Topic: Editorial Layoffs at The New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Trend Nationwide of Reducing Print News in Favor of Online News
Presenters: Jerry Ceppos, dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University; and Steve Beatty, the managing editor of The Lens, New Orleans, La.
About the Program: No industry has escaped the effects of the Internet. We second-guess our doctors by consulting WebMD after--or maybe before--we hear the diagnosis. A company called Dollar Shave Club received more than $1 million in venture-capital financing to build an Internet-directed razor-blade-of-the-month service. The Web obviously has revolutionized the music and book businesses, too. But no industry has been affected as much as the journalism-related industries--newspapers, broadcast, public relations, advertising.
For the August 28 PRAL-BR member lunch meeting at Juban’s, two speakers will share the podium regarding the trend in newspaper editorial layoffs, re: The Times-Picayune, and how that affects online media trends and in turn public relations and marketing trends for communications professionals.
About the Speakers:
The first speaker will be Jerry Ceppos, dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at the Louisiana State University. He became dean of the Manship School a year ago. For 3-1/2 years before that, he was dean of the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Although Jerry spent most of his career in newspapers, he has been interested in journalism education for years. He has been a member of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which sets standards and accredits journalism schools, for 20 years. For six of those years, he served as president of the council.
In the profession, Jerry was vice president for news of Knight Ridder, then the second-largest newspaper company; managing editor and executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News; assistant managing editor of The Miami Herald, and a reporter and editor at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
He served twice as president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and was president of the Associated Press Managing Editors, a national journalism organization. He has been active with First Amendment issues and is a former board member of the Student Press Law Center and of the First Amendment Coalition. He was one of three winners of the first Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society of Professional Journalists. He also won the Knight Ridder Excellence Award for Diversity for diversifying the staff and pages of the San Jose Mercury News. He is a distinguished alumnus of the University of Maryland.
The second speaker will be Steve Beatty, the managing editor of The Lens, New Orleans' first nonprofit investigative newsroom, founded in 2009. This Web-based project is a change of medium--but not message--for Beatty, who has more than 20 years of experience as an editor at major daily newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. Beatty was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, and has called New Orleans home since 1990. He lives in the city with his wife, three kids and two dogs.
The Lens is committed to producing public-interest journalism that informs, engages and educates the community. Its goal is to report stories that are going unnoticed by traditional news outlets, many of which are shrinking. A staff of eight produces a mix of short daily stories and longer, in-depth pieces on topics such as education, the environment, politics, and the spending of Hurricane Katrina recovery money. The Lens has recently been honored with a National Edward R. Murrow Award, a national Ethics in Journalism award from the Society of Professional Journalists and was named the best news website in the 2012 New Orleans Press Club Awards.
Time:
11:30 a.m.–noon, registration and networking
Noon–12:10 p.m., welcome and introductions
12:10–1:00 p.m., lunch, presentation and audience Q & A
Cost:
Registration Type
|
“Early Bird”
(before RSVP deadline) |
Regular
(after RSVP deadline) |
| Student |
$10 |
$15 |
| PRAL Member |
$20 |
$25 |
| Nonmember/Guest |
$25 |
$30 |
Payment: Secure online payment may be made in advance using PayPal. You do not have to have a PayPal account to pay with a debit or credit card. Payment also may be made manually at the door in the form of cash, check (personal, company, cashier’s), or money order.
RSVP: Register by Friday, September 21, 2012 at www.pralbr.org. Please notify us 48 hours prior to event if you wish to cancel.