In Remarks to College Leaders, 'New York Times' Editor Describes Upheaval in News Business

By KATHERINE MANGAN

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Washington

Despite going through a period of unprecedented upheaval, the news business is likely to emerge richer and more responsive to its readers, the executive editor of The New York Times, Bill Keller, told a gathering of college and university leaders here on Monday.

"For all the woes besetting our business, I believe in my heart that newspapers will be around for a long time," he said, even if they aren't always delivered "as that lovable old-fashioned bundle of ink and cellulose."

His address to a gathering of more than 250 college and university presidents and other top administrators echoed some of the themes they had been wrangling with during The Chronicle's two-day Executive Leadership Forum.

With print circulation slipping and classified ads being diverted to free or cheap alternatives like Craigslist, many newspapers are struggling to stay in business. The same can be said of some colleges with traditional campuses, which have lost enrollment to universities that emphasize online courses.

"At least you have endowments. Why didn't we think of that?" Mr. Keller quipped.

He said he suspected he might be facing a sympathetic audience when he perused the titles of some of the sessions. One that struck home was "Will Your College Close in 2012?"—a reference to demographic trends that will see the number of students graduating from high school decline after this year.

"Substitute 'newspaper' for 'college,' and I've been on that panel," he said to laughter from the audience.

When editors get together, "people ask each other 'How are you?' in a tone you would use for a friend who had just emerged from a messy divorce or rehab," Mr. Keller said.

Economic pressures are causing newspapers to close foreign bureaus at a time when globalization is critically important, and to shrink Washington bureaus just as politics is undergoing an "exhilarating upheaval." Meanwhile, anyone with an Internet service provider can jump in and try to fill the void.

"Technology has lowered the barriers to entry in the news business," Mr. Keller said. "This is unsettling to the traditional news business, but it is also an opportunity."

Established newspapers can succeed by offering something the newcomers can't, he added: "Google News and Wikipedia don't have bureaus in Baghdad or anywhere else." Rather than creating content, the new Web-based news outlets aggregate it from various sources, including newspapers.

Bloggers, likewise, occasionally enlighten readers with original material, but "most of the blog world doesn't attempt to report. It recycles news," he said.

Both blogs and automated aggregators like Google News depend on newspapers, which, unlike many online sources, offer rigorous standards, a code of ethics, and editorial supervision to enforce those standards, he said.

Colleges, likewise, can survive the onslaught of online competitors by offering high quality and standards, he said in response to a question from the audience.

For all of the headaches it has caused, pressure from online news sources has prompted some positive changes at The New York Times and other newspapers, he said. Merging the staffs of the newspaper's Web site and its print newsroom has created "an explosion of creative energy" and a more interactive forum for readers to help shape the news. By integrating audio and video with print, and supplementing in-depth articles with political blogs and reader forums, he said, the newspaper of the future could offer more depth and breadth than the one it is rapidly replacing.

Eventually, he hopes, newspapers will succeed in attracting enough advertisers willing to pay premium prices to reach the growing audiences for multimedia news presentations. "I'm confident there is light at the end of the tunnel," he said, "and maybe the tunnel won't be that long."