00:01 - Thanks, everyone.

00:03 - Especially. Thank you, Dennis.

00:04 - Thank you.

00:04 - To our organizers, to the folks at, our friends at Duquesne,

00:09 - at temple, you did almost all the work, and then you let us take the credit.

00:12 - So thank you so much for that.

00:14 - I don't know what you've heard, actually, Lisa,

00:17 - I don't know if you're still around, but I should say, what you have heard because,

00:21 - you know, that's how we would say you.

00:22 - So, I don't know what you've heard or you have heard, but,

00:26 - it's been pretty quiet in Pittsburgh this year.

00:28 - It's been, no joke.

00:30 - I told our staff, at the end of last year, I was like, we're going to

00:34 - we're going to dial things back in 2026.

00:36 - It's going to be fine.

00:37 - Hasn't worked out too well so far.

00:40 - We have a killer panel for you.

00:41 - I'm going to, call them up one at a time.

00:44 - You can read their official bios, but, I'm going to give you anecdotal bios.

00:48 - It's Deborah Todd is, she's opinions editor at the Hill.

00:53 - But in Washington, DC.

00:55 - But she chooses to live in Pittsburgh, and so we're thrilled about that.

00:59 - Deb is also the president of the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation.

01:03 - And, we're throwing a a killer party next Wednesday.

01:07 - Deb and I are throwing a party for the, the eve of the NFL draft.

01:10 - We actually, we're not legally allowed to say NFL, but,

01:14 - on the eve of the draft in Pittsburgh,

01:16 - we're going to have a party for journalists.

01:18 - And so if you're around Pittsburgh or you're coming to town, please look us up.

01:23 - Next we have, Cindy Lash.

01:25 - Cindy is someone who worked at the Pittsburgh Press and the Post-Gazette,

01:29 - traveled around the journalism world,

01:32 - and then settled back home as the, newsroom leader

01:35 - at 90.5 WUSA, our public radio station.

01:40 - And Cindy is someone who, if you show up at the hotel here

01:43 - late at night and you want to get a late bite,

01:45 - she will actually share her, chocolate peanut butter cake with you.

01:47 - So it was not to be underestimated.

01:51 - Steve Mellon is a long time, photojournalist

01:54 - in Pittsburgh at the Post-Gazette.

01:56 - He's also increasingly a,

01:59 - a voice for the, Pittsburgh News Guild, which represents

02:02 - all the workers in the newsroom at the Post-Gazette.

02:04 - So, Steve, I'm sure you'll have some interesting things to say here.

02:08 - I would also say that, if you come to the Press Club's annual

02:12 - awards dinner, which is happening next month, get your get your seats.

02:17 - Steve is a good person to find at the end of the night.

02:19 - That's when he and I will be doing the real business, out in the casino. So,

02:24 - and then finally, Luis Fabregas.

02:27 - Luis is the executive editor of the Tribune-Review.

02:31 - Luis and I worked together, many years when I was a reporter at the Trib.

02:35 - We like to joke that we're best colleagues.

02:37 - But we're really best friends.

02:38 - And, today's Thursdays.

02:41 - Thursdays are for feelings.

02:42 - So, who knows what will come out of this discussion?

02:46 - I, I also want to say that,

02:49 - I want to level set this discussion a little bit because, the introduction

02:53 - for it talked about, new competition and,

02:57 - we met and none of us believe that.

03:01 - That's how we're going to frame this, moment in Pittsburgh.

03:03 - We've worked really hard

03:04 - to have a collaborative environment in Pittsburgh where local news.

03:09 - Yeah, we compete for scoops.

03:10 - We compete for dollars, we compete for clicks.

03:13 - But we also see a place for working together and sitting around the same table

03:16 - and finding strength in that.

03:18 - And so,

03:19 - you know, we welcome the new, owners of not only the Post-Gazette,

03:22 - but also City Paper.

03:24 - Pittsburgh City Paper, our alternative weekly.

03:27 - We welcome Midtown in that spirit.

03:28 - I would also say that it's not friendly.

03:31 - Competition in Pittsburgh is not new.

03:33 - The, Post-Gazette and the Trib can both trace their lineage back to the 1700s.

03:38 - So, far from new.

03:40 - The other thing is that the,

03:43 - Well, the news about the new

03:44 - owners of the Post-Gazette is top of mind, and it's sort of the breaking news.

03:48 - It is only the tip of the iceberg for what's happened

03:51 - in Pittsburgh over the past three months.

03:53 - It's really been a super intense period of time.

03:56 - It was, New Year's Eve.

03:59 - I was on vacation when I got started getting texts from folks

04:02 - in the City Paper newsroom saying, hey, we all just got fired.

04:05 - City paper's closing.

04:08 - But within three months,

04:10 - we were able to put together a plan to bring back city paper.

04:13 - So, city paper.

04:15 - The staff was having its first editorial board meeting.

04:18 - When the news of the new Post-Gazette owners, came through.

04:21 - So, that's been very intense.

04:23 - The other thing in response to, the news about the Post-Gazette closing,

04:29 - the Trib is launching a new, weekend edition that starts May 9th.

04:34 - That's super exciting.

04:35 - Something that, we hadn't expected at the end of last year.

04:39 - WUSA is doing an increased amount of accountability journalism

04:43 - and also specifically elections coverage, because there's been demand

04:47 - from the community saying we don't really know enough about our elected leaders.

04:51 - The News Guild in

04:53 - they've launched their own program called paper.

04:56 - It's, Pittsburgh Alliance for People Empowered Reporting.

05:00 - They're launching a new publication, a beer, to hear how that's, going.

05:05 - But last week, they had a,

05:07 - a neighborhood meeting in Pittsburgh, and over 100 people came out for it

05:10 - and said, we want to have local news that involves the audience that that

05:14 - the people who are getting the news should be part of creating the news.

05:18 - And, that's an exciting approach to it.

05:21 - We've also got new owners at our, CBS affiliate KDKA and then our, NBC

05:26 - affiliate.

05:27 - It's not completely new there, but it's within the last couple of years.

05:29 - And that's also reshaping the the news ecosystem.

05:32 - And then, the Pittsburgh Media Partnership,

05:35 - which are our center for media innovation, runs.

05:38 - We at the end of last year, we had about, 30 some news outlets,

05:41 - and now we're up over 40, because in this moment of crisis,

05:45 - we had newsrooms that were saying that had been on the fence before.

05:49 - They were aware of what we were doing, but they were like,

05:51 - we don't want to be out in the cold by ourselves anymore.

05:53 - We want to work together.

05:54 - And so that's happening.

05:56 - And then finally, we've got our press forward chapter.

05:58 - We have five foundations in Pittsburgh that have been, you know, supported

06:02 - local news with millions of dollars over the past five years plus.

06:07 - And they're working on a strategic roadmap that they're planning to unveil in June.

06:10 - And so there's a lot going on, a lot to a lot to discuss.

06:15 - I want to kick things off, though, with you, Steve, by asking you,

06:18 - I think it's only appropriate

06:19 - you're you're closest to the news about the Post-Gazette.

06:21 - You're right in the middle of it.

06:23 - What is your reaction to what's going on there

06:25 - and to everything else that's going on in our news ecosystem?

06:30 - Well.

06:30 - Thanks, Andrew.

06:32 - I'm really excited to be here.

06:34 - It's a moment to decompress and get out of Pittsburgh.

06:37 - Catch a breath.

06:39 - I can say

06:41 - we're obviously we're in the middle of an inflection point in Pittsburgh.

06:45 - You know, for those of us in the middle of it, at the PPG, it's terrifying.

06:50 - It's distressing.

06:52 - There are moments of hope.

06:55 - I don't think I've had a decent night's sleep

06:57 - since January 7th without the aid of bourbon.

07:00 - Since January 7th, when the Post-Gazette announced

07:04 - it was going to close its intent to close.

07:07 - But what I've learned in the past

07:10 - 3 or 4 years is that rank and file journalists are not powerless.

07:16 - Communities are not powerless in these moments.

07:21 - And it's just a you know, I was at the,

07:25 - I was on an assignment

07:26 - when I learned the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette intended to close,

07:30 - and had to catch up.

07:31 - You know, I was with one of my colleagues.

07:34 - We've been on strike for three years.

07:35 - We've been without paychecks, without jobs for three years.

07:37 - We get back to work in November.

07:40 - We're back at work for a month or so, and then the Post-Gazette

07:44 - sends us a videotaped message and says, we're closing.

07:47 - We're going to we're going to close shop.

07:49 - But to catch a breath.

07:51 - The other day when I was on another assignment and I got news

07:54 - that a buyer had been found, and my first reaction was relief,

07:59 - because I'd been hearing about hedge funds

08:02 - all in capital, all these other places.

08:05 - And, you know, that predatory buyers.

08:08 - So when I heard that it was, a nonprofit,

08:12 - I was familiar the Pittsburgh, the Baltimore banner, it was a

08:16 - it was a relief, but I still had so many questions.

08:20 - How many of my colleagues are going to keep their jobs?

08:22 - That's big.

08:23 - That's a big one for me.

08:24 - Will the newsroom have a union?

08:25 - Will the workers have a voice in the newsroom?

08:27 - We learned when your employer is violating the federal labor law.

08:31 - It's nice to have legal protection and to have them.

08:33 - And to be able to have a voice and to push back against that.

08:37 - How is the Post-Gazette going to rebuild

08:40 - trust with audience that it had alienated in the last

08:44 - by by some you guys in Pittsburgh know exactly what I'm talking about.

08:48 - In the last several years.

08:49 - How is all this going to happen?

08:52 - Within two days after.

08:56 - One thing that we learned on this strike is that is to be proactive

08:59 - like nobody's coming to save you,

09:02 - with your best interests at heart.

09:04 - So if there's going to be a solution, you have to be a part of it.

09:07 - So we had, you know, during the three years of strike,

09:10 - we were in touch with a lot of people who were supporters of ours.

09:14 - A lot of working class communities, unions, activists in various communities

09:19 - that felt that they'd been misrepresented by media in Pittsburgh.

09:22 - We called all those people together into a public meeting with,

09:26 - striking former striking members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh.

09:30 - We had 150 people show up to our second meeting,

09:32 - and there was a lot of interest here in building something

09:38 - a media organization in Pittsburgh that was not owned by the blocks.

09:42 - That was our that was our immediate goal.

09:46 - There was a lot of enthusiasm for that.

09:49 - Within I think 3 or 4 days, we raised $25,000,

09:54 - in this effort that allowed us to hire

09:57 - a firm to, put together a business plan.

10:00 - We formed the group paper within.

10:01 - You know, we came up with the name fairly quickly.

10:04 - We started organizing around this effort

10:07 - as as Andy said, we had our first town hall last week.

10:10 - We we learned we we we rented a space

10:14 - with that, with an occupancy,

10:17 - limit of 80.

10:18 - We had 100 people show up.

10:20 - We had 15 high schoolers show up.

10:24 - We had people who were in their 80s show up.

10:27 - And these are people who they don't want to be engaged with.

10:30 - They want to be a part of something.

10:32 - They want to be a part of building something.

10:34 - And so, we want to give them a chance to do that.

10:39 - We know that some of the issues

10:41 - that we have with media these days is an ownership problem, right?

10:45 - Look at what's happening in Washington, DC with the post.

10:47 - Look what's happening with CBS.

10:49 - This is happening in real time and is having a real impact on our lives here.

10:54 - How can we solve that?

10:55 - This is a point of discussion that we were having with the community.

10:58 - The people in the community

10:59 - said, stepped up and said, we want to be a part of the ownership.

11:03 - What do we come up with?

11:04 - We came up with a co-op model that is worker and community owned.

11:10 - So we're going to build into the structure of this thing.

11:15 - Direct accountability

11:16 - with the community and with, with the workers who put it together.

11:22 - There's a lot of excitement about this.

11:24 - We're seeing we've been around for three months,

11:27 - and we've had to do a lot of learning and a lot of,

11:31 - talking with people, a lot of, figuring out, getting into,

11:36 - I'm a been a boots on the ground journalist for the past 40 years.

11:39 - I started this in 1980.

11:41 - So for me to be to be like an activist

11:45 - and building support for, like, a business is outside of my comfort zone.

11:48 - That's why it's so good to be here today and talk to journalists. But.

11:53 - So that's where we're at now, and I think I can go on all day.

11:56 - And so I'll shut up now and let somebody else talk.

11:58 - This is where we are.

11:59 - You can feel how raw this is for all of us.

12:01 - Honestly.

12:02 - Cindy, you you've lived through this kind of, major inflection in Pittsburgh media

12:06 - before, and, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.

12:10 - You know, what is gained?

12:12 - What is lost whenever a news outlet closes?

12:15 - What is gained when a news outlet comes in?

12:17 - We've all evolved.

12:18 - Obviously, in recent years. Sure.

12:21 - I guess I'm the old cuss up here.

12:24 - I lived through and worked through the,

12:28 - for the for those of you that maybe aren't familiar with this in 1992.

12:33 - At that point, Pittsburgh had two other newspapers.

12:37 - The Pittsburgh Press, which was owned by Scripps Howard and,

12:39 - and the Post-Gazette, which was the smaller of the two.

12:42 - And they both operated under a joint operating agreement.

12:46 - The Teamsters took the press out on strike.

12:49 - And as a result of that, the Post-Gazette employees

12:54 - were locked out for nine months while the,

12:58 - while the press was on strike

13:00 - and my husband and I both worked,

13:04 - in the.

13:05 - They were in the same building.

13:06 - My husband and I both had worked for the for the papers.

13:09 - My husband was always at the Post-Gazette.

13:11 - I started at the press,

13:13 - was there for five years, then later went to the Post-Gazette.

13:17 - It was a long, bad summer.

13:20 - Were you there then? Yeah. You were.

13:22 - You were at the press, right?

13:23 - Yeah. Steven, I go a long way back.

13:26 - It was a long, mean, awful, bitter strike.

13:31 - When it was over, the Post-Gazette ended up

13:34 - buying the press, which was kind of like David buying Goliath.

13:38 - Nobody quite expected that.

13:40 - And the press,

13:42 - the press having with Scripps having decided that they they couldn't

13:46 - get anywhere with the Teamsters, they packed up their ball and left and

13:51 - the the

13:52 - result of that for the community there.

13:55 - I mean, there were many hurt feelings

13:57 - and a lot of bitterness within the journalism community.

14:01 - But for the bigger Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania community,

14:05 - it was, I think, a disaster.

14:08 - It was a loss of an editorial voice.

14:10 - It was a loss of whether you agreed with their editorial positions or not.

14:15 - It was a loss of that perspective.

14:17 - And it was a loss of

14:22 - more than 100.

14:22 - Well, how many people do we have that

14:24 - at least more than 100 journalists, because it was a huge newsroom then.

14:28 - All most of those people ended up having to go find other jobs.

14:31 - A lot of them, the Post-Gazette did, did hire,

14:35 - which was which was great, but they were the

14:38 - the Post-Gazette was the smaller of the two and could not hire everyone.

14:42 - And so there was a big loss

14:45 - of journalistic talent and fervor and,

14:49 - and passion for the community that went off to other cities.

14:53 - And that was just,

14:56 - it isn't just about watchdog stuff.

14:57 - It's just it's about the community reporting and, and the, the,

15:02 - the beats that the those people went on went away.

15:07 - And that was just ultimately a loss.

15:10 - Now, that was when the Trib stepped up and came into Pittsburgh.

15:14 - And that was a again, we might not have thought

15:18 - that then because the competition was pretty fierce then.

15:21 - But the Trib did step up and start a Pittsburgh edition.

15:25 - But I still say that the loss of the press at that time

15:29 - was just a huge loss for the community, because you need those voices.

15:33 - You need the the multiple voices, not just just to keep it,

15:38 - keep us sharp as journalists, but but to echo what's

15:41 - going on in the community and and that's never that's never fully come back.

15:45 - Yeah. Thanks, Cindy.

15:46 - I know that's something that

15:47 - we're talking about raw in the moment, but I, I can hear it's still raw for you.

15:51 - 30 years ago. Yeah, right.

15:53 - Louise, could you talk a little bit about,

15:56 - you know, the framing for this conversation?

15:58 - Obviously, you're at the Tribune-Review, the Trib in the Post-Gazette

16:01 - were engaged in a death match for many years.

16:04 - That definitely, you know, went away. But,

16:09 - then you heard my take on it

16:10 - that I believe we're in a much more collaborative environment now.

16:13 - But how do you see this moment from the trip's perspective?

16:18 - Thanks. Good morning everybody.

16:20 - I, I've been watching this obviously very closely as a journalist

16:24 - in this in Pittsburgh for 30 years. And,

16:28 - I have, as you said earlier, been laser focused on our new, Pittsburgh,

16:33 - a weekend edition that launches May 9th. And,

16:37 - first of all, people have been asking me, what are your plans now

16:40 - that, you know, there's new ownership of the PPG and our plans?

16:44 - Depend on nothing that anybody else is doing.

16:47 - Our plans are rooted really in our commitment to Pittsburgh,

16:52 - our commitment to local journalism, which we've been doing for

16:56 - as long as I've been growing up in the newsroom.

16:58 - Our competition with the PGA, our friendly competition with the PGA, has been,

17:04 - something that has been

17:05 - important to us because I believe that competition makes us better. So.

17:09 - And I do believe that, honestly,

17:14 - the announcement as you,

17:16 - as we call it, of new ownership of the PPG for us,

17:20 - it changes fundamentally nothing because we've been competing for so many years.

17:25 - I honestly believe that a healthy democracy

17:28 - depends on a robust press, and I think you all do.

17:32 - And we need more journalism, not fewer.

17:35 - So that's where I come from.

17:37 - I will say, though, because having worked at the Trib and,

17:42 - you know, we really was a death match, not an exaggeration, but,

17:46 - but but what we've accomplished in recent years is that,

17:49 - you know, through the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, the Trib

17:51 - and the Post-Gazette sit at the same table.

17:54 - In fact, when the Guild went on strike and you had a strike

17:57 - newspaper, you were also at the same table.

18:00 - We've created space by saying, you know,

18:03 - we're better if we hang together, than, you know, we would surely hang alone.

18:07 - Thanks. Ben. Franklin. Yeah, he.

18:09 - It was a death match.

18:10 - That's the word you want to use.

18:11 - But, you know, in all honesty, we.

18:14 - Because we're the

18:16 - main two outlets in Pittsburgh, we share a lot of the same staff, even.

18:20 - You know, we have a lot of, staffers from the PGA have come to the Trib.

18:24 - Some people have gone to the PGA.

18:26 - So it's always been very.

18:29 - Deathmatch, but a friendly deathmatch.

18:32 - So, Deb, I'm hoping you can help me spin this forward

18:36 - a little bit because, one, you and I work together really well.

18:40 - I'm president of the press club.

18:41 - Was president of the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation.

18:44 - We've been coming up with ideas for how we can, you know, do things together.

18:49 - We really believe that.

18:50 - That we're stronger together. All of us.

18:53 - How do you think that collaborative approach prepared us for this moment?

18:57 - And also, what would you say to the the new owners of City Paper

19:01 - and the Post-Gazette?

19:02 - About coming to Pittsburgh?

19:04 - I do find it really interesting, because, as you said, I entered the

19:09 - I entered media at a time when it was something of a death match.

19:13 - There would be some sort of people.

19:15 - I was in the Post-Gazette, obviously, and there would be sort of some movement

19:20 - over to the tree, but it wasn't really a main thing.

19:23 - And I think that coming together has shown that

19:27 - just how powerful our media environment is.

19:30 - We are not a news desert.

19:32 - We have been getting called a news desert pretty often ever since that.

19:36 - Yeah, ever since the announcement from the Post-Gazette came,

19:39 - saw their legacy product.

19:40 - But we've had so many other products that have come and fill those gaps.

19:44 - So, I think that that collaboration has kind of support.

19:49 - It just the strength of what we have and what we have to offer to the community.

19:54 - I would say to the new ownership,

19:58 - really,

19:58 - really focus on rebuilding that trust.

20:02 - As Steve mentioned, it's been a rough few years at the, in Pittsburgh media.

20:07 - Honestly,

20:09 - as president as Pittsburgh Black Media Federation, it's our job to advocate for,

20:13 - journalists of color, but we also want to promote journalists of color

20:17 - coming to Pittsburgh.

20:18 - And it's been a nonstarter for years now.

20:20 - And it's been because of just the environment and the uncertainty and

20:26 - also with the Post-Gazette in particular,

20:29 - the ownership made so much negative news it left a terrible taste.

20:33 - There's still there was a story in a Wall Street Journal about them

20:36 - last week, like it's one of those things that have stuck with the community

20:41 - in left in such a negative way that it's going to be hard to

20:46 - bring some people back, but knowing that they're not involved is a huge first step.

20:51 - So I think that, the new ownership

20:54 - should just really step out and say, this is a new regime.

20:57 - They should probably follow Steve and Paper's approach.

21:01 - And what do you need from what do you need out of news coverage?

21:04 - What have we been missing?

21:05 - What was the former Post-Gazette missing?

21:07 - What was the city paper missing and how can we improve that?

21:10 - I hope that's the approach that they take because this is an opportunity

21:13 - to really rebuild in some of the positive ways that we've seen today.

21:19 - Steve, I wonder if you would address that too,

21:21 - because I, I hope you felt even when you were on strike,

21:23 - that you were part of a community still and that,

21:26 - there were people here supporting you and embracing what you were trying to do

21:30 - or what you were doing.

21:33 - How is that collaborative model us working together?

21:37 - Better prepare to our community for this moment.

21:41 - But, you know, collaboration.

21:42 - You mentioned the strike paper.

21:44 - You know, we had, you know, anywhere from 25 to, I think, 50 people on strike.

21:49 - It diminished over the years because people needed to work.

21:51 - They had to go find the jobs, especially the younger members.

21:54 - But we did publish a strike paper.

21:56 - We decided to do that immediately.

21:57 - And but the problem with the strike paper is that when you're on strike,

22:01 - only a handful of people have the capacity

22:03 - in the middle of the strike in the head space.

22:05 - Because it's a it's it's a heavy lift to be on strike in many ways.

22:10 - But we did publish a strike paper,

22:12 - and we were committed to covering the working class communities of Pittsburgh.

22:16 - But we did not have there were big stories happening,

22:19 - you know, but we didn't have the capacity to cover them.

22:23 - The, the, the

22:25 - the trial of the synagogue shooter is a perfect example of this.

22:28 - We knew we needed to cover that.

22:30 - We had the best federal court reporter in the city.

22:33 - But we had one guy, so we partnered with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

22:37 - We just called him up and said, hey, let's get together and do this together.

22:40 - When the train derailment occurred in East Palestine, Ohio, it's a huge story.

22:44 - It took us a couple days to get out there because you we were trying to get members

22:49 - health care, so, so,

22:52 - but that was a huge story.

22:54 - We collaborated with the Newcastle News in coverage of that.

22:58 - And, a national and national independent,

23:02 - news organization, the real News out of with Max Alvarez out of Baltimore,

23:06 - Maryland, called us and gave us a national audience for that story.

23:09 - So working with

23:12 - with other news organizations was key,

23:14 - but also partnering with other people

23:18 - in the community, you know, other organizations,

23:21 - was also key to that and building support and going to listening.

23:25 - You're not,

23:28 - Deborah, you mentioned the issues with the

23:30 - with the Post-Gazette.

23:34 - During the George Floyd

23:36 - moment, the George Floyd protest,

23:38 - the things that the Post-Gazette was doing pissed off the readers so much

23:42 - that I was going to cover events that I knew these I'd

23:46 - written and covered folks, these folks, for years.

23:49 - And I was getting thrown out of protests

23:52 - because I represented the Post-Gazette.

23:55 - Like, folks, we could do real damage to communities

23:59 - if we are not,

24:01 - if we if we're not careful about how we talk to people

24:05 - and how we report on people.

24:07 - And I think what the strike gave me

24:10 - a chance to do is to step back for a minute and and have real discussions

24:15 - with people in the community about like, okay, what language should we be using?

24:20 - How should we be approaching your community?

24:23 - What are the issues that you're telling me?

24:26 - I don't want to come in.

24:28 - Somebody mentioned the news isn't in the newsroom.

24:31 - Amen to that.

24:32 - Get your ass out and talk to folks.

24:34 - You know, we did not have, we didn't have a newsroom.

24:37 - The strike paper didn't.

24:38 - The newsroom was the front seat of my janky 2010 Toyota Prius.

24:42 - That was my newsroom.

24:44 - And the kitchen tables and the front porches

24:47 - of the folks that we went out and talked to.

24:50 - So, you know, we were

24:51 - there was a collaboration on a couple different fronts.

24:53 - There was collaboration with the people, real collaboration.

24:56 - I felt with the people that we were writing about

24:58 - and collaboration with the folks that realized they didn't

25:02 - have the capacity to cover stories in a in an impactful way, and neither did we.

25:07 - But by working together, we could do that. Yeah.

25:10 - Those collaborations, particularly the one of the shooters trial,

25:13 - that's one of my proudest moments of,

25:15 - Pittsburgh journalism, to see you work together like that.

25:18 - Deb, I know you have thoughts on this, too.

25:19 - Yeah, absolutely.

25:20 - One thing I didn't mention in terms of collaboration,

25:23 - we're doing a form of collaboration is also community education.

25:27 - The Pittsburgh Black Media Federation is, doing a community

25:31 - advisory board with the American Press Institute.

25:33 - And it brings newsrooms together, newsroom leaders,

25:36 - last year, the last session, we had, public source.

25:42 - Yes. Yeah, we had,

25:43 - we, we had a couple other organizations.

25:47 - Yeah. You jag off.

25:48 - I'm forgetting all of the organizations involved, but they, city cast as well.

25:53 - They speed print me, radio, obviously.

25:58 - And we got community leaders together with newsroom leaders.

26:01 - And we really got to demystify the process for them and explain why certain

26:05 - photos are chosen, why placement is what stories get covered when and why.

26:10 - And, I think that it helped.

26:13 - But we also get to hear that direct feedback that this is wrong.

26:18 - The way you covered this, you made this community look a certain way.

26:22 - Why was that decision made?

26:24 - And it became one of those things where,

26:27 - it was tough at times, but it was necessary on both sides.

26:32 - And I think that, the community, the community participants really,

26:36 - really learned, a little bit more about the process

26:39 - and what their expectations should be of news coverage.

26:43 - And, I definitely want to say,

26:46 - I hope that you get, paid on time and on this.

26:48 - Cindy, I want to say that they also became resources.

26:51 - They became someone you could go to in the community

26:53 - and say, hey, I need someone to talk to about this story.

26:55 - And they were always available.

26:57 - So I think that that sort of collaboration between communities

27:01 - and newsrooms is really unique, and we need more of it.

27:05 - And in this upcoming session, we have,

27:08 - our first television station, which is huge.

27:10 - And we did have the Post-Gazette briefly before they decided

27:14 - to announced the closure.

27:15 - So, it's an effort that's growing, but it's something

27:19 - that I think can really, really be transformative is done right.

27:24 - It was a valuable experience for us.

27:26 - And we'll be doing it again with this, with this third cohort.

27:31 - To Deb's point about the,

27:33 - the community feedback sessions, it was gratifying.

27:36 - It was helpful. It was also humbling.

27:39 - And you needed to go in there with no ego at all.

27:43 - Sometimes the comments that we received

27:46 - were not necessarily directed at maybe our outlet, but more so at,

27:53 - it's just the broader the broader system.

27:57 - But I think probably the most useful thing out of at least those sessions

28:03 - was the ability to

28:06 - certainly to listen and to hear more about what

28:09 - people wanted and expected and had found fault with in coverage.

28:14 - But then also to be able to have a conversation about, well,

28:18 - this is your expectation, but what do you really know about our newsroom?

28:23 - And it it one thing that

28:25 - that we've come come away with is that people

28:30 - don't

28:30 - know a lot about how we go about what we do.

28:33 - They also don't realize how much the landscape

28:37 - has changed in the last five, ten, 15 and 20 years.

28:41 - And I'll ask people also, why didn't you cover this at all?

28:46 - And I'll and I'll say, how many people do you think we have in our newsroom?

28:51 - And they'll say, oh, I don't know, 50.

28:54 - And I, you know, you think I wish.

28:56 - And when you tell them, you have this many folks,

29:00 - they're really surprised.

29:01 - And so that is helpful to, to maybe temper people's expectations

29:06 - so that they can be more forward with you about what they would like you

29:09 - to cover, as opposed to maybe what you don't need to cover.

29:12 - You heard, Deb used the word, jag off a moment ago that some.

29:17 - That's another one.

29:18 - That's, it can be, like, you know, you're jag off, you're a jerk,

29:22 - or you jag off, like, hey, my buddy.

29:25 - But, yeah, we have a,

29:26 - there's one of our news outlets is called the JAG office in Pittsburgh. So,

29:31 - Louise, could you.

29:31 - Because I know you're doing a lot of work with community engagement as well.

29:34 - You have a citizens panel as well?

29:37 - I think the the big question is you're making this investment in Pittsburgh.

29:42 - But it depends on the public, right?

29:43 - I mean, they have a tool for sure.

29:45 - For sure.

29:45 - I mean, you know, you talk about listening to the community.

29:48 - We that's what we should be doing.

29:50 - We need to do more of that.

29:52 - But yes, in many ways we our success will depend on how the market responds to us.

29:57 - Right?

29:57 - So we can plan and make all these fantastic,

30:01 - you know, predictions of what's going to happen,

30:03 - but it's really going to be all about how the market responds to us.

30:07 - Now, I can tell you that, you know,

30:10 - as far as the

30:11 - Trib is, if you look at our online traffic,

30:14 - and I don't take my word for it, but look at SimilarWeb traffic.

30:18 - Our readers are responding to our content,

30:21 - and we are now the most visited news website in western Pennsylvania.

30:25 - So to me, that means something, right?

30:27 - So we need to sort of hopefully continue that trend and see where that goes.

30:31 - But, you know, we are planning a new weekend edition.

30:35 - If there's response to the market, we'll expand that.

30:37 - So, you know, it all depends on the readers.

30:42 - Yeah, I think that's key for all of this and that that sets up the discussion

30:45 - about finances then. Right.

30:47 - That there's been a lot made of the,

30:49 - the Post-Gazette becoming a nonprofit newsroom.

30:52 - But the reality is like that just changes the, the structure of the organization.

30:56 - You still need advertising revenue.

30:58 - You still need subscribers, you need membership.

31:01 - Cindy, can you talk a little bit about that?

31:03 - The competition for, dollars and where that settles at the end of the day.

31:13 - Well, going back,

31:16 - going back to last summer,

31:17 - to bring this home to public media for a minute, because I'm the,

31:21 - you know, sort of the dual the representative of the,

31:25 - the dual platform here and that we do both broadcast and digital,

31:30 - as you probably know,

31:33 - the recession action by Congress last year,

31:36 - took a great deal of money away from public media stations, which we saw,

31:42 - in one of the sessions earlier to where they talked about that.

31:46 - So that has been complicated and challenging

31:48 - for us as well as everybody else in public media.

31:53 - To your point, Andy, about the model changing,

31:57 - I wish, I wish the Post-Gazette every success.

32:01 - I, I am very, very glad that our community won't be losing

32:05 - this news, this news organization or those journalists,

32:09 - but it basically just shifts the model to looking for different sources of money.

32:15 - And at the same time, all of the other news

32:18 - organizations in our community and and in everyone else's community

32:23 - are also looking at a shrinking pool of of the same sources of money,

32:28 - whether those are members, subscribers, advertisers or philanthropic entities.

32:36 - To your point, Louise,

32:38 - readers and everybody else

32:40 - that says they care about journalism,

32:44 - will they put money behind the journalism that they say they care about?

32:48 - That's the challenges ahead of us that,

32:51 - if that money, that pool of money isn't growing,

32:56 - we're all in trouble.

32:57 - Not, not just speaking uniquely

33:00 - about the Post-Gazette, but I really hope they succeed.

33:03 - But the future isn't all sunshine and roses are either.

33:07 - Yeah, there's no question, I think about Kristen's comment

33:10 - this morning about people always say they want more news or

33:13 - they want, you know, Tom said, we want happy news.

33:16 - And then they don't want either of those things.

33:18 - You know, they don't support it with their actual dollars.

33:20 - And it's incumbent on us as journalists to come up with a product that people want.

33:25 - But it also has to be a relationship where the public comes along with us.

33:29 - And I don't think we've done a good job of framing that.

33:31 - We talk about the crisis in journalism like it's only our problem,

33:36 - and really it's about the health of our communities and where we live.

33:39 - And what do we do as a society and what do we value.

33:42 - And so I think that's one thing we've got to do a better job of.

33:46 - Yes, Steve,

33:47 - I'd like to address that if I could, for a second, because we have ample

33:50 - evidence in this country that there is great strength in our communities.

33:55 - We see that every time there's a natural disaster and the community rises

33:59 - up, like neighbor helps neighbor churches step up, other organizations step up.

34:03 - We saw great evidence of that a couple of months ago in Minneapolis,

34:06 - where people saw their community, vulnerable members in their community

34:09 - or were under threat.

34:10 - And the community rose up in a way that I think was incredibly

34:14 - inspirational to many of us, certainly to me.

34:17 - So we know there's this great deep well of energy

34:21 - and and willingness that people care about their communities, their communities.

34:26 - When journalism is under threat, their communities are under threat.

34:30 - The health of their community is under threat.

34:31 - That's the challenge, is communicating that in and engaging

34:34 - that level of energy and and

34:39 - and input from, from the community.

34:42 - And I think, you know,

34:45 - you know, I've been in the business a long time,

34:46 - and I've been part of these efforts to try to engage the community.

34:50 - And, you know, the when we mentioned the word co-op to folks,

34:53 - they they got excited.

34:55 - I mean, you could see it in the room that people got excited.

34:58 - And I think, who am I? But what?

35:01 - But I think that what's going on is that people feel like they can become

35:05 - stakeholders, you know, not an audience, but stakeholders and such.

35:09 - Yeah.

35:10 - And, you know, and I think when that, that

35:12 - that might be a game changer, I don't know.

35:16 - But if we can find a way to say,

35:19 - look, you can have a direct impact

35:23 - on the health of your community and here's how you do it.

35:26 - Yeah, that might be a good question to ask to kind of.

35:31 - Hello.

35:32 - Yeah.

35:33 - So we're kind of focused on all these threats

35:34 - and this gloom and doom and this darkness surrounding journalism.

35:38 - And I don't know, maybe I'm high on all the chocolate we've been eating here, but

35:43 - I the narrative that journalism is dead, I don't know,

35:46 - I see what the inquirer's doing, what Lisa presented today.

35:50 - And I see what, we're doing, what all of the members of the Pittsburgh

35:54 - Media Partnership are doing.

35:55 - And I'm sorry, I'm a little bit hopeful about the future.

35:59 - I'm not necessarily all doubt about it.

36:02 - I think to Lisa's point earlier, we just need to find ways to innovate

36:06 - and to attract those readers are definitely out there.

36:09 - They're just consuming news differently.

36:12 - And we need to, you know, allow that to happen.

36:15 - At this moment, they are pumping chocolate into the air here.

36:18 - So yes, one more one more quick sentence.

36:22 - After the recession vote last summer,

36:26 - it was you know, that's a scary thing.

36:30 - We we lost a great deal of money, as did other public media stations.

36:35 - But, you know, the response from the public was

36:39 - overwhelming, was humbling, was gratifying.

36:44 - I'm choking up a little bit about it, but it really was a reminder

36:49 - that people do care about what we do to to your point,

36:53 - again, people give within their means and we need

36:57 - we still need to keep reaching more people, not not just for money,

37:00 - but for their, their support, their readership, their listenership.

37:04 - But it was a pretty potent reminder that people,

37:10 - communities, people do care about this work.

37:13 - And, I think that really was a big thing to help keep us keep us going.

37:18 - And find new ways to keep going.

37:21 - We have time for a few questions from the audience for our panel.

37:24 - Does anybody have questions?

37:26 - Let me get in on this conversation.

37:28 - Asks ask us about our party for the NFL draft.

37:31 - It's going to be awesome.

37:33 - Yeah. Kristen,

37:35 - I want to comment.

37:37 - I just want to to listen to

37:40 - collective and their Civic health index that they talked about earlier.

37:44 - I just wanted to point out that what you're talking about

37:46 - in Minnesota and the, the civic action that we witnessed,

37:50 - on the Civic Health index, Hennepin County,

37:53 - where Minneapolis is, is like tap, tap, tap on civic health indicators.

37:58 - They're like 99th percentile.

38:01 - So we can really think about how those civic health indicators

38:04 - like what it truly means and how it how it can play out.

38:08 - And then my question for you is regarding your, you know, thinking about

38:13 - how do we message to the community about the importance of local news, how,

38:18 - how it, the value of it in our community

38:21 - and what we need from the community to sustain it.

38:26 - I know that the Pittsburgh Media Partnership did, an awareness campaign.

38:30 - So I'm just curious, can you tell us a little bit more about what

38:34 - that was like and what kind of response you got from that campaign?

38:37 - Yeah. Thanks, Kristen.

38:38 - So the Pittsburgh media partnership

38:40 - that we run at the center for Media Innovation at Point Park,

38:44 - whenever, all this crisis emerged earlier this year and people, to Deb's

38:49 - point, started saying, oh, Pittsburgh's a news desert, Pittsburgh's in crisis.

38:52 - We wanted to message that, no, there are still 40 plus news outlets here.

38:56 - They're working together.

38:58 - There are hundreds of journalists across the region.

39:00 - And so we worked with our press Forward

39:02 - chapter to invest $50,000 into a messaging campaign.

39:06 - We're halfway through it now.

39:08 - The idea was just that, there are journalists here

39:11 - that they're stronger when they work together.

39:13 - And that the third part,

39:14 - which is going to roll out in May, is that we need the public

39:17 - participation in that.

39:18 - And so we did 25,000 was on the, development of the ad message.

39:24 - The other 25,000 is on digital ad buys.

39:27 - We've reached over a million people across southwestern Pennsylvania.

39:30 - And, the movement over the coming

39:34 - weeks will be how do we move those people to action?

39:36 - And the action is, subscribe, become a member, get involved.

39:42 - You know, read, listen, watch.

39:45 - And, you know, become an active part of this community.

39:48 - So, yeah. Thank you.

39:52 - Yeah.

39:52 - Mila.

39:55 - Hello.

39:55 - Thank you for this panel.

39:57 - I'm curious, do you have any advice for aspiring journalists?

40:02 - There are quite a few of them in this room.

40:04 - Advice?

40:05 - And do you have any jobs?

40:08 - Yes, I'll take that.

40:10 - You know, it's interesting it wasn't lost on me this morning when Pam

40:13 - mentioned that, this summit is sponsored by perhaps eight universities.

40:19 - You know, there's Duquesne, where I went to school,

40:21 - there's Penn State, there's, Pitt,

40:24 - Lehigh, all of them.

40:26 - And it's not lost on me either, that all these people that were graduating

40:30 - from these universities, they're going to need jobs, right?

40:32 - So are they going to work?

40:34 - So the first thing we heard from

40:37 - the PG owners is that they're going to be making cuts to their staff.

40:40 - So that's a challenge then, right?

40:44 - Because we're again, we're where are we putting all these

40:47 - great young journalists that we're going to be graduating in a few weeks?

40:51 - Right.

40:52 - And the trip we've been hiring, we've been expanding

40:55 - our newsroom, in preparation for our new addition.

40:58 - We have a really robust, internship program.

41:01 - I'm really proud of that because I actually think about,

41:05 - you know, in a few years when hopefully I can retire and I can leave,

41:10 - you know, happy and comfortable knowing that I'm

41:14 - leaving our newsroom in, in great hands and really helping,

41:19 - create this new generation of journalists that's so important.

41:23 - So I think your question is very important.

41:26 - We need to think a lot about the future in terms of

41:30 - all these students that are going to be coming out of these schools,

41:33 - where are they going to go?

41:34 - Well, I want to answer that too, because,

41:37 - at the Pittsburgh Media Partnership, we added a teaching newsroom.

41:40 - And, some of our, our the folks from our newsroom are here.

41:44 - But the idea with that newsroom was when people graduate from college,

41:48 - they don't always have the skills

41:50 - to go directly to one of the newsrooms that that's up here.

41:53 - But can they come to a newsroom where we can,

41:56 - they can learn additional skills and also network?

41:59 - And so we had a lot of success with one of our reporters,

42:02 - a year ago, she graduated from, Chatham University.

42:05 - That's the thing.

42:05 - Thanks to the Keystone News Summit, we're all working together

42:08 - across the Pittsburgh region at the university level.

42:11 - But, this young woman who graduated from Chatham,

42:13 - she said, I don't I don't have any job prospects here.

42:16 - We were able to hire her.

42:17 - She came in and she spent about 7 or 8 months with us.

42:20 - She made a name for herself.

42:22 - She broke some big stories,

42:23 - and then she got hired as the editor of the La Trobe Bulletin.

42:27 - And then we were able to replace her, with, Hannah Johannsen, who's, here now.

42:32 - And, that's one of our things is we're trying to,

42:35 - cycle through and create opportunities and a pathway to careers for people.

42:39 - So I just want to plug our internship session this afternoon.

42:43 - This is good timing.

42:45 - So if you make sure you attend that,

42:48 - can I address that briefly?

42:50 - Mila, I was heartened to hear that

42:52 - you guys have an entrepreneurial journalism class.

42:55 - I think that's very important.

42:57 - When the press closed at the end of 92, I said, screw this business.

43:00 - I'm going to go freelance.

43:01 - I was terrible at I was a horrible businessman.

43:04 - It took me I did that for almost five years.

43:06 - And, and I got to the point where I could sustain myself and do journalism.

43:12 - But that was a very painful lesson.

43:14 - So if I would urge students to do anything, it's, In addition

43:18 - to learning your journalism skills, I learned some business skills.

43:22 - I'm going to, I'm going to give each of you an opportunity

43:24 - to to spin this forward.

43:26 - I'd like to get your thoughts on,

43:27 - where you think, you know, when we come back a year from now.

43:30 - No pressure. Duquesne group.

43:32 - But when we do this again next year, what is the Pittsburgh media ecosystem

43:36 - look like then? What does it look like?

43:37 - You know, five years in the future?

43:39 - Even farther, if you can imagine it.

43:41 - Before I turn it over to you, though, I want to I also want to take a moment to,

43:45 - you know, we talked about finances, and it's so important for us to be able

43:48 - to find, partners in the community who really believe in this work.

43:52 - And I got to mention, Highmark and, they've been such

43:56 - strong supporters of not only this event, but the Press Club and the work.

44:00 - We do it, the center.

44:02 - And to have somebody like that who not only puts up their money,

44:06 - but also takes their time to come and spend it with us.

44:09 - You know, that's invaluable.

44:11 - So, let's give them a round of applause. Thank you.

44:17 - All right, guys, wrap it up here.

44:19 - Where are we going? A year or five years?

44:21 - Good news. Bad news?

44:22 - Yeah.

44:23 - I think that we are in many ways destroying and rebuilding.

44:26 - It's only up from here.

44:28 - Nice.

44:29 - Still be here. Still growing.

44:31 - Still hitting, broadcast or hitting digital.

44:34 - And hopefully with more folks doing it.

44:38 - I would hope that a year from now

44:39 - we will be, more stable and we will have,

44:44 - people will be informed and communities that had been misrepresented

44:48 - or underrepresented will feel seen and heard

44:53 - innovating, helping each other,

44:55 - supporting each other, and eating more chocolate.

44:59 - All right. Thanks, guys.

45:01 - Dennis is going to take us to lunch.

45:02 - Thank you so much.

45:10 - You. Do.