attention to what were doing very often, and so for decades, and up through i was in Public Service starting when i was 25. Im 42 now. I was schooled in that era, and then twitter, 2015, 2016, where it really seems that the way to get your message out has changed. And less people are buying a newspaper or relying on regional reporters. And in my case the Philadelphia Inquirer and even more local papers which have all been bought up by one of the three or four hedge funds out there. It becomes a real challenge. I would submit that because the rules of the game have changed there are some elected officials who saw it coming, and ill get into this later because i dont want to talk too much or at the inception of this. But some politicians saw that coming and got in front of it with stuff that clicked, you know, clickbait and stuff that creates sensationalism. And some who i would argue are better at doing what constitution prescribes that they actually do, do not know what the new rules of the game are and they suffer. I would argue that our democracy suffers as a consequence of the breakdown in elected officials accountability by print media, consumption of print media by citizens in elected officials constituency. Forasmuch as its a business challenge for your industry, i think its a real credibility challenge for elected officials to break through to their constituency in a way when you dont have citizens rely on the service that you provide as a part of the Business Model and, frankly, under the First Amendment is what it was contemplated that a free press would do in an open society. Congressman moran, you are in washington for a long time and social meeting came about your last couple years. Did you find you are changing what you are talking to your constituents about, or what people want from you, the inquiries were getting from your constituents, with a becoming more nationalized as they were fewer regionals around to talk to . Yes. The problem with social media, and i dont mean this in the way in which it will be perceived, but theres no way to regulate it. As a result you dont know what youre getting. You dont know whos sending it. You dont know how representative it is. You dont even know whether it really is a person. It could be a bought. And so its unreliable. Its untrustworthy and antidote against particularly informative, and invariably it superficial. The tweets, the emails that you get now, they are overwhelmed with people who just have snarky comments to make, thoughtless for the most part. So its not a substitution for anything. People vent and often times it is disgruntled people who, i mean, it was a time when people would write a letter to you and it was really offbase, and we would send a form letter back. We regret to inform you that someone is using your name, sending misguided letters. If we find out who it is, i mean if those particularly bad, we would say if we find it who does we will refer them to the Mental Health institution. [laughing] but you cant do that anymore, you know, because its just too much. I just dont find that social media for the most part is terribly informative. Now, i represent Northern Virginia which was part of the washington metro area. Most people get the washington post. In the communities though, unfortunately these local papers are still surviving, we would still have local papers, and the local papers serve an extraordinary important purpose, particularly from the perspective of a politician. For the post, and the post is better than most, frankly, if i dont want to single out the posting any negative way. Its a very good and the nuke times are, as far as im concerned the two best papers and the most reliable papers in the world. Its tough to get space even on the metro section, unless theres a scandal. If there is a scandal or a very controversial policy issue, you will get space. But if you are a wellrun government thats doing the right thing, thats responsive, thats competent, thats taking issues as they come, deliberating on them and acting responsibly, you are never going to get your name mentioned. Forget about it. Your only hope is to have a network of personal friends and just go to every possible reception and every soccer game. Its not a bad thing but you never going to get any press. It makes you vulnerable because when you do best, and everybody is human, people dont know all the good things that you have done. Thats just a function of the fact that there are, what, seven many people in the wider washington metro area, but in the community there may be 100,000 at most, a small fraction that would actually get the paper. And unless you have a critical mass, you cant even get advertising revenue. And so the cohesiveness of community itself and the motivation for elected representatives to work hard, to serve the people, and to get some amount of credit for doing so is lost. And some communities its probably gone forever, and i do think that erodes the whole concept of de tocqueville that we are a country thats built upon local democracy. You have to have local coverage. I want to bring in mike, because youve done a lot of research into local and regional and National Journalism trains. Recently did a really cool thing where you can search by metropolitan area and can receive the local news ecosystem a different out and you could see all of these insane news desert paper. Could you talk to me kind of about some of the trends using local and Regional News around the country . Sure. And that too is available if you want to punch in your local area and see what the results are. For some of the large ones people can give their main source of news and there are bus ads in d. C. From the local fox station because his name as the number one news source for liberal news for people in the d. C. Region so that capitalize on that and put on the metro buses. We defined, i mean, the trend for newspapers especially over the last 30 years have been kind of a downward trend. Ad revenue is followed by half. Circulation has fallen by half. Newsroom staffing has fallen by half in the last ten years. Today more people get you some social media than from print. Its reason that much and thats not even taking into account websites and apps. Taken together Online Sources have started to rival tv as americas number one source of news. The good news for local news is local news workstation are more highly trusted the National News organizations and much more than social media. Only 4 said have a lot of trust in social media. Those highlight the challenges to a certain extent because lots of people are getting to some social media that dont trust it. We ask folks would you like about news and social media. What we heard was convenience. People like to stick their phone and opened up and there is a stream of news there for them to sample from whenever they have a free moment. Newspapers artists of the extent making the Digital Transition better than some of the other sectors. Their audience is about half and half, digital versus the legacy products were as her tv and radio its more like 7525. They are more dependent on broadcast. But the internet is coming up from behind. We have seen a decline in the number of regional reporters covering congress that are coming from daily newspapers. The number from daily newspapers fell over about five years and we did see a rise but it was from what we call niche outlets, like roll call, bloomberg or trade publications, as well as a slight rise in Digital Media new site. Having that regional correspondent really does seem to make a difference. Where a story was written by regional correspondent, they are much more likely to Cover Congress and i will have a quote from the member of congress. If that trend continues the net would have implications for the coverage folks are seeing back home. Those trends you mention a reflective in the members that we have in rra. 20 years ago with 230 notice and no, we are down to about 65. Thats hard to be. Were still getting new people and thats wonderful but i do want to talk about what this downward trend, the repercussions of all of that. Gerry, youve done some Pretty Amazing work dig into congressman collins and some of his financial stock trades he was making that maybe when not so kosher. Stories like that might not be covered but if you could talk about that. Then want to talk to the congressman as well about, because of the decline of local news how thats changed the way that folks have interacted with you. Even with fewer local news sources. Lets start with you, jerry, and go from there. I do think that basically you have a situation where congress is a very obligated animal. A lot of things are happening in cars all the time and all these members are out there raising money to get reelected. So there is potential. Im not one of those reporters who really believes people come here to congress to make money or to make it for themselves. I really think there are a lot of very good public servants. But there are those who do things that are untoward. And if there are not regional reporters covering them, i think that the odds of those untoward things being reported are probably much lower. I dont think its a good thing for democracy. Its a very good thing to have checks and balances in every way, and i think an independent press that is well resourced can provide that kind of a check. I dont know where it will go eventually. I wonder if there will be more scandal over time something because in some communities people are not watching the store. I want to talk to congressman costello briefly. When we were chatting you mention how in your district you at Something Like five local newspapers and four at a five were bought by the hedge fund and the fifth just closed its doors . Yes. Delco times in delaware county, timesherald, daily local news in Chester County are all now owned by a hedge fund. The reading eagle, which i post going to make it as now been gobbled up by the same one. What you have is rather than each one of those papers leading on the front page with their municipal news, local interest stories, the weather, all the typical stuff, now 80 of the stories in each one of those papers is identical to whats in the other. There is a little, maybe a local beat reporter doing some invisible news but for all intents and purposes the same paper. And growing up that was something, i enjoyed the Public Service route. I always wanted to do it. You learn about your local officials in the paper and use the ones that move up the ladder and what they do and how they go about i do want to say manipulate the local paper by making sure theyre in the local paper. Theres an art to making sure youre in the local paper. If i know that you are covering the puppy, the pretty puppy competition every single year, im going to go to the party puppy competition. If youre going to go, whatever, im going to go to that. A contrived a little bit of what your district work schedule is. One of the point i want to make, i dont know if you did or someone else, but if you look in terms of local government that are in areas where theres news desert tend to borrow more money. You start seeing these trends related to government behavior that are not necessarily good, or at least without that accountability and not knowing why certain decisions are made, it just introduces more potential for wrongdoing or the potential for wrongdoing to happen, which i think also needs to be mentioned. All five of them within the last ten years and a couple of them within the last two years. A question for you and congressman moran. You talked about social media but i wonder if you notice the different overtime in the way your constituents were interacting with you or the kinds of questions or issues they really cared about, given the decline in local news over the years . Its part of a broader trend. Politics has been nationalized. I spent most of my 24 years in congress on the appropriations committee. I was i guess i was parochial but i but i was very proud of that fact because its one of the two prerogatives that the constitution grants the legislative branch. Weve obviously abdicated the responsibility to declare war. We dont want to do that, but the other is the power of the purse. The reason why congress had the power of the purse is so they could serve their individual communities as best they could, and recognize and represent the diversity of those communities. They would know best what was most needed, whether it be schools or roads or bridges or human infrastructure kinds of things, Training Programs and so on, whatever it be, and then they would go and fight for it, for the better part of 200 years members were largely judged on how well they served the interests of their community. I really think it started to come in when Newt Gingrich came in in 94. There was a nationalization of congressional politics. And it became much more partisan. Both sides engaged in a lot of gotcha politics. And then to show that we were purer than caesars wife, we eliminate earmarks. So the appropriations process was, well, it was abdicated basically to the leadership, and president obama was as responsible as the republican president. He said any appropriation bill that has earmarked in it i will veto so we never got a regular appropriation bill in eight years. We would shut down the government. We would have continuing resolutions. We would kick the can down the road, and then the leadership on both sides, the house, senate, republican, democratic, would get together. It would be about eight of them and they would work out the spending bills. They would be virtually nothing for individual members to write home about, to go home about, to cut ribbons. I remember being so stunned after the economic recession of 2008 when president obama put 980 billion stimulus into the economy. But he decided not to work with the congress in deciding how that should be spent. He went to the governors. Was a little surprised since twothirds of the government republican, but the members got no credit for anything. And yet they knew best what was most important for the district. So that combined with gerrymandering where the elections, many elections are made up or determined by the primary process. Elections are nationalized on cultural issues largely. This divide has widened. The most liberal republicans, more conservative than the most conservative democrat now come every year the gulf widens, and it is relevant to these local newspapers. I guess if if you cant bring anything home now, it doesnt really matter because theres no nobody to cover it anyway. [laughing] whats the point of it . But i think this all falls into the same trend, tamara, that were nationalizing issues. As the economy becomes concentrated, more and more mergers, acquisition and concentration of corporate welcome concentration personal wealth, and concentration of political issues at the National Level instead of what i think is a more proper role for these the house of representatives, to serve the interests of their individual district, and issues like, the cultural issues are irrelevant largely. Most members spend their time serving the district and they were almost invulnerable as long as they worked hard for the district. Now they can get the future of one cultural issue if theyre on the wrong side of it. Congressman costello speeders are given example in terms of, how does, does alter behavior. Operably about five months into President Trumps term he comes into the capitol basement, House Republican conference meeting, and were getting with ensemble. I can remember what it was and the Freedom Caucus was trying to do something. [laughing] and so trump comes in, president comes in and says, you know, what not terribly substantive, but says were going to need to do this and if we dont get this done, you know, i always got, i tell you what, his twitter thing. I just go its like an explosion or what he was saying was is he has twitter and if you dont get in line, hes going to tweak and it causes a big, huge explosion. And if you are republican, it does. Now it does for everybody these days, but at the time that is a whole hell of a lot more compelling, not necessarily for me, but for many republicans in very republican district, that if you want to be held accountable, the president will hold you accountable and thats instantaneous, right . So tens of thousands of your voters in five minutes or an hour have been told wheres my congressman on this, right . That, when you think about it, visavis a regional reporter which is probably comes up the next day in print publication with declining readership, right, so if you ask, why dont republican stand up to the president of what is going to take to get republicans . Who are the voters . Where are they getting their information . And do influences how they think . And is those who influence how they think perceptive enough to know how to push the right button . And the flipside of that, was in a very competitive district, healthcare debate. There are more, and all of you know this and it probably tried you as crazy as it drove me, there are more website that came to be new sites that are just not new sites. But they look like it, right . The font, everything looks like and you read and you would read or i would read it, this is a joke but a reader doesnt assert no fact from fiction. The Cottage Industry of ideological left and the ideological right news sites, which i call infotainment really. Its not hard news, and their ability to influence readers who arguably want to be informed but seek to be enjoined with a predisposition that they already have, is a real difficult thing to overcome. So then you have folks calling the office or messaging you are writing emails that are really either sometimes they will attach the article and say how do you do this . You want to sit back i didnt do that. Or they would use a lot of the same talking points. Thats what drives congressional attitudes and behaviors and responses is where their constituents are getting their news. With that in mind did you find it even made sense to message on really local issues . Or you can get more attention just to go on twitter. The question is what you want attention. It is a multimedia a Communications Director in this day and age and Health Office is different than it was ten years ago. I was there four years. It was different from four is go to molester, they could because twitter has just taken off more so, and reporters, all of you, you have to be on twitter, right . Its not the endall beall adjust to be everywhere. You do need to do for good government. We got funding for this. You do need to get the statements out in if you disagreed with executive order. You have to do it all and yet be everywhere on everything, because your voters take a competitive district, you have to worry about the 500 they can about this and a seven of the care about that. If youre in a really republicans are really democratic district, the state its defined by one thing, do you support the present or dont you . Re for impeachment or are you not . We have really simplified how we go about measuring our members of congress. I think the pendulum will swing back but at the moment thats what i think we are. Im going to open up to questions in a few minutes, but before i do that, one last question for the panel. We would not be if we didnt think this kind of work was important. The problem is nobody, all are big bosses, none of the big fancy. To make millions have to get out how to make news profitable yet. Assuming when equity get a whole bunch of resources to be able to get back to where we were, how do we adapt . How do we do smart work and rebuild trust, especially given the state of our Public Discourse right now . I want to start with mike because pew has done some research looking at what people want in their news. Yes. Its very practical stuff. They want the news to be accurate. They want the news to cover stories thoroughly. They do want the news to be kind of fair. Theres that one higher ethical consideration but a lot of it is they want to provide information people can use. When we asked what local news are you interested in, whether number one, traffic, crime. Government was about in the middle. People due to a certain extent want news thats useful to the life and people sometimes talk about wanting news that is more positive. Its tough because a lot of the smaller local outlets are going away. Mostly weekly paper so far but were starting to see some of the daily papers fade as well. We do see that local tv is still the number one source for peoples local news in america but those local tv marcus are huge. So like in philadelphia people was a tv they get a lot of local news but out in allentown which is at the fringes of the market, and an online does dominate. Local news is very unevenly distributed in america. Some folks have tried to step up into digital sites but when you look at directories of digital only sites, they are very concentrated on the coast. There is not a ton in the middle of the country or even like slightly into the country like the midatlantic. Theres a question of funding and economics. When we asked people to get local news from these digital only outlets, very, very few people said so. You much more commonly found citizen oriented stuff like nextdoor groups, facebook groups, emails, local churches and pt. People are self organizing local news to a certain extent which has always been part of local news is people talking to each other over the back fence but they are so far dont seem be attentive outlets come in to replace whats been lost. Jerry, anything youve seen thats been working for you and your editors and your readers . Yeah, basically i think we all as reporters have always had to kind of balance what we think our readers need to know with what we think they would like to read. What struck me over time as a look my stories and how they perform online, and we can do that now, a lot of times the stories that you would think might not resonate online because they are complicated, if there written in a way that says this is how its going to affect you, it really does resonate. One of my best read stories of the past month is about Climate Change. And the effects Climate Change would have on the great lakes. It was a panel discussion. I went to it and asked questions. It turned into a really good, very well read story. I think as long as you are taking government and you are relating it to the public, there would be an audience for that. Its also important not to make presumptions of your audience that degrades or disrespects them. Ill give you a quick example. We all do it. I didnt extort a couple of months ago. I thought everybody is going to read this, this is cute. This is a guy from buffalo who is the easter bunny at the white house. Nobody read it. Nobody cared. It was like my worst read story of the month. Thats just a lesson to me that sometimes you think that things are being dumbed down that people like that. Not in my experience. My experience the really good meaty stories are that are wrin in a way that people can relate to them, they still work online, at least at the buffalo news. Congressman, any thoughts on what we can do to improve civil discourse or anything like that . Its just getting worse. It starts at the top here in this country. The standard that, it is far worse than anything i could ever imagine. There is no civil discourse. Its uncivil, but even the democrats, uncivil in the discourse because of the political environment and ego and selfishness and so on. I think it takes leadership, and it takes professionalism in various fields. We used to have, and i dont mean that we dont have very Good Television anchors, but it used to be that there were people kind of set the standard. The president would set the standard. We would have three or four nightly newscasters who would set a standard that had a certain amount of gravitas. They would be balanced. You could trust them. And it i dont mean that we dot have it now, that there would be some opinion writers that you would consistently read to be informed, but also to help shape your judgment. And we have had fewer flamethrowers. We had more people who kind of saw the broad issue and perhaps land more respected different sides. I think we had lost some of that. One of the things that i worry about particularly, because i do believe that journalism is an integral element of community, of civil discourse, of reasoned debate, of competent government, its foundational. Id love to find out whats happening in the good schools of journalism, whether this is a profession that bright, young people want to get into, to follow your lead, you know . Because it seems to me they look around and i think, you know, not much respect, not much opportunity, not much pay. Maybe i want to look at another profession. I do think that erodes the kind of Larger Community that i think most of us would like to think the fines the United States. Cant i just pop in on that for one second . I also teach at the university of maryland as an adjunct, and one interesting thing thats happened since trumps the election is just the opposite of what you might be thinking is happening. Weve had a bump up of enrollment at the university of maryland, and we had to hire more adjunct to teach more classes because a certain number of young people have become very energized just what i was reading about watergate in 1974. I would like to open it up to questions. We have a microphone going around in the back. If you could please identify yourself. Im karen, im a Communications Member of the National Press club. Ive enjoyed this in the perspective of the politician break is another perspective not being considered the professionals, we represent clients the wanted graphics that the nation, therefore it is hard to justify investing in doing that if theyre not could be covered for the efforts. Linda becomes more consolidated in big cities and also more difficult as you know to get good coverage in the large paper like the near times are washington post. I wanted to bring that additional perspective to the panel. Thanks. Hi maria, i write for the Austin American statesman and a tribute to texas monthly. When you give an example that involves congressman arian, an area that we are not covered, the judiciary, there are many court cases that are extremely important, almost always generated from original areas. I got to cover bush before with the result of important critical cases that are not making of an example of the want of dating myself when he was mayor, there was a Court Case Involving the city manager of alexander who then became the city manager of fort worth carmen. As it happened, this is way before the. Chrisunder me too eire. I believl harassment case and im pretty sure he won that case. He was a good city manager. [he continued for many years in fort worth. Anyway, it is good to see you again. Its great to see. Thank you. I had forgotten about that part. To think back and realize that back in the day when working in the bureau, i covered a lot of Supreme Court cases. I covered Supreme Court cases i cover bills in congress. That is something i really cut back on being the only person here. I feel bad because i think youre right its very important but you have to cut summer and thats one place where i felt like i had to do it. Any other questions . Thomas with salt lake tribune. A positive point, what is the future for reporting. The texas online only or is there a positive future that can be found after out there. Intercourse works from i will try and help others will try. We know what the economic model is going to be for local journalism and i think its going to depend on factors in different areas. I think wrinkly newspapers like mine where professional sports teams and people subscribe just for sports coverage, smaller communities are the ones that will really suffer. There are places like watertown new york, it is really a company town. And mark had a ton of stuff to do and there would still be a ton of water turn reported to do but there is not that person anymore because of the economics. The economics will take us about somehow and regional reporting will survive, will sit to shrink some but it might be a major marketing of foresight. One thing i find in my own insecurities, for my own job security state. I am spending my time hyper local, what is the thing that the ap wont have, but is aware not going to have. Ill do the unique story that its still worth having severe. There is a lot a very local media that is not making a ton of money and a lot at the neighborhood level, it is operating at a more geographic level but is still has a lot of liberal stories. It is also somebody else says im on the Police Scanner and this is happening. Again none of it is making mon money. Its different standards. I saw a tree today, is said today is the first of the month choose your online articles wisely. [laughter] you know what i mean is you get the 1031, i chuckled and at the same point time, i buy newspapers because i believe in a preim sure not everybody in this room does but consumers are sleeping. Some pieces of information are going to come along five minutes later and the ability of the regional reporting, we the national with local and away the only you can do, that is a sweet spot. We had national Reporters People can find the information elsewhere but that the value proposition. The question how to sustain and create a moat around the Business Model. So the consumer cannot get away with getting it for free over and over again. Something that makes me nervous as millennial a lot of my friends since trump has been election they subscribe for the first time which is great, that is really good but i dont see the same enthusiasm for local news, its not been ingrained in them may be because her young and settling down. But that is something i tried to tell people, please subscribe to the local paper to. Only about 40 of u. S. Adults had done so. We also have the question, how well do you think your local newspaper does financially and about 70 said theres a doing well financially. In a few months before they folded theres a whole issue with the front page it was blank and says this is what itll look like if you dont support the paper. People are starting to be aware that. I would guess we will wind up with two variants. And that this is awkward to be part of the session anymore, one might be what was called the patch, very local, online, we had good reporters they came with a lot of good stuff but there was not a Business Model that was sustainable economically but i think it might come back because it makes sense. But the other variants is just like writing was talking about, hedge funds or whatever source of capital, they buy them up, create a monopoly and they do it across the country and then they operate somewhat like sinclair you buy so many stations that you have a cour core content of. There is a political thing, you have a content of news and then you have maybe 20 of the papers local. Seeking claim at the local paper but to really iteration of the same stuff theyre putting in every paper that they own. And a lot of that applies to development but it seems from an economic standpoint that maybe one of the only things that is going to be economically sustainable. Another question. Im a reporter with Science Magazine with the oakland tribune. Question for michael or any other panels that want to weigh in. Im curious about what the digital publications thrive on the coast and can you connect the dots on the and why that is and what we might learn from not questioning. I think that is a good question, theres certainly also cities that are not on the coast them digitally enabled folks. A lot of times it freezes our nonprofit only so maybe a certain issue where the funding is going and the funders are interested. Every place has its own story. Philadelphia, the local News Organization of nonprofit internet Business Model. So we find that as well. Im not quite sure about the answer. I think one factor is the demographics in metro areas in a place like buffalo has an older demographic source circulation is held up better than it has in other places because older people are in the leadership the habit. That is obviously going to change over time, that is not a model for the future but that might have something to do to explain why the coastal areas where you have a lot of people turning in and out population changing, theyre just different in the old cities. Tried to give tommy what he wants which is always a good idea i think. And call on 70 on the room who i know to be one of the very best regional reporters, that is leslie clark. [applause] i worked with her and she has covered washington for the miami herald and more. I just wanted to ask her to talk of little bit about what she sees working and what gives her hope for the future. Thanks julie. I guess thanks. [laughter] a lot of what i we are still super proud of having the general reporters which is probably one of the biggest ones in d. C. We have a number of regional reporters, i worked for kentucky and covering Mitch Mcconnell which is a super fun beat and its really important as well. And what we try to do as well and my colleagues, we try to get Something Different that not everybody else is going to do. So if we know the story of the day its not what were going to try to achieve we will go somewhere else and give people what they cannot get anywhere else. They see a lot of hope and regional reporting, they have a compass project that theyre doing. People might have heard about it and google which are going into three news desert that dont have any news operations and i think the first one is in Youngstown Ohio which lost its newspaper and they are going to try something new and be brave and going there and try to get readers, try to get people talking to them and reading them. A lot of what we do is knowing your community, that is a really important thing jerry knows buffalo. I knew miami really well when i reported for them and a new always for a regional reporter in the front of my mind what would land on the front page. Now thats like what will land on the homepage and stay there. The sticky stories people go back to. Yours thinking what do people in the Community Want to read. Now that i cover for lexington, Mitch Mcconnell, the nice thing about him, hes not of interest just to the folks in lexington but hes of interest to a national audience. I think we get a lot from that. How we would change that into subscriptions, im not entirely sure on that. But i try to work well with the political reporters and keep it going. I also took a suburban and horseracing and what the Community Cares about. We have time for one more. I am with ian enews and the washington correspond to for 14 and half years. I wanted to tell a quick story and then maybe make an observation. One of the beauties about regional reporting is your tied back to your community and that your focus. When watertown hired me id worked at the paper and been in the news for three nephews. And they sent me down in my editor said, if we were looking for somebody who really knows washington, we can find somebody in d. C. To do that. There are people we can hire but thats not what were looking for. We know somebody who knows the North Country and who knows people appear, lived in the community, who knows and understands the owner and publisher quirks. [laughter] and that sort of thing. So that was the beauty of it. I came down here and as the regional, i dont care about the speaker of the house, i will not write about that but i care about local congressman is going to get the top slot on house armed services. That is a good story. And we will get it first. That is what regional reporting is. The observation i would make even though regional reporters, the ranks have been decimated, you go into the press galleries and their more fully reporters than any time since i started here in december of 1997. And its all people who are writing places like ian enews and politico, for the way it is being covered is different than it used to be. There is a great reporters and great at teasing stuff. But the focus is different. Id be curious about any observations from people on the stage or elsewhere about how coverage has changed because of that. If i could, i know we want to hear from everybody but ill take a crack at that. There is no question the composition in the newsroom has changed. A lot of them are reporters as you said energy and the environment or the ugl there wig and the paid for by corporations who need to be on top of everything that can affect the bottom line. That includes obvious lobbyist. That works because there is consumers, although not a high quantity but highquality in terms of capacity to pay and they pay big money. Energy newsletters that this affects their investment in their willing to write big checks to make sure there at least informed as a competitors. But that is very different than the kind of coverage you used to have of individual members and how well they were serving their district. This is how well they serve our industry. What are they doing that will affect the bottom line. Its a different paradigm for what youre willing to work in congress. And coupled with that intrigued, how do us minions deal with what is happening at the white house and how do we fit into that, that drives stocks and msn, where the cog in the wheel for the broader nationalized narrative. Thats what a lot of those reporters who chase around, if you want to engage you to be good buddies with a lot of them because any quotes developed article. If that is not your thing and you dont want to play in that space, then you dont have reason as a member of congress to talk to the reporters except regional. Youre better off having your director get the press releases back. [laughter] try to hit the deadline for the next morning, good intr go to h. Unless my congressman is he n something out there, our readers dont click on the story of the day. Heres what trumps said heres what they think of it. Generally what leslie said having essential stuff that no one else has. When i write about the wate watr rate case important, those stories do really well because no one else is covering it. There is a silverlining in that. You want to have lost request mark. Im struck at how much this conversation becomes full circle. I thought a lot about what he had to say about your marks. When i came to washington 30 years ago there are no earmarks. Look at the members a cover today there are exceptions for some are similar to the one that covered 30 years ago. A guy named tom reed who im sure you know well temperamentally would be the district type of congressman, but without appropriations, he has taken a different path. He has worked with a bunch of other members to really energize this group called the problem solvers. So i end up writing stories about the problem solvers rather than appropriations because that is what he is doing. It goes in to what youre saying about congress being nationalized. Thats a perfect example. You get the final word. N[inaudible] [inaudible] i want to thank our panelist for taking the time to chat with us. I want to think a crowd for coming out. There are ten reporters including former alright president. Thank you all for coming and those who paid weaver reception upstairs and would love to see well. Thank you and thank you for joining. [applause] they could to the panelist. Thank you to andy who has been running my phone and helped make this program happen into the press club team that always makes this experience espresso welcome. They could to cspan for recording this and arena. And before people leave for the reception, i want to talk about some buddy who is not here. Some of us are wearing bright pins that say free austin tice. His only american journalists who is being held abroad, he is been detained in syria for 200544 days now. He was taken while reporting and for the washington post, the u. S. Government believes he is alive and working hard to bring him home. His family has been fighting for seven years this month. And we hope that you will too. Starting a new campaign this month on austins birthday which is august 11 and youll be able to learn about it at ask boston. Org starting on august 11 and meanwhile you can see austins photography in the lobby and learn more about him at austin tice family. Com. Thank you again for supporting programs like this and thank you all for being here. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] 200567. Small network was an unusual name. Let viewers make up their own minds. Cspan opened the doors to Washington College for all to see. Bringing new unfiltered content of congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years that big idea is more relevant than other ever. On television and online cspan is your unfiltered view of governments you can make up your own mind. Brought to you by Public Service by your satellite or cable provider. Mailing congressman who shares the Oversight Committee speaks wednesday at the National Press club. We will have live coverage at 1 00 p. M. Eastern tomorrow on cspan. A reminder you can follow our coverage online at cspan. Org and with the free cspan radio app. Nobel and poet surprised novelist Toni Morrison died today. We will bring you a 2004 conversation on her book, remember the journey to school integration. Then joe biden, former Vice President joe biden discusses her family and crew. Her book is where the light enters. Later republican whip Steve Scalise recounts his recovery after being shot during practice for the annual progression baseball game in 2017. Although that starts at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Cspan has live coverage of the 2020 president ial candidates at thy was state fair starting thursday at 1 45 p. M. Eastern with montana governor and former Vice President joe biden, on friday were live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern with former hud secretary hooley and castro and former grossman beto orourke and on saturday live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern with governor jay inslee, kamala harris, amy klobuchar, accused into the brain, Elizabeth Warren and cory booker. Watch a 2020 president candidates life as i was state fair on thursday as cspan and watch anytime online at cspan. Org or listen life from wherever you are on the go using the free cspan radio app. Vice president spoke at an event on religious freedom earlier today. Before we get started let me say a few words. About the horrific Mass Shootings that occurred over the weekend in el paso and dayton. Like all americans, karen and i were outraged and sickens by these attacks. As a state before you today, 31 people have died. 53 were injured in a brakes or hearts to see so many innocent life cut short by unspeakable violence. What happens this weekend were acts of pure evil. We express our deepest condolences to the family of those who lost their lives and rejoin every american for the injured and their families and their time of need. The bible says the lord is close to the brokenhearted. And that will be our prayer for the people of dayton and el paso. We also commend the men women of lawenforcement in both states whose quick action and Courageous Service undoubtedly saved lives. They earned the admiration and gratitude. [applause] as President Trump said in his address to the nation yesterday. Hate has no place in america. The sinister ideologist of racism, bigotry and White Supremacy must be defeated. [applause] in the wake of previous violence, our ministration worked in a bipartisan basis with congress to strengthen background checks and improve school safety. In the wake of this weekend mash shootings the president has brought the full resources of the federal government to assist prosecuting those responsible for these heinous acts. Justice will be swift and served. [applause] the president has directed the fbi to use all legal means available to disrupt take crimes and prevent domestic terrorism before it occurs. We directed the department of justice to work with local state and federal agencies as well as social Media Companies to develop new tools to identify those seeking to do harm before the strike. When the president called for all of us, to Work Together to in the glorification of violence in our society. And to reform our Mental Health laws, will work to identify and intrigue were necessary and voluntarily confine all those deemed a risk to themselves for the Public Safety. [applause] as we speak our ministration is working with members of congress to ensure all of those who pose a risk to Public Safety are denied access to firearms. And finally because justice delayed is justice denied. Were developing legislation to ensure those who commit mass murders face the Death Penalty swiftly. [applause] in years, not decades. Tomorrow, the president and the first lady will travel to dayton and el paso to express some of the and support of the American People for all those impacted by these hideous attacks. Mr. President also said, now is the time to the partisanship aside and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love. Now is the time to overcome evil with good. [applause] that is all that in times of trial, the market people turn to faith and prayer. The bible tells us that if these people were called by his name will humble themselves and pray that he will hear from heaven and hell heal our land. In this dark hour for the people of el paso indian, we do well to pray. The pray for healing to pray for the families of those that were lost and ied
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