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WILL NEWSPAPERS SURVIVE?

Thursday May 22, 2008 11:32 Age: 142 days
Category: Department of Communication

By:Dirk Johnson

Northern Illinois University is one of the sponsors of a June 12 panel of prominent Chicago journalists mulling the question:  Can newspapers survive in the Internet age, with circulation falling and advertising shrinking at almost every big paper in America.

It is hard to imagine life without newspapers. But the bottom line rules. And the question begs: Is print news the horse-and-buggy of the 21st Century communications world?
In a rare and candid conference, award-winning Chicago journalists have agreed to sit down and face the tough questions about what the newspaper business needs to do to survive. The program is set for 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on June 12 at the offices of Mayer Platt LLP, 71 S. Wacker, 33rd Floor. Guests are invited to gather afterward at the Billy Goat tavern, where beer, wine or soda pop will be compliments of the Northern Illinois Newspaper Association (NINA), one of the partners in the event.

The panelists:

Mark Brown, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times; Bill Adee, Assistant Managing Editor for Innovations for the Chicago Tribune; Monroe Anderson, EbonyJet columnist who formerly worked for Newsweek, the Tribune and WBBM-TV, and served as press secretary for the late Chicago Mayor Eugene Sawyer; Cindy Dampier, former Chicago Bureau Chief for People magazine and currently an editor for the Chicago Tribune; Jim Slonoff, publisher and co-owner of The Hinsdalean; Tom McNamee, editorial page editor of the Chicago Sun-Times; and Eileen Brown, director of innovations at the Daily Herald. The moderator will be Dirk Johnson, a former bureau chief for The New York Times and Newsweek magazine who teaches journalism and English at Northern Illinois University.

Brown, Slonoff and McNamee are NIU alums. The event is also being sponsored by the Chicago Headline Club. It is free and open to the public.

According to building security policy, people who plan to attend must send an e-mail to Kathy Catranbone at chc.kathy(at)gmail.com by June 10.

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