Montgomery Symposium: how to adjust to digital disruption

Want to know how small market newspapers are responding to the challenges of digital disruption?

Then the 2019 Montgomery Family Symposium, which will be held on Friday, Oct. 11 in Topeka, has just the ticket.

Damian Radcliffe, a professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, will be the keynote speaker for this year’s symposium.

Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism and a professor of practice at Oregon.

Besides holding the Chambers Chair at the School of Journalism and Communication, he is also a fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture Studies, and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce (RSA).

This year’s morning session on digital disruption will showcase success stories and delve into  the challenges and opportunities for local newspapers in the digital age. The session will also highlight findings from published and unpublished research, produced for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University and the Agora Journalism Center in Portland.

The afternoon session will focus on how the local media landscape is changing and explore consumer habits and attitudes as well as the bigger questions being explored in policy, research and funding circles. This session will provide a digest of the key research  in addition to developments during the past year.

The Montgomery Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the Kansas Press Association and the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

There will also be a special grant opportunity for KPA members announced at the symposium.

Cost is $60 and includes lunch.

To sign up, click here.

Schedule for Friday, Oct. 11

10 a.m. — Registration

10:30 a.m. - Noon — How Are Small Market Newspapers Responding to Digital Disruption?

Noon - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch

12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m. — What Do We Know?

2 p.m. - 3 p.m. — Special funding announcement and brainstorming.

3 p.m. — Session concludes.