On May 1, 2025, the Press Club of Southwest Florida held its monthly luncheon at the new AC Marriott Hotel in downtown Naples. In observation of World Press Freedom Day, the event featured a panel composed of WINK News Anchor Chris Cifatte, News-Press Executive Editor Cindy McCurry-Ross, and Senior Editor David Dorsey of Gulfshore Business Magazine.
The focus of this august panel centered on today’s pressing challenges to journalism, ranging from attacks by national politicians on the First Amendment to persistent difficulties in obtaining information on local issues and to the nature of the news business itself and how the public gets the news. Press Club President Tom Doerr moderated the event and provided structure by inviting questions from attending club members.
The discussions were led in large part by the background of enormous change that journalism faces today. The most basic mechanics of how the public receives news are in the midst of profound change. Printed newspapers have been forced to yield market space to radio, television, and most importantly the internet. Predictable widespread habits like the morning paper over coffee, or the family watching the evening news on television have been greatly fragmented. Today, individuals have their own ways of getting the news quite independently and on their own timetables. This is possible through the internet and available on a variety of platforms like cell phones, laptop computers, or even newspapers. Like any business, the news industry must figure out the best way to navigate these complicated waters, produce the product, deliver the product, and pay for it all.
These changes are still underway and far from settled. This was highlighted by a question from a member who asked why it took three days for a major occurrence in Naples (Cars on Fifth) to be covered in the local newspaper. Cindy McCurry-Ross explained that the event was covered in detail with photos on the newspaper’s website within three hours that same day.
Other questions concerned major changes in how news is gathered. Journalists pose questions about important issues of the day to public officials charged with governing those issues. That arena has been changing dramatically in recent years as officials rely increasingly on public information officers to answer those questions rather than face them themselves.
Chris Cifatte spoke in depth about how gathering the truth has become significantly more difficult. Journalists are forced to develop new, reliable sources as even those public information officers show growing reticence to be forthcoming with the most basic facts on any issue.
The panel performed well, answering a wide variety of difficult and thought-provoking questions. All three offered well-considered replies without resorting to the evasive answers so often found with public officials. While no one was able to suggest real solutions to most of the pressing problems facing the industry, the panel did much to examine those problems from refreshingly different angles and explore wider perspectives worth more study.
Before launching the panel discussion, Tom Doerr introduced two FGCU students who have been recipients of Press Club scholarships, Emma Rodriguez and Layza Pinero Resto. They are both graduates of FGCU this year and are pursuing careers in journalism. Emma will continue her ongoing work at WGCU and Layza will become an intern at the News-Press in Fort Myers. They both expressed their gratitude and appreciation for the help they have received from the Press Club.
Renny Severance is retired executive editor of The Island Reporter, The Islander, The Captiva Current and related publications on Sanibel and Captiva. He is also a co-founder of Southwest Florida Business Today.