What the next journalism should be

Tom Rosenstiel has been one of the nation’s leading thinkers about journalism for decades. He is the co-author of “The Elements of Journalism” (with Bill Kovach), now in its fourth edition. Rosenstiel founded and for 16 years led the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Centers, and then ran the American Press Institute for nine years. These days he is professor of the practice and the Eleanor Merrill Scholar on the Future of Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism as well as a senior fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. Much of his time as a working journalist came at the Los Angeles Times and at Newsweek.

Tom’s new book, “The Next Journalism: How The Press Must Change to Serve Democracy,” was published Tuesday. I strongly recommend it, even as I’m skeptical about some aspects, as you will see below. Our conversation about the book took place in late July, and has been edited for length and clarity.

RT: Tom, thanks for doing this. Let’s start with the basics. What’s the central premise of the book?

TR: I think the central premise is that the model that we’ve operated by, and that a lot of our routines were built around, was an advertising model in which we got people’s attention, and then we rented that attention to advertisers. We can no longer primarily build this business on advertising, so we have to find another way. We have to find a way of creating a journalism that has so much value that people will pay for the journalism.

Click here to read more.