Lunchstorm-banyan-stites

Lunchstorm: Wed., Dec. 3, 12 noon, RJI Room 203 -- Tom Stites and "The Bayan Project"

In a recent email, Tom Stites wrote:

The advisory board now numbers 20. Skeptics have helped me refine the wiki copy. I shared early-draft pages with some wise people. The feedback has been quite positive and the skepticism I've encountered has proven invaluable in identifying obstacles Banyan needs to surmount -- and in fashioning defenses. The two biggest obstacles:

• Many academics and funders seem to have trouble imagining quality journalism as anything other than the New York Times-Wall Street Journal-NPR-PBS norm and, by extension, they seem to have trouble imagining people as customers for any kind of quality journalism if they don't appreciate The Times et al; the defense this inspired is laid out in the Main Page under the subhead Banyan's New Norm.

• Many future-of-journalism thinkers adhere so tightly to the idea that information wants to be free that they dismiss the suggestion that very many people would pay a small amount to get original journalism on the Web even if it is tailored to be directly relevant to their lives, respectful of them as people, and worthy of their trust; the defense is laid out in the Sources of Revenue support page.

Tom Stites

Tom Stites is a writer, editor and entrepreneur with a passion for strengthening journalism and democracy.

As an editor he has supervised reporting that has won an array of major journalism awards including the Pulitzer Prize; as an entrepreneur he has been the founding publisher of two print magazines, a newsletter, and an on-line magazine. His writings and speeches on strengthening democracy and on journalism have won a respectful following.

Positions he has held include managing editor of The Kansas City Times; national correspondent, national editor, and associate managing editor for project reporting at The Chicago Tribune, and night national editor of The New York Times. Most recently he served for a decade as the editor and publisher of UU World, the national magazine of the Unitarian Universalist religious denomination.

Currently Tom is a consulting editor for the Center for Public Integrity as well as the publisher of http://www.Politicpia.com. He is working on a book about power and the conscience.

READ MORE ABOUT TOM STITES / Address to Media Giraffe Project summit, June 2006 / BLOG reaction to June 2006 MGP talk.
Tom Stites
Consulting Editor, Center for Public Integrity
48-2 Kent St.
Newburyport MA 01950
978-499-1807 / mailto:tomstites@tomstites.com
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/artman/publish/printer_485.shtml