provocative conversation on the ‘crisis’ of modern journalism. Author, professor, and founder of Free Press, Robert McChesney, and veteran newspaper and magazine journalist, John Nichols, will present the premise of their newly released book, which has captivated a national audience, The Death and Life of American Journalism.

The event takes place Friday, March 26 at 2 p.m. in Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Avenue on Hamline’s Saint Paul campus. It is free and open to all.

The authors contend that daily newspapers have shut their doors in Seattle, Denver, Cincinnati, and Albuquerque. Soon, some of the largest U.S. cities could be without a daily paper. Those publications that remain are bleeding staff and money—1,000 reporters are let go each month nationwide, Washington D.C. bureaus are closing their doors, and international offices may soon be a thing of the past. They ascertain the entirety of news media is in meltdown. 

In their talk at Hamline, media experts Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols explore the history of the media meltdown and its political implications, reject the easy answers of blaming the internet or imagining that markets will provide answers, and offer a bold and ground-breaking solution for saving American journalism. This includes imagining new business models, embracing innovations in online content, and the introduction of partnerships between media outlets and institutions to breathe new life into American journalism. 

Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author or editor of sixteen books. His work has been translated into 21 languages. He is co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization and hosts “Media Matters” on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM radio. He lives in Madison, WI. 

John Nichols has worked as a daily newspaper journalist and magazine writer for 25 years, reporting from more than 25 countries and interviewing every US president since Jimmy Carter. A pioneering political blogger for The Nation, he is the magazine’s Washington correspondent. He is also the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. A co-founder of Free Press, he appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC and other broadcast and cable networks.

For more information on The Death and Life of American Journalism, visit www.nationbooks.com.