Listen in to this informative, freewheeling discussion about the state of journalism in Chicago. 

The way people consume news, and the way it’s produced and delivered, changes almost every day. The old economic models are crumbling, and new ones haven’t fully emerged. Will journalism cease to be a paid profession, replaced by bloggers, volunteers and citizen activists? Where do we go from here?

Working journalists, out-of-work and underemployed journalists, citizen journalists, aspiring journalists and a stellar group of panelists and resource people gathered for a lively discussion with heavy audience participation about the future of Chicago journalism.

Posted here is a panel discussion with the below panelists.  You can also hear PART TWO of this conversation which followed the panel discussion and those gathered weighed in.

And Chicago Public Radio was there to blog the event live; you can read that conversation as well to hear more perspectives on the state of journalism here in Chicago, as well as read Community Media Workshop’s Gordon Mayer’s accounting of the event, and follow how this whole conversation evolves on a website set up just for the event.

Panelists include:
Lee Bey - Lee is executive director of the Chicago Central Area Committee, former Sun-Times architecture critic, urbanist, writer and an active blogger.
John Callaway - He’s the host and senior editor of WTTW’s Friday Night, and he’s been with Channel 11 in various capacities since 1974. John has been News Director at WBBM-AM and Vice President of CBS Radio.
Thom Clark - Thom is president and a founder of Chicago’s Community Media Workshop at Columbia College. CMW trains some 2,000 non-profit communicators each year, promoting news that matters.
Geoff Dougherty - Goeff founded the not-for-profit online newspaper ChiTown Daily News in 2005 after working for the Chicago Tribune and Miami Herald. Using professional reporters and citizen journalists, it’s focused on Chicago.
Robert Feder - Former Sun-Times columnist, he covered the television and radio business for 28 years. He’s a lifelong Chicagoan and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.
Carlos Hernandez-Gomez - Carlos is CLTV’s political editor. He has also covered local and national politics for WBEZ, the Chicago Reporter, The Chicago Reader and the L.A. daily, La Opinion.
Barbara Iverson - At Columbia College, Barbara teaches, talks and blogs about blogging, citizen journalism and digital technology. She’s also co-editor and publisher of ChicagoTalks.org.
Alex Kotlowitz - Alex wrote the acclaimed There are No Children Here. A former staff writer at The Wall Street Journal, he’s a regular
contributor to the New York Times Magazine and This American Life. He
teaches writing at NU.
Carol Marin - Carol is a columnist for the Sun-Times, Political Editor at NBC5 TV, and she hosts discussions on Chicago news and issues for Channel 11 WTTW’s Chicago Tonight.
Michael Miner - Mike has written the Hot Type column in the Reader since 1987, covering all forms of Chicago media. He also writes the Reader’s media blog, News Bites.
Salim Muwakkil - Salim is a senior editor of In These Times, host of the Salim Muwakkil Show on WVON-AM, and a Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute.
Eric Zorn - Tribune metro columnist Eric Zorn was the first general-interest local columnist to publish his email address, the first to have his own Web site, and, in 2003, the first to write a blog for his publication.
Andrew Huff - Andrew is editor and publisher of Gapers Block,one of the city’s leading on-line Magazines, as well as a professional blogger on the side.
Ken Davis, Moderator - Ken is a former program director, news director and program host at WBEZ, and former director of Chicago Municipal Television. Ken, as a private citizen, is convener of this Town Hall.

Recorded Sunday, February 22, 2009 at Hotel Allegro-Walnut Room.