The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on July 13, 2020.
Attending were James Nevers, Dave Aubry, Margie Glenn, Gary Cohn, Dan Bartel, Joanne Primavera, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Rich Bergdahl, Patti Smith, Rick Walter, Don Dicks, Amy & Dave Mutal, John Woodbery, Bella Chaffey, Monica Fratita, Scott Becker, Terry Cole, George Anderson, Stefan Landvogt, Steve Shinstrom, Dave Debois, Darcia Tudor, Bob & Gail Auslander, John Pruitt, Brandon Honcoop, Mike Hunter, and Joe Getzendanner. Let me know if I missed anyone.
President James Nevers rang the bell at 6:15 p.m.
Dave Aubry recited the Pledge of Allegiance while the rest of us stood, in order to avoid ‘out-of-sync-problems’ with our audio.
Guest were Gratham, Rich Bergdahl’s nephew, and Gina Cole, Terry Cole’s daughter who works at the Seattle Times.
We started with Happy Dollars. One person prepaid – Joe Getzendanner. The rest of us need to get in the habit.
Announcements:
Scott Becker is still looking for Club activity photos to send to Bob Webb.
Patti Smith got an email regarding the postponement/likely cancellation of this year’s Duck Dash. It will cost us ½ our deposit but Patti says we should go ahead and pay. We will run next year.
Dan Bartel is doing some Club history work and asked for assistance from members.
Dave Debois – Duck Dash fundraising. An email will be drafted to send out to solicit more support for our good works this year, without a Duck Dash.
Steve Shinstrom reports that Chris Rusnak has had back surgery following a fall.
Our Speaker was Kate Riley, Editorial Page Editor of the Seattle Times. She is also a former Rotarian who has sold Duck adoptions in eastern Washington.
She spoke about the problems that much of the print media is having – ad revenue subsidized journalism, but much of the ad revenue has migrated to on-line platforms.
People are beginning to get much of their news about their city, state, country, and the world from on-line platforms. Ms Riley pointed out that much of the news shown online has been taken from print media sources, often with little or no compensation to the print media companies. Ad revenue peaked in about 2000 and has since plummeted. This has led to a lack of local focus and a lack of local knowledge by newspaper staffs.
Surveys show the public believes newspapers are doing well financially, but 2,100 newspapers have died since 2004, and 25% of newsroom jobs are gone.
Ms Riley advocates what she describes as the Free Press Initiative – subscribe, donate, share stories, and read newspapers’ coverage.
There were a number of informed questions from Rotarians, many involving the editorial content of the Seattle Times. Ms Riley stated that they have difficulty getting ‘conservative’ opinion pieces in the paper with the writers’ names attached. People do not want their names attached to opinions outside the prevailing social and political point of view.
We adjourned at 7:35 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
Respectfully Submitted
David Aubry - Acting Scribe