In the January 2023 issue of Editor & Publisher Magazine, E&P featured an article about Dr. Peter Laufer's book, “Slow News: A Manifesto for the Critical News Consumer,” and the subsequent film documentary "Slow News" that speaks to how media companies chasing "clicks" in a digital age has led to the erosion of quality journalism and the public’s trust.
However, what this professor of journalism and James N. Wallace Chair of Journalism at the University of Oregon was chasing was a personal dream to save the local cities newspaper — The Eugene (OR) Register-Guard.
In a recent article for the local weekly entitled "How to Save the 'Guarded-Register, ' Dr. Laufer writes, "We in Eugene are witnessing the slow murder of our daily newspaper. But maybe, just maybe, what’s rapidly becoming too thin to wrap fish and line the bird cage, can still be saved." He goes on to state, "When what's now the Gannett Company — the corporate monster that owns more U.S. newspapers than any other — bought the R-G, butchery began: de facto pink slips to venerable reporters and editors and photographers in the form of buyouts, and local news coverage replaced with outdated reporting from elsewhere via Gannett’s USA TODAY network.”
Dr. Laufer also recently published an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed entitled "A Plan to Save the Daily Paper." He told the story of how he approached Gannett to explore the idea of having his students take over the newspaper writing. Within the piece, he reports that he began the process by calling CEO Mike Reed and was connected to Amalie Nash, the Gannett senior vice president of local news and audience development, who performed a “gracious” entrée to Gannett’s senior vice president for corporate development, Jay Fogarty.
Laufer states that Fogarty wrote a note to him saying that “the Register-Guard is a paper we plan to own and operate long-term." However, in a subsequent phone conversation about the idea of offering the paper to the University, Laufer writes that Fogarty said, "I'm all for it when the paper stops making money. Glad we're talking. But at this point, it does make some money."
In this 173rd episode of “E&P Reports,” we go one-on-one with Peter Laufer, Ph.D., an award-winning journalist, professor of journalism, James N. Wallace Chair of Journalism at the University of Oregon and author of "Slow News: A Manifesto for the Critical News Consumer." We ask Laufer about his recent campaign to get Gannett to donate the city’s paper of record, The Eugene Register-Guard, to the school and his views on the media industry today.
194 A quick audit of the top issues facing Danielle Coffey, now 3-weeks in as the new CEO of the News/Media Alliance
193 Gannett CEO Mike Reed on Google antitrust lawsuit
192 One-on-one with Peter Bhatia, CEO of the new nonprofit, free-access Houston Landing
191 NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss on TNG-CWA’s “most active year” of strikes and walkouts
190 One-on-one with the outspoken Evan Brandt, the last reporter left at The Mercury
189 Ballantine enters a Gannett “ghost paper” town, starting a five-day-a-week free, printed tabloid
188 The NPPA’s Mickey Osterreicher. Helping both the police & journalists understand the 1st Amendment.
187 The new MaineJF: Fighting to keep Maine news media pristine and hedge-fund free.
186 A one-on-one with Trust Project CEO Sally Lehrman
185 Guy Tasaka’s takeaways for news publishers from the NAB
184 Philanthropy and local journalism, as seen through the eyes of the giving community
183 Covering multiple major stories simultaneously. One month in the life of the Nashville Tennessean
182 Exploring Ogdensburg, NY’s two years as a 'news desert' and how the community rallied to bring back its voice
181 The Charleston Post and Courier: Committed to statewide coverage one market at a time
180 Two embedded journalists are making an impact thanks to the JFP
179 Six diverse news disrupters band together to create the Alliance for Sustainable Local News
178 Small-town citizens share support for the saving of their newspaper.
177 Foreign affairs expert Richard Haass asks us to be a “better informed” citizenry in his latest book.
176 Ryan Dohrn on selling in a post-covid marketplace and why he is “all in” on Niche Media
175 Medford, Oregon: As one paper dies, another begins all in a few weeks.
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