Independent, family-owned newspapers now represent only about one in six papers in the United States, with the rest under corporate ownership.
What does that mean for journalism, for communities, for democracy? How are profit pressures that come with corporate ownership affecting the public mission of newspapers and journalism?
Those will be among the questions discussed and debated at a free, public symposium Sept. 8-10, "The Independent Family Newspaper in America: Its Future and Relevance," at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Among the speakers and participants will be prominent names from all sides of the issue:
o Al Neuharth, who as the head of Gannett Newspapers amassed what was at one time the largest group of daily newspapers in the nation.
o Walter Hussman, publisher of the independent Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, who more than a decade ago fought a newspaper war against a Gannett-owned paper and won.
o Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing Co., one of the nation's largest media corporations.
o Brandt Ayers, editor and publisher of the independent Anniston (Ala.) Star, often credited as being among the best small newspapers in the nation.
o Frank Blethen, publisher and CEO of the Seattle Times Co., which publishes one of the largest family-owned papers in the nation, along with a small chain of papers.
o Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, who previously directed the Project on the State of the American Newspaper for American Journalism Review.
o Robert McChesney, professor in the Institute of Communications Research at Illinois and the author of the award-winning "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times."
The symposium is sponsored by the News-Gazette, an independent paper in Champaign, Ill., and its owner-publisher, Mrs. Marajen Stevick Chinigo, and by Illinois' department of journalism in the College of Communications. The News-Gazette is celebrating its 150th anniversary; the college is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
The idea for the symposium arose out of a desire to commemorate the anniversaries, and to address an area of special interest to the newspaper, said John Foreman, the editor and general manager of the News-Gazette. "It seemed an appropriate time to see if we could generate a true national discussion."
For Ron Yates, the head of Illinois' department of journalism, the issue "really goes to the classic heart of American journalism," and raises questions about how newspapers can play their roles as public watchdog, advocate and the voice for a community.
For more information, see http://www.conted.uiuc.edu/newspaper or call (217) 333-2880.
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