Contact: Erin Silliman
202.736.5818
erin.silliman@aspeninstitute.org
Walter Isaacson to moderate a Panel Discussion with New Yorker Columnist Ken Auletta
and Washington Post Editor Marcus Brauchli
Washington DC (March 8, 2012)—The Aspen Institute, in association with TMG Custom Media, will present a series of dialogues called “The Future of Content 2020” that will address underlying trends and public attitudes towards content in the digital age. The series will be moderated by Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson.
Discussions will cover the current “digital disruption” which has had significant effects on content industries, most notably the publishing and entertainment industry. These changes have raised questions about every aspect of content. For example, as information sources multiply and diversify, questions arise as to the authenticity of each message, the accountability of its author and the transparency of the process. And, as new media emerges, new art forms and genres are likely to follow.
The first dialogue is scheduled for March 29th, 2012, at the Aspen Institute in Washington D.C. Joining Isaacson on the panel will be New Yorker columnist, author and premier media critic Ken Auletta, author of the book Googled, the End of the World as We Know It, and Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli.
“Ken Auletta has long been one of the foremost commentators on the development of media, and Marcus Brauchli is at the center of the storm,” said Isaacson. “Together, their insights should set the stage for a dynamic dialogue on the future of the content industries.”
“The way content is being created, used and filtered is changing so rapidly that it’s important to step back and contemplate what the future of content will be,” said Jane Ottenberg, co-CEO, TMG Custom Media. “We could not think of a better partner to focus on this vital societal issue than the Aspen Institute led by Walter Isaacson whom I consider a content guru. His conversations with notable thought leaders in the field will be noteworthy and, I expect, newsworthy.”
Walter Isaacson is the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. He has been the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine.
He is the author of Steve Jobs (2011), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992), and co-author of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986).
He is chairman of the board of Teach for America, and serves on the boards of United Airlines and Tulane University. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a position he held until 2012. He is vice-chair of Partners for a New Beginning, a public-private group tasked with forging ties between the United States and the Muslim world. After Hurricane Katrina, he was vice-chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority.
Ken Auletta has been writing “Annals of Communications” columns and profiles for The New Yorker since 1993. He is also the author of 11 books, including five national bestsellers. Among the first to popularize the idea of the “information superhighway,” Auletta has profiled leading figures such as Barry Diller, Bill Gates, John Malone and Rupert Murdoch, as well as media giants AOL Time Warner and The New York Times. He won a National Magazine Award for his 2001 profile of CNN founder Ted Turner. The Columbia Journalism Review considers him America’s premier media critic, noting that “no other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta.”
Marcus Brauchli became executive editor of The Washington Post on September 8, 2008. He oversees the Post’s print and digital news operations. Previously, Brauchli had served as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, overseeing the Journal print and online news operations, both in the US and abroad. He is on the board of the International Center for Journalists and is an advisor to the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship program at Columbia. He also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the New York Economic Club.
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About the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
The Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program aims to promote integrated, thoughtful, values-based decision making in the fields of communications, media, and information policy. For more information, please visit http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/communications-society. Follow on Twitter @aspencs.
About TMG Custom Media
TMG creates award-winning magazines, websites, videos, white papers, e-newsletters, blogs and mobile apps for 45 corporations, associations and nonprofits. Its clients include companies such as WebMD, Hilton, Northwestern Mutual, Reed Exhibitions and CDW; associations such as Consumer Electronics Association and the American Council of Engineering Companies; health organizations such as American Diabetes Association, Lupus Foundation of America and Cleveland Clinic; education organizations such as American Association of Community Colleges, Georgetown University and EDUCAUSE; and scholarly institutions such as the Brookings Institution and Aspen Institute. The firm has won more than 700 awards for its print and online products.