JUDY WOODRUFF: It is
a tumultuous time in
the news business.

Significant percentages
of Americans fundamentally
don't trust news sources

that don't line up with their
opinions. And the financial
landscape is perilous.

Last week, Tribune Publishing,
which owns nine major
daily metro newspapers,

including The Chicago Tribune,
announced that it was turning
over complete control

to Alden Global Capital,
a hedge fund widely seen
as gutting editorial
coverage at newspapers. Only

one of The Tribune's papers,
The Baltimore Sun, will now be
turned into a not-for-profit

and owned by a Maryland business
executive and philanthropist.

We examine some pressing
questions of the moment
with two who know this well.

Gregory Moore is a former editor
of The Denver Post. He is now

editor in chief at Deke
Digital. It's a company that
advises corporate executives.

And Radhika Jones, she is
the editor of "Vanity Fair."

She also worked at The New York
Times and at "TIME" magazine,
before taking over Vanity Fair."

It is so good to see both of
you. Thank you for being here.

Let's start by talking
about this business
model. It used to be that
newspapers, broadcast outlets

sold advertising, people
bought things, and somehow
there was enough money to pay

newspaper and broadcast
reporters' salaries.

Gregory Moore, what
do we have now?

GREGORY MOORE, Editor in
Chief, Deke Digital: Well,
you have a lot of uncertainty.

Google and Facebook really
changed the advertising
landscape. They have gobbled

up somewhere in the neighborhood
of 90 or 95 percent of
the media advertising.

And so local news
organizations in particular
have had to go looking

for other ways to sort
of finance the collection
and dissemination of news.

And what's really exciting
about it is that we're
looking at new models and
new opportunities, from

foundations owning and
supporting news operations,
to taxpayer-supported
formulas that will work,

corporate donations and things
of that nature that, 15 years
ago, we wouldn't even look at.

But I think we have got
to find a new model. The
advertising one is broken.

And it is really critical
to the success of the
local news environment.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And,
Radhika Jones, you were
telling us, while we're
figuring all of this out,

local coverage, local news
coverage has taken a big hit.

RADHIKA JONES, Editor in
Chief, "Vanity Fair": It has.

There are certain national
news outlets that have become
a lot stronger in, say,

the last decade,
decade-and-a-half, and
local news has suffered, in
large part because of the

collapse of things like
classified ads, which are
now such a relic of the past.

But the irony is that local
news often is national news.
I think about what happened

with the blackouts in Texas,
and the way that all of our eyes
were trained on those events.

And it was reporting from Texas
Monthly and from the paper in
Houston and places like that,

that really helped bring clarity
to that situation and hold
powerful people to account.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Greg Moore,
while all of this is going on,
you have the deepest political

polarization across the
country that we have ever seen,

people gravitating toward,
as I mentioned a moment
ago, news sources that
reflect their own opinion.

There was a Pew study that came
out today that said one-quarter
of Republicans consistently

turn to news sources with
right-leaning audiences,
same for Democrats, a
quarter of Democrats doing

the same. And then you have a
half of Democrats and a third of

Republicans turning to sources,
news sources, that serve -- try
to serve a mainstream audience.

What has all this meant for the
challenges facing journalists?

GREGORY MOORE: Well, one of
the things that it has meant

is sort of a lack of common
sense or a common set of facts.

As these particularly local
news organizations have

lost their ability to sort
of more broadly cover issues,

our collective sense of what
is going on in our communities
has really been disrupted.

I think the second thing
that has happened is that we
have lost some credibility,

that the fake news assault
over the last four,
four-and-a-half years has
really had some effect.

We have lost somewhere in
the neighborhood of 1,800
newspapers, to be specific,

1,800 newspapers in
probably the last 10 years.

And with that, we
have lost a lot of
institutional memory. But,

more than that, those newspapers
had 150 years of credibility.

They're being replaced
by upstarts that really
haven't earned the right
to be where they are.

And so the way that they're
doing it is by appealing to what
people already think they know,

right? They're confirming the
very limited sort of siloed
existence that they have,

and it is really contributing
to a breakdown in the
sense of community.

It's really -- we're at a
perilous moment here. It doesn't
mean it is going to last,

but we're at a perilous moment
where we can't even agree
on a common set of facts

because of the fractured
nature of the media.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Radhika
Jones, how has that affected
the journalism you can do at

"Vanity Fair" and what you
see others doing? And do
you think this is a trust
that can be regained?

RADHIKA JONES: I do think
it can be regained. I am an
optimistic on that front.

And I think that the mere
fact that we are having
these conversations and
drawing attention to it,

I hope is a helpful step in
the right direction. I mean,
one thing that has happened,

especially in the last
four years, with the
assault on the media and
its credibility, has been

a lot of hostility toward
members of the press and
reporters who I work with
both at "Vanity Fair"

and places in the past,
who've endured threats
and incredible hostility
simply for doing their jobs.

And I think that the more
we can shine a light on that
and start to reestablish,

in a transparent way, the fact
that people in the media are
not the enemy, they are actually

holding powerful people
to account, they are
providing clarity, they
are providing a service,

and often a very
community-based service, I
think, the more we can show
that, show our processes,

make decisions in transparent
ways, the better off we will be.

JUDY WOODRUFF: I know
that is something we think
about every day, all the
time, at the "NewsHour."

The other thing I want to bring
up with both of you, Greg Moore,
is, while all this is happening,

there is a generational
change. There is a
turnover in leadership
at a number of major news

organizations. There is
an increasing call, in
this age of Black Lives
Matter and within the last

year, the death of George
Floyd, there is a call
for more diversity, more
inclusion in newsrooms.

Journalists have talked
about this for a long time,

but we still have a long way to
go. How do you see the progress

that is being made? And
how much difference does it
make that there is progress?

GREGORY MOORE: Well,
certainly, having diverse
newsrooms is hugely important

to covering stories like Black
Lives Matter and policing in
America, income inequality.

Having people who have
experienced some of that,
who actually understand

what is that is like really
contributes to how a story
like that gets covered.

We're -- when the
economy is bad,

the first thing that
really goes in news
organizations is diversity.

And we are witnessing
what I have described
as the whitening of the
media. We have lost a lot.

And one of the ways
that we get it back is
to shine a light on it,

as Radhika was saying, and
make sure that we explain
that, while we may be losing

diversity that is so important
in newspapers, these new digital
upstarts that are being created,

they need to put an
emphasis on diversity.

If you look at a lot of these
digital verticals that have been
created in the last 10 years,

they're almost exclusively
white. And that really
affects the kinds of
stories that get covered,

who gets to tell the stories,
who gets included as sources
and things of that nature.

And I would say, next to
the financial stability
of the media, the second
most important thing

is inclusion and a diversity
of voices, not just on
the reporting level,

but on the editing level, on the
producer level, and certainly
in the chief executive office.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Radhika,
Radhika Jones, how do you see
the imperative here? How much

difference does it make
that this happens? Is it
happening at the pace it
should be happening at?

RADHIKA JONES: I think
one always wants it
to happen faster. It
is a work in progress.

Again, I think the fact
that we're having these
conversations and that they are,

in my experience at least, more
robust than they have ever been

is cause for optimism.
But I do agree that it
is extremely important.

And it does come back
around to that local news
question, because, often,
local news, where it

exists, is able to serve
otherwise marginalized or
underserved communities.
And so to be able to

have a diverse group of
reporters and writers and
editors, and more than
that, podcasters, audience

development executives,
everyone now who contributes to
multiplatform news, to be able

to have those people come from
different places, and represent
different modes of storytelling,

represent different points
of view is going to be
critical, I think, for
our success going forward.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you
raise a point that does get
back to something I know
we're all interested in.

As we democratize, if you will,
small D, the coverage of news,
as the public, the audience is

more involved in what we cover,
there are fewer editors. How
much should we worry about that?

How does that figure into
journalism as it moves into
the future, Greg Moore?

GREGORY MOORE: Well, Judy,
I don't confuse citizens
with being journalists.

There is more to be a
journalist than jotting
down notes or recording a
conversation. There's a whole

different level of
accountability and verifying
and things of that nature.

But I do think that the
people that we cover need
to have a stronger voice.

And what that coverage
looks like, they should
be able to interact.

They should be able to give
resolution to errors and
omissions in real time.

You know, when I was
coming up in this business,
if we made a mistake,

we basically tried to
negotiate our way out of it:
Next time, we will do better.

Well, that's not good
enough now. I think that
the damage that can be done

by portraying individuals or
communities incorrectly is much
longer-lasting with the Web.

And so being able to interact
and being able to influence

coverage and actually
understanding how that
is done, I think, is one
of the most important

reasons that women and people
of color and other underserved
and marginalized folks

need to be a part of the
media power chain in this
country, to demystify it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We thank you
very much, Radhika Jones,
Greg Moore. Thank you.

GREGORY MOORE: Thank you.

RADHIKA JONES: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So grateful
to both of them. Such an
important subject for all of us.