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SPJ-Madison co-sponsors a series of brownbag lunches with visiting journalists. All area journalists are invited.

• Monday, November 5, 2007 - Kenneth Walsh, chief White House correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, in Madison as part of the UW Public Affairs Writer in Residence Program.

  Join us at the Capital Newspapers Boardroom, 1901 Fish Hatchery Rd. Noon-1 p.m. Bring your lunch; beverages and cookies will be served.

  Kenneth Walsh has covered the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, and, currently, George W. Bush. He joined the magazine in 1984 as a congressional correspondent and has covered the presidency, presidential campaigns, and national politics since 1986. He has won the two most prestigious awards for White House coverage: the Aldo Beckman Award in 1991 and 2007, and the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency in 1992 and 1998.
  Before joining the magazine, Walsh was a political reporter, columnist, and Washington correspondent for the Denver Post. Before that, he was a Denver-based newsman for the Associated Press. As an adjunct professor of communication at American University in Washington, D.C., Walsh has taught courses on politics and the media, media ethics, the presidency and the media, and how the media shape history. In 1998, he was named outstanding adjunct professor of the year. Walsh earned a master's degree in communication from American University and a B.A. in journalism from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

• October 24, 2007: Justin Fox - Time magazine's business and economics columnist has been with Time magazine since January 2007. Before that Justin was chief economics writer for Fortune but also covered topics ranging from international business to technology, as well as investing and high-end Japanese cuisine. Earlier he was Fortune's Europe editor, based in London from 2000-2001. He also started a blog in 2006, the Curious Capitalist, on CNNMoney.com (Fortune's internet home).

• October 4, 2007: Steve Mirsky - As creator, producer and frequent host of Scientific American's daily podcast, Steve Mirsky has been blending science and humor at Scientific American since 1995. He is often featured in the magazine's Anti Gravity column. A chemistry graduate of Cornell University, he has been writing about science since 1985 when he was awarded a Mass Media Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mirsky's freelance credits include Audubon, Technology Review, Astronomy magazine, Newsday, National Public Radio and National Wildlife, among others.

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• April 25, 2007: Charles Gasparino - As CNBC's On-Air Editor, he provides up-to-the-minute reports throughout the day as the trading unfolds on Wall Street. Gasparino often breaks news on major issues involving corporate America including mergers and acquisitions, investigations into corporate crime and company management changes. Before joining CNBC, Gasparino was a senior writer at Newsweek magazine. Gasparino has covered Wall Street, pension funds, mutual funds, regulatory issues, and breaking news on some of the biggest financial scandals of recent times at Newsweek and at The Wall Street Journal. At the Journal, Gasparino was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in beat reporting in 2002 and won the New York Press Club award for best continuing coverage of the Wall Street research scandals.






The Politico, where politics is fun

The Politico website was launched on January 23, 2007, and already it's attracting two million unique visitors a month. "It's been an amazing four months," executive editor Jim VandeHei told a group of 30 journalists gathered in the board room of Madison's Capital Newspapers for an April brownbag lunch sponsored by the Madison Pro Chapter of SPJ.

VandeHei, a former national political reporter for the Washington Post and a UW-Oshkosh graduate, says The Politico is designed for those who believe politics is fun. "I don't think we always have to take politics as seriously as the Washington Post does," he said. "Our desire is to be more conversational, edgier and as transparent as we can."

The Politico will be more willing to say a politician lied, VandeHei said. Conventional journalism reports on statements and reactions to statements. He believes the Bush administration has taken advantage of what can be one of journalism's flaws.

And when The Politico makes a mistake, such as the report that John Edwards was leaving the presidential campaign because of his wife's illness, they'll write a story on "How we got it wrong." Another departure from newspapers' standard correction procedure, VandeHei says, "which is usually a small item on page 17 next to the Prange's ad."

"Newspapers have a bright future," he said, "just a different future. The way people consume news has changed." He believes people have become their own editors, finding the best sources for the news they want. He says that opens up great opportunities for niche journalism. Major newspapers will focus more on their specialties and less on staffing the same bureaus as other major newspapers. "You have to figure out what you can do that's monetizable," he said.

The Politico website is financially stablized by a 25,000 circulation printed version that is distributed free in the Washington DC market. Ninety percent of the operation's revenue comes from the newspaper. VandeHei says they hope to turn a profit by year three.

The newspaper version, because it's distributed around the DC area, has more of a focus on Congress. The website, which is more about national politics, is currently concentrating on the 2008 campaign. "We're a website that dumps some of our stories into a paper," VandeHei said, instead of vice versa, which is most common in today's media world.

VandeHei was in Madison to speak to college students as part of the University of Wisconsin's Writer in Residence program. He said he's optimistic about the future of jobs for journalists. "I believe there are more jobs for people coming out of college because everyone has a dot com subsidiary," he said. "People who will have a hard time are those who cling to the past."

His advice to young journalists, develop expertise in one area. "Spend a lot of time being an expert in your subject." He noted that the Washington Post used to be a place where young reporters worked their way from the bureaus to the top reporting jobs. Now, he says, when the Post is looking for a Congressional reporter they're more likely to hire a hard working reporter away from the Roll Call (a specialized newspaper on Capital Hill), instead of promoting someone from one of their bureaus.

- Gordon Govier



 

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