Ken Paulson has had a full dance card for the past three decades.
He has been the editor of USA Today, the nation’s largest circulation newspaper, editor or managing editor of four other newspapers, and is now president and chief operating officer of the Newseum and the Freedom Forum.
If you ask him which accomplishment at this juncture in his career has given him the most satisfaction, he’ll say his work on behalf of the First Amendment.
“I can’t really single out a specific accomplishment,” he says, “but being part of the First Amendment community and working to help Americans understand the value of these five freedoms in a free society has been extraordinarily rewarding.”
Being part of the First Amendment community? Don’t be so modest. How about being one of its most eloquent and dedicated leaders? Paulson, who is also a lawyer who served as executive director of the First Amendment Center for seven years, hosted the Emmy-nominated television program “Speaking Freely,” and authored “Freedom Sings,” a multimedia stage show celebrating the First Amendment.
Paulson assumed the editor’s role at USA Today after the paper suffered a massive blow in the Jack Kelley scandal. When he left the paper earlier this year to take over the Newseum, former USA Today publisher Craig Moon said, “Ken’s news judgment and management expertise helped steer the newspaper through those rough waters. There is no doubt that there can be a perfect leader at the perfect time.”
I recently interviewed Paulson via e-mail to get his thoughts on how the Newseum is faring, his concerns regarding the future of journalism, the First Amendment and more.
Gregory Favre: You resigned as editor of USA Today, the country’s largest circulation newspaper, to become president and chief operating oficer of the Newseum and the Freedom Forum. What motivated this change?
Ken Paulson: The Newseum is a remarkable new museum that aspires to inform and educate all Americans about the value of a free press. It’s really the Yankee Stadium of the First Amendment and an arena I wanted to play in. I loved my five years with USA Today and would only have left it for the opportunity to become president of this extraordinary organization.
Do the demographics of the Newseum visitors represent an older population more attached to print than a younger audience? How are you satisfying both? And how has the deep recession affected the attendance at the Newseum?
Paulson: The Newseum draws a wide range of age groups, including close to 100,000 grade school and high school students a year. Older visitors tend to spend more time on our gallery of historic newspapers, and younger people tend to get caught up in our interactive displays. There’s something for everyone, and thankfully, the deep recession has not taken a significant toll on the Newseum. We drew more than 700,000 visitors in our first year. Our best year at the old Newseum was less than 500,000.
The Freedom Forum has long been involved in programs promoting diversity in the news industry. Is it continuing to do so? And is it supporting any other training efforts?
Paulson: The Freedom Forum continues to operate the Diversity Institute and its programs, including the American Indian Journalism Institute, the Chips Quinn Scholars, Multimedia Scholars and the Native American Journalism Career Conference. One of our challenges has been the slowdown in newsroom hiring. We’re trying to help build the supply of well-prepared minority journalists, but they’ll need jobs.
Given your experience as a lawyer and a forceful, nationally-recognized leader on press freedom issues, how fragile do you think the First Amendment is at this moment in our history?
Paulson: The First Amendment is taken for granted by the American people, and few appreciate how much it affects their daily lives, but I wouldn’t describe it as fragile. There’s an interesting cycle throughout American history that pits fear against freedom.
There have been periods in our nation’s past when Americans have truly been frightened, including the Civil War, World War II, the Red Scare era and the years immediately following 9/11. During those periods, there has been tremendous pressure on all of our civil liberties, including the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
Our goal at the Newseum and First Amendment Center is to build goodwill for freedom of the press, speech, petition, assembly and religion so that they are better protected during times of duress. No matter what you think of the National Rifle Association’s efforts or politics, there’s no denying that it’s able to rally the troops whenever anyone encroaches on Second Amendment rights. All of us who care about these core freedoms of expression and faith need to do a better job of shoring up protection for the First Amendment.
What should news organizations and schools at all levels be doing to educate people about the First Amendment?
Paulson: It remains a great disappointment that the concepts of the First Amendment are taught in such cursory fashion at most American schools. The irony is that most Americans will tell you with confidence that Betsy Ross designed the American flag (she probably didn’t) and can recite the words of the Pledge of Allegiance (originally crafted as a magazine promotion in the 1890s), but can’t tell you what the First Amendment says.
We’ve recently launched a new coalition of educators, attorneys, actors, activists, musicians, educators and journalists called The Liberty Tree Initiative, with an eye toward promoting First Amendment awareness and education. There’s plenty of work to be done.
If newspapers and their staffs disappear, or continue to be downsized to the point of being impotent, who do you think will take responsibility for holding the powerful accountable?
Paulson: That’s really the untold story of the current crisis facing the newspaper industry. If newspapers go down, corruption will go up. The question is, will Americans pay to have watchdogs? Somebody has to pay for journalism and the scrutiny of public officials, just as taxpayers have to pay for police and fire departments.
Crowdsourcing and collaborative online communities can help keep government in check, but the traditional role of a reporter — half detective and half town crier — can only come from news professionals whose work week is devoted to gathering information.
With newspapers in a downward spiral across the country, and a city such as Ann Arbor, Mich., losing its only daily, do you visualize a day in the near future when there will be no daily community newspapers left? And what’s your view of the future for national newspapers such as USA Today?
Paulson: I’m bullish about the future of newspapers in print, particularly in smaller communities across the United States. There’s a reason newspapers have been a part of American life since 1690. The good ones reflect their communities and help spur constructive change.
And until recently, they had a pretty good business model. Newspapers will never make as much money as they once did, but there are generations of Americans who still view a daily newspaper as a vital part of their daily lives. Unless newspapers cut their resources so dramatically that they no longer function as a community asset — and there is that risk — daily community newspapers with a higher per copy price will be around for a long time.
National newspapers present a distinctly different scenario. The big advantage of a local news organization is that it truly owns the market. On a national level, there are competitors everywhere. But national brands do have the added advantage of widespread recognition and identity. Smart news media companies will find a way to leverage that brand for a variety of products and services.
In terms of print products, I do believe that you’ll find copies of USA Today on sale across America for at least another 10 years, unless it’s superseded by a technological breakthrough that takes the Kindle concept several steps further. If you can have a newsprint-like experience on a battery-operated device, there’s no real reason to have the newsprint.
USA Today has an extremely strong presence in the online news world. How do you come down on the charge versus no-charge discussion for online news and information?
We should have charged from the beginning, and I only hope it’s not too late now. It’s interesting to hear people talk about the digital “revolution” as though it’s something that snuck up on us. When I was editor of Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla., I launched an online version in 1993, and I certainly wasn’t the first.
In truth, online versions of America’s newspapers have been around for almost 20 years. We can’t wait any longer. I think it’s going to take a couple of courageous national publishers to step forward and say they are not giving it away anymore, and others will follow suit. In the end, consumers do get what they pay for.
You are on the ladder to be president of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) in 2011-2012. Has the time come for many of the organizations representing newsroom employees to start talking about merging? Or can ASNE and other journalism organizations survive independently?
Paulson: The economic reality is that many of the industry’s most visible associations are under tremendous pressure. Mergers make a lot of sense. No matter what medium you work in, the advent of multi-platform journalism means that your organization needs to be more expansive in terms of both its work product and its membership.
Frankly, the more members representing diverse journalistic interests in an organization, the more vibrant it is likely to be.
