WNET CEO, Neal Shapiro, on the Future of Media Today

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Neal Shapiro, President & CEO of WNET, to discuss the NJTV News partnership with NJ Spotlight, the importance of local journalism and the future of media in our society today.

7/8/19 #2229

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. Welcome to the Tisch WNET Studio here in the heart of New York City. It is our honor and pleasure once again, to welcome Neal Shapiro, our President and CEO, WNET. Good to see you my friend. Nice to be back Steve. The last time you were here, last year, we were talking about where we are in media and journalism. I'm gonna jump right in. Mm hmm. Where are we? We're in a tough time and an exciting time. We're in a tough time because criticism from the White House, and certainly the conservative wing, has never been tougher, more misplaced. And I think more building suspicion about everything. We're in an exciting place because there are more partnerships, technology is better, and I think people are starting to realize the value of journalism, that it's unbiased and straight ahead. And you're seeing some of that. And more support for institutions like PBS, and like Thirteen, and like NJTV than we've seen before. Yeah. I ask you this, and I don't want... and if you want to see past interviews with Neal, you can go on our website right now. The fundraising part the economics of what we do, is that more challenging than ever? Forget about the government side. Yeah. Because they're gonna do what they're gonna do in Washington? Yeah. Yeah. Fundraising for you and your colleagues? More challenging? Yeah. It is more challenging. Because the... you know, to start out, we give away a product for free. That's a tough economic basis to start with. And news is always a harder thing to raise money for than some of the other things. Not that we're not proud of all of it, for arts and culture and history and science and so forth. News is a tougher thing. It's interesting. People are happy to partake of it. People are happy to see the value of it. But it's hard to get them to realize how much we depend on it. And especially now, the interesting thing in news is you have to be, not just how we're watching now on television... Yup. You have to be on every platform. You have to think about digital. All those come with extra cost. Yeah, you know, MetroFocus... by the way, log onto the MetroFocus... the WNET website or the NJTV and... or WLIW, about MetroFocus, I remember you started talking about MetroFocus. I'm going to see if I can get this right. Was it five or six years ago? Yeah. Okay. Describe what you thought it would be, what it is today, and then we'll talk about all the other platforms it's on. Go ahead. A loaded..."