Highlights from “The Future of Media” Event

by admin

Contributed by Valerie Meehan MSFS ’82

Could a palm-sized ‘green laser’ projector be the next big thing in hand held communication? Whether the nascent technology replaces the tiny screens on the iPhone and BlackBerry is anyone’s guess, but either way the future of media and journalism is “mobile, mobile, mobile,” Forbes Executive Editor – Technology Elizabeth Corcoran (C ’84) told a San Francisco gathering of Georgetown alums.

Elizabeth Corcoran with attendees

The invitation-only event was the third of a series of discussions on technology and biotech issues hosted by the Georgetown Technology Alliance, a Northern California alumni venture aimed at deepening ties between the business community and Georgetown University. [For more information about attending future events, subscribe to the mailing list using the widget in the left sidebar.]

“The Future of Media” panel discussion featured:
* Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, AllThingsD.com and Co-Executive Producer, D: All Things Digital, SFS ‘84
* Neil Ashe, President, CBS Interactive, B ‘90
* Elizabeth Corcoran, Executive Editor – Technology, Forbes, C ‘84
* Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer, Facebook, C ‘91

Serious journalism will survive the demise of more daily newspapers, Swisher and Corcoran predicted, because the integrity and reliability of a news story is still a sought after product – and one that requires skill and resources to meet. “I think journalism will be fine, but it will change,” Corcoran said.

“This is a Golden Age for journalism in terms of production of content,” Facebook’s Kelly said. “But traditional media are going to go through massive restructuring.”

Kara Swisher, Elizabeth Corcoran, Chris Kelly, and Neil Ashe

The big questions are “who’s going to pay?” for credible journalism and how will the market select those who merit consumers’ attention, Corcoran said. All the panelists agreed the jury is still out on that question for news and for entertainment. “If you have to cut down a tree and drive a truck,” then your publication is probably under financial pressure, Ashe said. The advent of Craigslist.org decimated daily newspapers’ cash cow of classified ads and the Internet, particularly Google’s ad word system, has cut deeply into display ad revenue, panelists noted. A lucrative model to pay for Internet broadcast of TV shows remains elusive.

Large organizations are critical to keeping the smaller operations afloat, CBS Interactive President Ashe said. “You have to build a big enough umbrella to pay for the smaller parts,” Ashe said, pointing to the ongoing success of CBS’ venerable “60 Minutes” and Swisher’s popular tech news blog, which is under the aegis of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Even though the restructuring of media empires is being driven by new technology and democratization of information via blogs, one factor remains the same-people only have so much time, Kelly said, thus all technology “Ultimately…is constrained by human attention.”