Roll International Co-Chair Lynda Resnick on the death and rebirth of journalism.

Question:rnDo you lament the demise of print newspapers?

LyndarnResnick:            Well,rnI think, it’s all good.  There’s arnplace for all media.  There reallyrnis.  I worry about magazines ofrncourse, you know.  And I worryrnabout newspapers because journalism is so important.  I was giving a presentation last week to a book club.  And it was an older market that Irnusually talk to.  And there was arnfellow there that was asking me about the death of journalism and he was inrntears.  He’s an older guy and it’s,rnlike, where do we get the truth anymore, you know? 

But,rnI think, we have to make this shift from printing presses, Gutenberg, tornintellectual property.  And whatrnWalter Isaacson said recently in Time Magazine, and you may have seen it on JonrnStewart and it’s on the blogs and so forth; it’s on YouTube, that we should bernpaying for minute pieces of content rather than paying to buy a wholernnewspaper. 3 quarters of a million pieces of paper in a Sunday New York Times,rn25% of that is recycled.  That’srnit. I love my New York Times. I just read the New York Times.  I live in Los Angeles, I read the NewrnYork Times everyday. 

Butrnstill, what is the future of that printing?  What is the future of books?  We have all these disruptive technology like thernkindle.  It’s only a small piecerntoday but eventually, we’ll be reading books electronically.  We will.  And so, we have to make a shift, a seismic shift so that wernkeep authors writing, journalists speaking.  Investigative journalism has to survive.  We don’t want to become a nation of Nurnspeak in this tabloid era we live in. rnWe have to have the truth. 

Recordedrnon: March 17, 2009