In a National Press Club Centennial Forum at New York University, Dan Rather, the former anchor of CBS Evening News, defended the future of newspapers against the rising tide of new media.
His defense came in response to a question regarding the Internet's replacement of newspapers, which has become a common idea, especially since some newspapers have stopped running their presses, a move that is due in part to the high cost of newsprint and historically low advertising revenue.
Rather's reasoning was that newspapers had been faced with new media before in radio and television, and still it survived when people seemed assured of its death. Today, he said that the "pronouncements of (newspaper's) near death are premature."
"When I say the center of new media has shifted to new media, to online, that doesn't mean that anywhere in the new future we're going to be without newspapers, magazines, radio newscasts and TV newscasts provided they don't completely succumb to the temptation to become 'viewscasts,'" Rather said, adding that "viewscasts" are when "you get four or five people in the room to shout their views at one another...and that's what passes as news."
Panelists on the forum, which was held Oct. 16, 2008, included Rather; Tom Curley, president and CEO of The Associated Press; Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times; and Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor and press critic.
Watch the video of the forum here (click the Flash video on the left side of the page).
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