By Bob Van Leer

  (Columbia, MO, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008) - For the next two days there were informational sessions all day long, a half-hour to an hour each and so many it was impossible to attend them all. I found that four a day was all I wanted to handle.

  The first session I attended was in Neff Hall, the oldest of the journalism buildings. When Betty and I attended the school there were two interconnected buildings. There are now six.

  The session on "New Models for Journalism" was held in a theater-type lecture hall on the second floor. This hall was one of the few things in the school that hasn't been remodeled or changed. It does have new seats. Still, I could see in the back rows within a few feet of where I met Betty in a class on the History and Principles of Journalism. She had a previous class a considerable distance away and was always one of the last in the room. I sat directly behind her and always helped her off with her coat which led to 55 years of marriage.

RADICAL CHANGE

  A theme ran through the sessions that journalism is undergoing a radical change, primarily because of the internet, and newspapers particularly are taking a big hit. One speaker said that the business model for newspapers, if not broke, is at least badly bent. Another said there is no magic fix so stop wringing your hands and find new ways to go.

   Blogs on the internet are cropping up all over and one organization, the Pulitzer Center, is being hopeful they might be improved and is working with YouTube on a very basic journalism course.

  One trend that is developing is non-profit organizations taking over investigative reporting formerly done by newspapers. Newspapers are cutting expenses and investigative journalism is an easy expense to drop but leaves a hole. Propublica is getting $10 million per year from one unnamed couple to do investigative reporting.

  Joel Cramer of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said there are two kinds of non-profits, one that needs continuous donations and another kind that wants to get substantial business for self-funding. He is working on one (MinnPost.com) that he hopes to have in the black by 2011 and by that he means only 50% donors and the same amount from advertising.

  Cramer said there is little barrier to entry on the internet so there is more competition for the same ad dollars.

  From the content of the programs, there seems to be no one on the faculty doing any serious work on improving print newspapers. All the effort is going into various internet efforts.

   This, to me, is short-sighted although I am probably prejudiced. Newspapers are a multi-billion dollar industry and are likely to be a major factor for at least another decade or two and I think they will be around in some form for the foreseeable future. It is over 500 years since Gutenberg began printing books. There has been incredible technological change since then but we are still printing books. The present woes of the newspaper business are interesting. In this case, small newspapers are having fewer problems than the metro papers.

  A new buzz word in the business is "convergent journalism". This is an effort to bring together all forms of journalism reproduction, print, TV, radio and internet and use the techniques best suited to a story.

CLOSING CEREMONY

  The final event of the celebration was again at the basketball arena starting with a buffet of Missouri foods and then a ceremony hosted by Dean Mills.

  The week was a worthwhile event, learning new things and catching up on others. My nephew Steve Pallardy helped immensely, always willing to chauffer me around town. Thursday evening there was no scheduled event so he and I and his friend, Pam, went to dinner at Les Bourgoeis Bistro at nearby Rocheport, MO, overlooking the Missouri River, a welcoming place.

  Then Saturday it was back to St. Louis to visit with my sisters and other relatives.