Sulzberger On Miller, Ethics at ONA Conference

By: Jay DeFoore New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. laid out the company's vision for restoring trust and ethics in journalism Friday at a speech before the Online News Association's annual convention in New York. Sulzberger, speaking at a time when his newspaper is yet again facing scrutiny over its reporting, also gamely took questions regarding the Judy Miller controversy from journalists in the audience.

After repeatedly stressing the need for journalistic organizations to restore credibility with trustworthy reporting, Robert Niles of the Online Journalism Review asked the publisher if the Times' failure to fire Judy Miller had affected its own credibility.

""There's no question there has been an effect on how people are viewing us because of this Judy Miller situation,"" Sulzberger said. ""But the change now is that we are acknowledging it.

""The story is not over,"" Sulzberger said, referring to the CIA leak investigation in which Miller became ""entangled"" when she initially refused to testify about conversations with a confidential source who later turned out to be Scooter Libby. ""This is going to be an evolving story, and there's no question the Times has suffered in reputation.

""But we need to get back to our journalistic roots. We are breaking news on this, we are getting ahead of the competition,"" Sulzberger added, referring to the paper's increased coverage of the leak investigation following Miller's grand jury testimony. ""When your reporter is in jail, there are constraints, and now those constraints are off,"" he noted.

Asked what lessons the Times will take away from the Miller affair, Sulzberger said, ""It is clear looking back that we were far too slow in correcting our Weapons of Mass Destruction coverage. But be clear, that was not Judy's failure alone. It was an institutional failure. We didn't address it quickly enough, and now we've owned up to that.""

Sulzberger added that reporters should work to establish greater clarity with their sources before granting anonymity.

In a wide-ranging speech that focused largely on the challenges facing mainstream media organizations in the digital era, Sulzberger laid out a seven-point plan for meeting the demands of modern consumers while staying true to journalism's traditional values:

1)First and foremost, Sulzberger said news organizations must stay committed to reporting news that is ""credible, valuable, and trustworthy.""

2)Addressing the inherent conflict between the demand for immediate information and news organizations' ability to provide it, Sulzberger admitted, ""Too often we respond to competition, and competitive pressure causes mistakes. The news media frequently loses its way when it attempts to compete in a marketplace of infinite ideas.""

3)Audiences are no longer passive, so news organizations must involve them in the conversation. Owing largely to the explosion of blogging, Sulzberger said, ""Our culture firmament is shifting, and we need to adopt and we need to do so quickly.""

4)Journalism needs to better address the changing Internet community. Sulzberger said that The New York Times Co. strives to be a ""convener of communities,"" adding that the company wants to create environments where like-minded users can engage with each other and exchange safe, thoughtful information.

5)Journalistic ethics must be upgraded. Speaking of journalistic fabricators Janet Cook, Stephen Glass, and ""our own Jayson Blair,"" Sulzberger said too often journalists lose sight of their primary responsibility, which is simply ""to tell the truth.""

6)Strong, ethical values should be adopted across all media. Speaking of the Internet and the blogosphere, which he referred to as an ""immense group of writers who adhere to a wide range of standards,"" Sulzberger said, ""Fairness and accuracy separates the best of mainstream media from bloggers.""

7)News organizations have to attract a new generation of audience. Sulzberger said that ""may well be our most important goal over the next decade. We have to find a way to get young people involved in their community and thinking about larger issues."" The idea being, if young people become more civic-minded, they'll come to place a greater value on accurate, credible sources of news.

Sulzberger stressed that his main goal with the recent launch of TimesSelect, the paper's first major online subscription offering, was to move toward building an online business model that can sustain the Times' 1,200 journalists and $200 million budget. ""We have to build into our Web thinking revenue potential to sustain quality journalism,"" he said. ""If we don't build in some kind of equivalent of our circulation revenue, we're going to find ourselves in one hell of a tough place.""

A final question, and one no doubt on many minds at the convention, asked Sulzberger whether the increasingly powerful Google is a ""friend or foe"" of mainstream media organizations. While Sulzberger admitted that the search giant is a ""huge partner"" with The New York Times and especially About.com, he noted that the company's latest forays into advertising and possibly classifieds shows that it is simply ""going to go with the market leads them. And I don't blame them for that. ? We have to get there before others do, and shame on us if we don't.""