"The Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press as the cornerstone of our nation and our liberty. To ensure that the concept of self-government outlined by the United States Constitution remains a reality in future centuries, the American people must be well informed in order to make decisions regarding their lives and their local and national communities. It is the role of journalists to provide this information in an accurate, comprehensive, timely and understanding manner."

I just quoted you the mission statement of the Society of Professional Journalists. This mission statement, your mission statement, is a terrific platform for your convention. Since 1909, the Society has been a primary advocate of the journalism that makes what we do so special and so important.

If we needed a wake-up call, it was the tragic attacks on September 11 and the events since. As difficult as the attack was for us emotionally, it was a fine moment for the nation's newsrooms and journalists. In a fast-moving story, we provided context, connection and information. Our free press kept our citizens informed and brought the nation together. It has been a fine hour, but the hard work for us, as news organizations and as journalists, has only begun.

Make no mistake: Journalism is a higher calling. It's not where bright, talented people get rich. But it is a calling where what you do truly matters. Journalism is a calling that is essential to preserving the most representative and participatory democracy in the history of the world. It is a calling that, at the end of the day, at the end of your career, at the end of your life, you can be proud to have been part of. It is a calling that matters.

Lost Our Way

Every newspaper conference and every meeting of journalists should start and end with journalism. Every discussion among editors, publishers and owners should start and end with journalism.

But right now it doesn't.

Somewhere along the line we've lost our way. Let's hope for all our sakes this is only temporary. This convention should be dedicated to getting us back on the journalistic path, and to putting the Society of Professional Journalists at the head of that discussion.

When I first became a publisher in Walla Walla, Washington in 1974, it was a really big deal to win a Sigma Delta Chi award. These were badges of honor for publishers, editors, reporters and owners. They celebrated our public trust and, they reminded us of the special place we hold in our society and in our democracy. Receiving these awards inspired us.

But sometime during the past two decades, we stopped talking about journalism, and we stopped talking about public service. Instead, we started talking about profit margins, stock prices, new media, convergence and our stock options. It's unclear if it was the owners or if it was the journalists who first lost their way. But it doesn't really matter, there's plenty of shared responsibility for this walk in the wilderness. Today, publishers and owners seem to talk about anything but journalism. We ceaselessly wring our hands over the loss of circulation while we aggressively cut newsroom staffing, cut space, reduce service levels and raise prices.

Listen to the vocabulary of most of today's newspaper publishes and media owners. The word "community" has been replaced by the word "market." "Newspapers" are now called "properties," or even worse, "assets." The phrase "public service" has been replaced by the phrase "profit margins." When did we cross the line from pursuing public service to chasing short-term profits?

And what about the vocabulary of journalists? When did you stop talking about accuracy, context, completeness, fairness, connection and public service? When did you begin talking instead about technology, media convergence and stock options?

The title of this conference is "the convergence of technology and media and the ramifications it will have on journalism in the decades to come." Convergence and technology are important topics. But so is the obscene concentration of newspaper and media ownership and so is the dangerous growth of faceless, institutionally owned media companies. These are all topics that head the list of what we should be vigorously debating. But they're all sidebars.

The real story is journalism. The headline is journalism. Aggressive, high-quality, independent reporting and editing is our foundation and it's our future. Quality independent journalism is what connects with readers. It creates the audiences that advertisers value. Without it there's no business model. Without it there's no fulfillment of our Public Trust. Without it there's no spiritual or emotional value in what we do.

Media newcomers have learned hard and expensive lessons about journalism. They have learned it is incredibly expensive and difficult to produce and sustain quality, useful content that an audience values. They have only begun to learn that few so-called media businesses will succeed if they don't respect their audiences. To be successful long-term, newspapers, broadcast houses and media companies need to respect their audiences and they need to respect their journalism. Those that believe it's about profit margins, stock prices and personal wealth will continue to struggle. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case with most senior managers, shareholders of publicly-owned newspapers and television stations these days. Those of us, and there are still quite a few, who put our communities and our journalism ahead of profits and personal wealth will flourish long-term. For us, journalism is both our heart and soul and our business model.

When I became publisher of The Seattle Times in 1985, it was a moment of great uncertainty for The Times and my family. Our journalism was good, but we lacked the financial resources to develop the breadth and depth of content necessary to keep pace with changing demographics and lifestyles. Our very survival as an independent family-owned company was in serious jeopardy.

In the ensuing 16 years, The Seattle Times newspaper and The Seattle Times Company became one of the country's great industry success stories. We have demonstrated, counter to conventional wisdom, that an independent family-owned business, focused on journalism, can indeed grow, thrive and survive. In fact, I would suggest that The Times and the few remaining privately owned newspapers and newspaper groups in our country are the right business and journalistic model for our future.

Make no mistake about it — newspapers remain our country's most important journalistic institutions. The very survival of our democracy depends on the practice of robust, quality, independent newspaper journalism. Many talk of newspapers as dinosaurs, as something anachronistic. They view technology as our Achilles heel. They think newspapers are becoming obsolete.

They are wrong. As long as newspapers stay focused on their journalistic mission and on their public trust responsibility they will survive. And, they will continue to be the very foundation of our democracy.

The fact is that the threat to newspapers is not from new media and new competition. The threat to newspapers is ownership. Concentration of ownership combined with public ownership is the most significant threat we have faced in 100 years. It is a threat to our democracy and representative government as we know it. Increasingly, these ownerships value only stock price and profit margins. At best they pay lip service to journalism and public service.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My first point tonight has been journalism. My second point is change. The only constant in our business is that our world will keep changing. As journalists, its' our job to acknowledge change and constantly put it into context for our audiences. That means we must stay rooted in our journalistic values. It means we don't get caught up "in the moment" and let evolving technology or new ownership define our values and obscure our journalism. Too frequently it looks like that's what has happened when our industry discusses convergence and new media. We get caught up in the melding of communication tools and delivery channels, and in the sometimes ridiculous battles of media titans pursuing dollars rather than journalism, as they try to define something that no one yet understands.

As journalists, we need to be focused on people and their behavior, not technology or distribution methods. We need to ask and try to answer important questions like, How is our society changing? What are the demographic trends? What are the lifestyle trends? What does it mean that our business and our society will be driven for another 15 years on the backs of Baby Boomers? What does it mean that in 15 years dominance of Baby Boomers will be replaced by the dominance of 80-plus million Generation Y folks? What does it mean that the long migration of Americans from rural to urban has begun to erode the quality of our lives and has created a crisis of density in so many places we live? What does it mean that we still exclude significant numbers of Americans from hope and participation in the education and economic benefits of a democracy?

Technology is a tool. Technology is a means to an end. It is not the end. We need to understand it and we need to harness it. And we need to use it. But, we cannot let it define us. What we need is a passionate dialogue about journalism. Good reporting and editing is what we are all about — not the channels and forms of distribution.

Journalism and change. As you move through the conference and think about our business and your own future, these are the messages I encourage you to keep in mind.

But there's one more. It's diversity and inclusion. If there is a great failing of our profession and of those of us in this room today, it is in this arena. We are the members of our society responsible for chronicling our nation's history, providing contemporary context and, looking to the future. What a lousy job we have done on race. Sure, progress has been made. But, how can our journalism reflect the faces of America when we lack the will to have our newsrooms reflect its faces. What does it say about our values-based profession that it still excludes countless citizens from our ranks because of their skin color, gender, cultural background or sexual orientation? If there is a single crusade journalists in this country should be leading, this is it. Almost always, the most serious shortcoming in American journalism is not in what we cover. Rather, it's in what we don't cover. Nowhere is that more apparent than the topic of race, diversity and inclusion. Just think about the paucity of aggressive and insightful diversity coverage across America. With a few notable exceptions, it is mostly bland and risk-free. And, there is not a topic on which our nation's editorial pages are more timid about than race.

Even before the recession and the war, all advertising-based businesses were under pressure to hold expenses down and keep profits up. It turns out that pressure was simply prologue for the severe challenge we now face. The measure of each news organization and every journalist will be how we respond to this challenge. Some will maintain their commitment to journalism and public service, some won't. Those that do should be our role models and heroes.

I have the privilege of representing a family that believes passionately that we are in the journalism/community service business. I'm proud to be part of a family and a journalism company that has been a national leader in diversity, that has been a national leader in independent aggressive journalism, that has served readers in the Washington communities of Seattle, Yakima, Walla Walla and Issaquah, and the Maine communities of Portland, Waterville, Augusta and Bath in ways that made them better communities. I'm proud that I'm part of an organization that, even in the midst of our most severe financial challenge, remains resolutely and passionately focused on our journalism. And, I'm proud to be a 16-year member of this organization, The Society of Professional Journalists. One organization that has unfailingly kept journalism as its heart and soul. And, as a SPJ member, I'm particularly proud that the organization has been on the front lines in our long-standing Freedom of Information battle. A battle that will become ever more important in the future.

AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.

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