Recent News

Posted on May 30, 2013

Royer Roundtable The Truth about Red and Blue This is the 40th year of the American news media practice of defining our political choices by the colors red or blue. The next Royer Roundtable will explore some of the implications of this concept. What are the long term effects of one color dominating a state’s politics? What are the problems rising out of the rural/urban red/blue split we see in so many states, particularly in our Northwest? How do states move from one color to another and how long … Read More

Posted on May 20, 2013

Last weekend, The Oregonian captured nine first-place awards in the 2012 Society of Professional Journalists Northwest Excellence in Journalism competition, including first place for government and politics reporting by Michelle Cole, formerly the Capitol bureau chief at The Oregonian and Gallatin’s director of Content & Research. We want to say congratulations to both the Oregonian and to Michelle. We’re in a new era of communication that presents both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity is to tell your own story, on your own terms and on your own timeline. But … Read More

Posted on April 16, 2013

Written by Michelle Cole During one of the many sobering meetings I attended at The Oregonian about the newspaper’s finances, a colleague leaned over and whispered in my ear: “They’re going to get us down to around 200.” I didn’t believe him. We had more than 300 in newsroom staff at the time. I had no idea how fast the numbers would shrink or that my whispering colleague and I would join the trend. We’re not alone. The nation’s newspapers dropped below 40,000 full-time newsroom staff in 2012, a … Read More