Open House Forum - Newspapers in the Age of the Blog

MARCH "OPEN HOUSE"

DISCUSSES Newspapers in the Age of the Blog:
A Conversation with Renee Loth, Editorial Page Editor of the Boston Globe

Representative Jay Kaufman's award winning public policy forum, OPEN HOUSE, this month examines the effect of the internet on the news industry, and also how it has changed the landscape of traditional newspapers and their role in the media. The forum will be on Thursday, March 20, 2008, from 7:30PM-8:30PM, at the historic Depot in LexingtonCenter.

Renee Loth, Editor Page Editor of the Bsoton Globe will provide the forum with a first-hand look at how the internet has turned the news industry upside down, with the most pervasive effect on the print media. Newspapers across the country have seen a dramatic reduction in readership and revenue, as more people get their news on home or work computers via the internet. In addition, newspapers have also seen competition by average citizens, blogging on any and all issues normally reported by news media professionals. Indeed, the phrase "All the news fit to print" may be as endangered as the industry itself.

Rep. Kaufman's monthly public policy series, was launched in 1995 to provide a forum for discussing the challenges and opportunities facing our community and Commonwealth. OPEN HOUSE is scheduled on the third Thursday of every month from 7:30 to 8:30 PM. The program is held at the historic Lexington Depot, 7 Depot Square (off of Mass. Ave in Lexington Center) and is taped for later broadcast.

Over its 12+ years, OPEN HOUSE has addressed issues ranging from reinventing public education to gay marriage, property tax relief to campaign finance reform, the shrinking middle class to stem cell research, the nature of political leadership to the challenges of effecting fundamental change in a democracy. While Representative Kaufman has hosted hundreds of guests with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise, the forums have featured an open town meeting format, with audience questions and comments largely shaping the conversation.

In 1997, OPEN HOUSE was awarded the prestigious Beacon Award, cable television's equivalent of an Emmy, as the nation's best government relations series. The series was also named the best television series by Massachusetts Cable Television broadcast throughout eastern Massachusetts.

OPEN HOUSE is produced in partnership with the Lexington Historical Society and the LexMedia Group, and is broadcast throughout eastern Massachusetts.
For more information on OPEN HOUSE, please call Representative Kaufman's State House office at (617) 722-2240 or email sean.fitzgerald@state.ma.us