How Do We Fix Bay Area Journalism? With Neil Chase, CEO of CALmatters

Join ONA/SF for an enlightening conversation with Neil Chase, longtime leader of news organizations and of innovation in journalism. His subject will be: "What the Heck Happened to Bay Area Journalism, and How Do We Fix It?"

With so much turmoil in our industry, we'll take some time to understand what happened, why, who’s trying to fix it, and how we can all be part of that fix. And stay employed. Plus we’ll reflect on the 20th anniversary of the Online News Association with some folks who were part of it in the early years.

In January Neil became the new CEO of CALmatters, a growing nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism organization whose mission is to make California’s democracy better by increasing government transparency and accountability and by informing and engaging Californians. CALmatters produces hundreds of stories each year that are posted at CALmatters.org and shared with more than 150 news organizations including all of California’s major newspapers and public radio stations.

Previously Neil had been Executive Editor of the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Mercury News and the East Bay Times. He has had a career of more than 30 years as an editor, manager and marketer, in recent years building digital brands and audience as a senior vice president at Federated Media Publishing and as a consultant for major publishers and corporations. Neil has been a leading participant in national discussions about the future of journalism, including the emerging nonprofit sector. And he served previously as Managing Editor at CBS MarketWatch and Continuous News Editor at the New York Times.

We'll have pizza and beverages for you to enjoy before and during the program! The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University is once again generously providing us with the venue for this event.

RSVP here -- and please remember to enter your full name and the names of any guests when prompted so you'll be able to pass building security.

SCHEDULE (tentative):

6:15 pm: Doors open with pizza and beverages
7:00pm: Conversation with Neil, followed by Q&A
8:30pm: Program ends -- informal mingling
9:00pm: Doors close