“By any means necessary: Delivering the news in the 21st century”

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Journalist John Pope, a member of the New Orleans Times Picayune team that won two Pulitzer Prizes for its reporting of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, will present a free public talk, “By Any Means Necessary: Delivering the News in the 21st Century,” on Oct. 3 from 5-6 p.m. in 110 Knox Hall, University at Buffalo North Campus.

The talk will be sponsored by the UB chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the UB Humanities Institute, Undergraduate Academies, the Department of English and its Journalism Certificate Program, the UB Communicators Network and The Spectrum.

Pope’s talk will be preceded from 3:30-5 p.m. by a free public screening of “Deadline – U.S.A.,” also in 110 Knox.

The 1952 film follows a crusading editor (Humphrey Bogart), who tries to finish a circulation-building expose about the murder of a young woman by a racketeer, in an attempt to save his newspaper from going out of business.  The film is based loosely on the story of the original New York Sun – “It Shines for All” – which published from 1833 to 1950.

Pope will address the fact that as the world changes, so has the newspapers business of collecting, investigating, writing, editing and disseminating news. He holds that in this climate of “news” sources that have proliferated online, newspapers cannot afford to be passive but must find ways to rebuild readership and revenue. He will discuss how the Times-Picayune is meeting this challenge.