The Brave New World of Newspaper Publishing

Meet the new publisher of the Statesman Journal.

Steve Silberman is the newly appointed President and Publisher of the Statesman Journal.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The Salem City Club will feature the new publisher of the Salem's daily newspaper at their November 21st meeting. Steve Silberman is the newly appointed President and Publisher of the Statesman Journal.

Silberman is from Palm Springs, California, where he was the executive editor of The Desert Sun. The City Club's Raquel Moore-Green says the new publisher is fast settling into Salem.

When the forerunner of the Statesman Journal, The Oregon Statesman, was founded in 1851 by Asahel Bush it was printed using a hand press. For a very long time, as far as readers were concerned there was nothing really new about the newspaper business. It seemed people always got the news printed on paper (or hard copy as paper is now called). Television images of Father sitting at the kitchen table reading the morning paper are classic.

Yet in a short span of time, computers and the Internet have had an enormous impact on our culture. More and more people are finding it easier to get and read the news on their computers. Newspapers have had to adapt to give their readers what they want. Last week it was announced that in 2009, the 100 year old Christian Science Monitor will become the first nationally circulated newspaper to replace its daily print edition with its website.

It’s a very different world indeed from the days of the Asahel Bush and the hand press. And how is our own newspaper, the Statesman Journal, faring in this brave new world?

When he announced the change, Silberman’s boss, Bob Dickey, President of Gannett U.S. Community Publishing said “Steve’s talent for journalism and his passion to serve the community, which served him so well in Palm Springs, will continue to grow and flourish in Salem. The Desert Sun community has said again and again what a great presence Steve had there and how lucky Salem is to be getting such an accomplished leader. We feel the same way.”

Prior to joining the Statesman in July, Steve served at the Desert Sun; he was also the managing editor at the Idaho Statesman in Boise, an editor at the Orange County Register and worked as a reporter at The Record in Hackensack, N.J. Steve began his career in 1984 as a reporter for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Salem City Club event takes place Friday, November 21st, it is your chance to hear Steve Silberman discuss this mostly uncharted brave new world of news and news reporting.

For lunch reservations call 503.589.2975 or email salemcityclub@aol.com by noon Tuesday, November 18th. The community is welcomed and encouraged to attend. There is a no charge for attending the program at noon, lunch-members $12, non-members $14. Please call in your plans for lunch or attendance, so we will have adequate seating available.

Facts about Gannett, the company that owns the Statesman:

* Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and information company that publishes 85 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA TODAY, the nation’s largest-selling daily newspaper.

* The company also owns nearly 900 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, a weekly newspaper magazine.

* Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the United Kingdom’s second-largest regional newspaper company. Newsquest publishes nearly 300 titles, including 17 daily newspapers, and a network of prize-winning Web sites.

* Gannett also operates 23 television stations in the United States and is an Internet leader with sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers including USATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.

Source: Salem City Club