Today’s Guest: Barry Johnson

I’ll be joined on today’s show (moving from 1 pm to 1:30 pm from now on) by freelance writer and editor Barry Johnson, the former arts editor at The Oregonian (@barryjohnson on Twitter). I’ll be asking Barry to share some details of his ‘post-O’ life after stepping away from a 26-year history with The Oregonian late last year (where he served as arts editor, columnist, visual arts critic and theater critic).

And he’ll also share some details about one of his ‘lovely parting gifts’: Portland Arts Watch (formerly part of OregonLive) is now an independent journalism web site managed/edited by Barry that looks at arts, design and culture in the Northwest. We’ll talk about arts coverage in general, along with the future of local online arts coverage. I’m sure we’ll also touch on his recent series of Twitter posts, “Dear Editors” (archived in this blog post) & talk more about how best to mentor writers, many who may not have had a formal journalism education.

We’ll also be joined this week by Abraham Hyatt (organizer of the Digital Journalism conference here in PDX) to kick off what I’m sure will be an ongoing discussion: Is Print Journalism a Dying Medium? I’ll share the results of my own attempt to re-subscribe to the print version of The Oregonian (yes, I know the spoiler photo gives it away…) and asking both Barry & Abraham to share their thoughts about the viability of local print outlets here in town. Is there still room for print in this digital age? Should I have taken the time, taken the plastic off and picked up the newspaper again? Why or why not?


Thursday. July 15th. 1:30 pm. On pdx.fm. Have some thoughts or questions of your own? Use the comment field below to ask them, or send me comments via Twitter: @redoingmedia