PORT ANGELES — A panel discussion on local journalism and its role in providing communities with information on issues that impact their lives will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Donna M. Morris Theater at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St. in Port Angeles.
Community Conversation: The Importance of Local Journalism will honor the legacy of the late John Brewer, editor and publisher of the Peninsula Daily News from 1998 to 2015.
“Journalism plays an important part in the democratic process,” said Eran Kennedy, publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum who will be one of five members on the panel. “Our team is willing to cover, uncover, verify and amplify what is happening in our community.”
Also participating on the panel will be Briar Dudley, editor of The Seattle Times Save the Free Press public service initiative. Dudley’s newspaper career began at the Sequim Gazette. Other panelists are Radio Pacific owner Brown Maloney, Peninsula Daily News reporter Emma Maple and Peninsula College instructor Rich Riski, a former newspaper reporter and photographer.
Retired journalist and university professor George Erb will moderate the one-hour discussion, which will be followed by an opportunity for the audience to engage with panel members.
Kennedy said she plans to touch on the many challenges facing journalism and some of the strategies that have been proposed to support it, such Senate Bill 5400, which would impose a tax on major tech companies to help fund local news in Washington state.
“The media landscape is fragmented — we are in a much different place than before COVID,” she said.
Tuesday’s panel began to come together a few months after Brewer died while on a fishing trip in Montana on April 19, 2024, Kennedy said.
She credited Steven Raider-Ginsburg, executive director of Field Arts & Events Hall, and event sponsor First Fed with creating an event to recognize Brewer’s career and dedication to local journalism.
The free event is sponsored by First Fed and the Port Angeles Kiwanis Noon Club.
It will be livestreamed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/live/tvzEMi3vdTc.
