Bradlee

Ben Bradlee, on the future of newspapers (from an interview on a PBS show with Jim Lehrer)

JIM LEHRER: But do you think that the newspapers, faced with this decline in circulation, should reexamine what they're doing? BEN BRADLEE: They're examining, reexamining it. Boy, that's topic A. Every, every paper you go to, they've just had a meeting and they're discussing what to do about falling circulation. And there's one word is the answer. JIM LEHRER: What is it? BEN BRADLEE: Stories. JIM LEHRER: Stories? BEN BRADLEE: Good stories. JIM LEHRER: So, when you say stories, what stories are they not doing, kinds of stories that they're not doing? BEN BRADLEE: Well, I mean, they're just well written stories, some story that makes you, you know, say I'll be damned, that's a good story.

JIM LEHRER: Yeah. I didn't know that kind of thing. BEN BRADLEE: Yeah, I didn't know that or that's beautifully written or I feel really better for having read that. That really piqued my curiosity.