NAB President Curtis LeGeyt has joined the Forecast 2025 lineup for what will be a marquee discussion over where the responsibility lies in preserving broadcast newsrooms and who “keeps the lights on” in democracy.
As the complex relationship between advertisers and news organizations faces increased threats from Big Tech, partisan politics, and foreign governments, this session will delve into the pressing need for advertisers to support journalism as a pillar of truth and explore the policies and legislative measures needed to protect local broadcasters.
Sponsored by Skyview Networks, “The Battle to Keep Newsroom Lights On” will be moderated by veteran ABC News National Correspondent Steven Portnoy.
Portnoy will lead an insightful conversation between LeGeyt and returning Forecast panelist Lou Paskalis, CEO and Founder of AJL Advisory and Chief Strategy Officer of Ad Fontes Media. Paskalis, who presented a stunning keynote at last year’s Forecast, has been one of the most vocal advocates for marketers to reinvest in news organizations, emphasizing the role advertisers play in sustaining fact-based reporting.
As Paskalis told Radio Ink, “Why are advertisers in the community so willing to risk their brand reputation by advertising on YouTube, which is ostensibly user-generated content with very little premium content, but avoiding news because of the potential brand risk? I’m like, ‘We’ve got the telescope turned around the wrong way, people. Do we think YouTube is safe, and is the news not? What the hell are we doing?'”
Representing the legislative and regulatory perspective, LeGeyt will offer insights into the organization’s efforts to back broadcasters’ commitments to serving their communities. The NAB leader recently made headlines for criticizing partisan threats to revoke broadcast licenses of networks over content disagreements, saying, “From our country’s beginning, the right of the press to challenge the government, root out corruption, and speak freely without fear of recrimination has been central to our democracy. Times may have changed, but that principle – enshrined in the First Amendment — has not.”
“The Battle to Keep Newsroom Lights On” promises to be a highlight of Forecast 2025, providing attendees with key insights into the future of news and the ways that advertisers and broadcasters can work together to safeguard truth in journalism.
Celebrating 22 years in 2024, Forecast is an annual industry financial conference at the Harvard Club in New York City. The only conference of its kind, the event gathers owners, CFOs, group executives, managers, and Wall Street analysts to discuss conditions and predictions for the coming year.
Forecast 2025 – scheduled for November 13 – is the premier event for broadcast executives, financial analysts, and media leaders, offering a comprehensive view of the industry’s future. For more information, visit the event site.
If we are to keep these newsrooms open, we must make sure that these radio newsrooms are avenues that are reporting -JUST- the facts and remain unbiased. We see on TV and NPR stations, highly slanted reporting from people that call themselves journalist but are actually parading on air with their opinions and agendas. Americans have had ENOUGH of the lies broadcast from the main stream media. As a result people are finding other reputable sources to get their news, unfiltered, not biased, just simple FACT reporting. If radio news is to remain relevant, it will have to remain as a vessel that reports the facts of what is going on, not the opinions and agendas of the person reporting on the stories. Broadcasting schools and news directors need to get back to what news reporting is supposed to be. If we continue down this road of being something like the national inquirer and the back yard gossip ladies, then we shall see news organizations continue to decline.
FYI In just the last month, two TV services that were built on unbiased reporting have shut down. NewsNet and Scripps News. So apparently unbiased reporting is not what people want.