It is our true privilege to welcome today's speaker, Maribel Perez Wadsworth, president and CEO, John S and John L Knight Foundation.

And moderating today's conversation with Maribel is David Giffords, who is an author and professor and coordinator of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Akron.

Our speaker has agreed to take questions from the audience following today's conversation.

And John Garofalo, vice president, Community Investment, Akron Community Foundation and a member of the Akron Roundtable Board, will moderate the Q&A.

To submit a question, please refer to the brochures at your table or scan the QR code that will be projected on the screens.

Feel free to submit your questions at any time during today's presentation.

Our ask for technology is made possible by a gift from the Akron Chamber.

If you would like to submit a question but are without access to a mobile device, there are no cards on your table.

Feel free to jot your question on that.

And a member of our staff will come by and collect those questions from you.

You can read more about this month's speakers, Future Akron roundtable events, and individuals and organizations who support our mission by referring to the brochures at your table.

Today's signature event is the first of our four part series.

Celebrate Akron in recognition of Akron's bicentennial.

The Billy's Funeral Home and Crematory and Huntington Bank are the Celebrate Akron co-sponsors.

I would now like to invite Kyle Cuda, chief Akron program director for the John S and James L Knight Foundation, to introduce today's speaker, the Knight Foundation is also today's program sponsor.

Thank you for.

Well.

Good afternoon.

It is great to be with you here at Akron Roundtable, a place that brings people together to share ideas, ask questions, and talk about what's next for our community.

As some of you may know, John S Knight personally helped establish the Akron Roundtable in 1976.

Thank you to the roundtable team and board for continuing this essential forum.

This year marks 75 years since Knight Foundation was founded here in Akron.

While our work today reaches across the country, this city has always been at the heart of our mission.

As Mr. Knight said, I don't care who runs Akron just so somebody runs it.

It is too important to be left alone.

It is my honor to introduce today's speaker.

Maribel Perez Wadsworth, Knight Foundation's President and CEO.

Like our founders, Maribel is deeply rooted in journalism.

She spent nearly 30 years in the field and served as president of Gannett Media and publisher of USA today, where she led one of the largest news networks in the country.

Over the past year, she's visited Knight Cities, listening and learning from people working every day to build stronger, more connected communities.

And today, she's back with us in Akron, and she'll be sharing some of what she's seen and what it means for for our city and cities like ours.

And it's fitting that she's going to be interviewed by a former journalist from the Akron Beacon Journal and professor at the University of Akron.

Please join me in welcoming Maribel Perez Wadsworth.

Thank you, Kyle, for that introduction.

Good afternoon everyone.

It is absolutely wonderful to be back in Akron.

Truly the original Knight City.

This is where Charles Knight bought the Akron Beacon Journal in 1903.

And it's where his sons, Jack and Jim built what was really, one of the largest and truly great newspaper companies in America.

And yes, as Kyle said, it's also where 75 years ago this December, the Knight Foundation came to be.

So from the very beginning, Akron, its triumphs, its opportunities, its its fortunes and words are deeply central to Knights own story.

And we're so proud to support you who are making this city such a vibrant and forward thinking place.

I want to thank the Akron Roundtable.

Which, of course, Jack Knight helped to begin, 50 years ago.

And for inviting me here to speak and I want to thank, all of you here for joining us today.

I also want to take a moment and acknowledge a few, special guests.

Mayor Thomas Malik and his wife, Alice.

Thank you so much for being here.

We also have our Knight trustee Christine Mayor.

Who is here.

Thank you so much for joining.

And former trustees, Bill Considine and Jim Crutchfield.

I really appreciate, your partnership.

And guidance.

You all know Kyle.

And we could not do our work, but for his deep love and care for this community.

So I'm deeply appreciative to have him as a partner in this work.

Also here, Cynthia Knight, who, of course, needs no introduction in this community.

But thank you so much for carrying on the proud legacy of Lanza and his family.

And thank you so much for the warm welcome you've given me in my first year at Knife Foundation.

And lastly, because, you know, the world's a small place and you never know who you're going to be connected to and how we're going to be, the six degrees of separation.

But my dear friend, who also needs no introduction in northeast Ohio, Bernie Kosar, is here with us today.

Thank you for an introduction.

So I became president of Knight Foundation, at the start of last year.

And it's been a whirlwind.

But this is my second time in Akron, and I'm.

I'm so pleased to be here.

I have spent these first 15, 16 months.

As Kyle noted, visiting our cities, really immersing in these wonderful places that are nice cities and getting to meet all of you, meeting our partners and meeting the people who are reinventing and truly invigorating the towns that they deeply care about.

It's given me great hope.

And help to affirm my natural born optimism in our country's future.

On a national level.

We spent a lot of time talking about division and disconnection.

Our politics can feel super broken.

The problems feel impossible to solve.

But in city after city, I've seen how local leaders, just like all of you in this room today, your neighbors and your friends are coming together to find solutions, to rebuild trust and to strengthen connection.

So I see, so clearly here.

So, over and over again, despite our differences.

Trust remains in our local communities.

We know how to find common cause and make common ground, and we get things done.

In fact, what I've seen in all these difficult times, so much division.

And yet the power to create change is not lost.

It's local.

It's right here in front of us.

I traveled, in all of these visits.

I went to Macon, Georgia, and I saw how Newtown Macon has pioneered new approaches to revitalizing their historic downtown.

And they're transforming not just buildings, but the community's sense of possibility in Philadelphia.

I learned about a program called Every Voice, Every Vote, that brought together a coalition of 130 media outlets, community nonprofits, civic minded, social media creators, and they helped to produce unprecedented election coverage that truly helped local citizens make informed choices for themselves and their city's future in Detroit.

I got to visit the Detroit People's Food Co-op, a new community owned supermarket that has completely transformed healthy food options for local residents in what had been a food desert.

In these communities, people are working together and they're getting things done.

And that's what I see here in Akron, too.

Thanks to the ambition and hard work and commitment of so many community leaders.

Our downtown here is becoming a neighborhood again.

I just got to visit Lock Three Park.

I had been there last March.

I had to wear a hard hat.

It was mostly a mud pit at the time.

And so to see, in just a few months, fast forward.

It's true transformation and an anchor point in this community is so special.

Even just this morning, seeing families down at the park, enjoying this incredible public space.

It just shows what's possible when when we work together.

At the Akron Civic Center.

It's a civic theater just next door.

Under the visionary leadership of Howard Park.

And I think I saw you, Howard.

It was.

It's refurbished the 1929 home and expanded into the adjacent white law building that had been vacant for decades.

And now has new life as a new performance space.

And, of course, the University of Akron's Polsky Building, where President Nemer and I see you president emeritus, and his team are soon working to overhaul this iconic building and reorient to make it so much more accessib and its local leaders with vision and dedication that are driving positive change not just in downtown, but throughout Summit County.

At the Akron Art Museum, under the leadership of John Me, they're exploring new technology and how it can enhance the presentation and experience.

An exhibition of modern and contemporary art.

The same visionaries behind, the reinvention of luxury, also broke ground on the new Summit Lake Park.

And I got to see the heavy machines on the ground there yesterday.

Really exciting.

I'm sure by the time I come, next time, I will, be able to enjoy that.

One thing that struck me when I visited last time was getting to meet with local residents who are truly co-creating this experience, this new park, for their community.

And that's really what it's all about, is that is that focus on co-creation and of course, that Cole, and his team at the Well Community Development Corporation continue to revitalize the Middlebury community by restoring housing and supporting residents and advancing entrepreneurship through the Akron Food Works.

And I'm really excited to see what more he and the team will do there.

These are just a few examples of the amazing things happening just here in Akron, of people here on the ground who love this place, who are working together to make their community better and nice.

Deep belief in this city and the people, is reflected in the more than $110 million that Knight has invested in Akron over the last decade.

Public spaces, arts and culture, and neighborhood revitalization.

These are all key priorities for Knight Foundation.

They're building blocks of thriving communities.

So, of course, is local journalism, where I spent most of my career.

Signal Akron is a new nonprofit news source that launched here at the end of 2023.

And as you know, it is both locally focused and community oriented, and its staff represents the audience it serves.

It's yet another example of people coming together and making a difference.

We were a founding supporter of signal, which represents a, real core belief, and one that traces back to Jack and Jim Knight, that a thriving community requires a healthy and vibrant local information ecosystem.

Just over a year ago, the Knight Foundation partnered with MacArthur Foundation and hundreds of other funders across the country to launch press Forward, a half billion dollar initiative to build sustainable models for local news.

And it's an it's an effort that's very much informed by the values that Jack and Jim Knight brought to their newspapers.

That reliable local news is crucial to successful local government, that reliable local news, and that every community is unique and deserves its own unique coverage and can best identify local solutions to local problems.

It's an idea that I that ideas really, truly bloom locally, and that is where we find our best solutions that can hopefully, ultimately scale nationally and we'll press forward is national in scope.

It's designed to bring local funders to the table also because ultimately it's people deeply invested in their communities well-being that understand that reliable, trusted, local journalism is vital to strong communities.

And so Signal Akron is supported by Knight and also by a coalition of local funders, including the Akron Community Foundation and Gar Foundation, Goodyear, the Greater Akron Chamber, Huntington Bank, United Way of Summit and Medina, the University of Akron Foundation, and the Welty Building and Construction.

They have found common cause and are working together to get things done for their community.

It is that kind of commitment and collaboration that's so wonderful about Akron and its people.

It's this is a no nonsense, hard working, shoulder to their grindstone place.

And every one of us gathered here today knows this city gets things done and doesn't take no for an answer.

What I've seen is that there are so many leaders in so many places across the country that, just like you, stand ready to tackle today's challenges.

People who care about their neighbors, people with audacious ideas and passion and grit who are ensuring that their communities not only survive, but also thrive.

People who know the power rests with them that are coming together just as you are.

These engaged, committed citizens are the key to making our communities and ultimately our country stronger, and their work.

Your work.

Our work together reminds us of something essential that democracy isn't just a system of government.

It is the daily practice of civic life.

It happens when neighbors meet for a concert or a coffee in a new public park.

It happens when residents are inspired by seeing a performance or visiting a museum.

It happens when citizens speak up at a city council meeting or when leaders gather together on community issues.

Through organizations like the Akron Roundtable.

In all of these places, this is where democracy happens.

Jack and Jim Knight believe their newspapers had a crucial role to play in their communities, and each of their papers was proudly a product of its place, and they were firmly committed to the role of the press and in democratic self-government, ensuring that citizens have information they need to pursue their own true interests.

For 75 years, the Knight Foundation has lived up to those ideals by elevating our communities and enhancing our democracy.

We've adapted to changing times, but our guiding vision remains constant.

Today in Akron and in all Knight cities, we're helping to elevate and invest in breakthroughs that sparked larger movements across the nation.

We're helping to supercharge the knowledge and capability of visionary leaders, and we know that communities are strongest when we value and empower everyone to take part.

Looking out at this group today, I'm reminded that our local connections matter now more than ever.

We Americans still trust our neighbors.

We still believe in our libraries.

We still care about our local downtowns, and we still work together to keep our communities strong.

We Americans still believe in getting together in our communities and talking things out and solving our problems exactly as you do here.

As the leader of the foundation that carries their legacy.

It's a thrill for me to be here in Jack and Jim Knight's hometown, and I'm confident that they would be every bit as thrilled to see how vibrant and bustling downtown Akron is today.

We're proud to be part of Akron, and that Akron is part of us.

We're proud to be community partners in making downtown a neighborhood again, and we're driven by the energy of the people.

All across America, like you, who are using their power, the people's power every day, to make their communities and our democracy stronger.

It's Akron is better because of what you do.

And so is our country.

Thank you so much.

Welcome back to Akron.

Maribel.

Thank you.

I'm glad to be here.

As the home of LeBron James, we're always pleased when somebody comes from Miami to Akron.

So it's great to have you back here and glad that you got to see Lock Three on a beautiful day and enjoy.

What we know is already a great city.

So I want to start.

You already invoked the Akron Beacon Journal as ground zero for the Knight Foundation.

And yet the Akron Beacon Journal is a much different institution in a 21st century media landscape.

And so I wonder if you can reflect on the role of legacy newspapers at large and specifically the Beacon Journal in in the power to create change.

Yeah.

I mean, it's still a crucial, centering community asset is how it's how I think about it.

It's going to maybe to get this closer.

You know, the Beacon Journal has been around a long, long time.

And and it is a place that, is still today provides important, reliable, trusted content.

The media landscape has changed significantly.

I think it's actually wonderful that there are so many media outlets in Akron.

Whether it's signal we were just talking about or, or television or public media, etc., it is it is so important.

If if one news source is vital, many news sources is actually a wonderful thing because it helps to give a community a fuller picture of itself.

I think especially because of all of the disruption that's, happening in the business model for especially local newspapers.

The idea that they can still today be the place that covers all the things, is, is not really right.

So collaboration across the and other news sources that can fill in some of those gaps is crucial to the community.

So with that said, the Knight Foundation also funds signal at grant.

How do they fit together?

Where should they?

What are their lanes?

Yeah.

To your.

View.

Well, obviously it's up to them to to decide their lanes.

My my sincere hope is one of the things I met with the signal team when I was here, in March of last year.

And I was, you know, really delighted at the way they were thinking about their particular role.

And the spaces to fill.

And one of the conversations we had, for example, was we have a vibrant arts and culture scene, here and, and the Beacon Journal had you know, not been able to do as much of that coverage, of late.

And so signal saw a gap and an opportunity in the market to, to really, meet those information needs.

It's important not just to have arts and culture, but to be connected and to and to hear about what's coming and and what, you know, what what new offerings exist and to be connected in that way and to see that reflected in your, in your local news, I think is, is really important.

So I loved seeing them see an opportunity and an information gap and something that was important to the community and then to see the audience respond to that.

Yeah, I think that's wonderful.

Yeah.

Just occurred.

We both come from print journalism background.

Do you get home delivery of your local newspaper?

I do not get home delivery of my local newspaper anymore.

I am subscribed to.

I have lost count how many, news sources?

Digitally.

And and I'll tell you, I, I don't get, a local newspaper delivered anymore.

Not because I don't actually still enjoy, that experience, but because I travel so much.

It actually doesn't make sense.

And so I have it at my fingertips all the time.

Yeah.

I was going to.

Do you start your morning with the news.

Oh, absolutely.

Actually, I, I start usually my like mid overnight with the news, which I think is probably a habit for a lot of people.

And you wake up at two in the morning, you know, have to go straight for the news.

I know the mayor's nodding.

He's like, I'm sure.

Some former colleagues are here.

I get home delivery and it's always on time.

Great.

Great product.

Show of hands.

No, no, don't do that.

Don't do that.

Probably not a good.

I don't do that.

You recently wrote an op ed about the, the talk of defunding, public media, NPR and PBS.

And I wonder if you could reflect, not only on what the danger would be if that were to occur, but also what role philanthropy should play in funding those news sources.

I did, publish an op ed just a few weeks ago when, the executive order, was first came out, seeking to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.

And and look, it's important to be informed by, by facts and context.

At the end of the day, those dollars, while not small dollars, are de minimis in the big scheme of things.

It amounts to about $1.60 per American per year.

That's what our taxpayer dollars are.

The sum total of the taxpayer dollars funding public media.

The return on that investment is tremendous for every for for every dollar of public funding.

Public television and radio stations can then turn that into eight more dollars in private and philanthropic funding.

It's a tremendous return on investment.

But setting aside the hard dollars return on investment, when you look across, the country, in many communities, not Akron, but in many, many communities, the only available source of news and information about that community is a public radio station or television station.

And if that doesn't seem important on your typical day, then think about it.

In the midst of a weather emergency, a natural disaster.

It is also the emergency broadcast system for the nation.

It is absolutely a life and death matter to have access to this information source.

And so that is why I think it's so crucially important.

Not only do we need day to day to have access to information that's happening about things happening in our community, what our government's doing, etc.

but it's also in many, many places, the only place to get basic information in emergency situations.

I was talking with Mike McIntyre from Ideastream before the program began, and he was talking about the the concepts, the very important concept that it's more important to raise trust than to raise money.

And although money is important to PBS and NPR.

So, but in your op ed, you, you, you reflected on some statistics and polling about the level of trust in public media.

And if you could talk about the numbers and also why that trust is important, again, in a landscape that includes so much social media and distrust of of media in general.

You know, it's true.

There's no question.

I mean, trust and trust in every institution has eroded, in the last many years.

And it's no different in media, certainly.

But again, it goes back to my earlier point.

We keep talking about everything with these broad strokes and in a very nationalized sort of way.

And when you get down to the local level, I mean, and it happens across anything, you know, people have all kinds of things to say about mistrust of education.

And, and, you know, whether it's higher ed or, you know, the local, you know, the, you know, school boards or what have you.

Because what people still love their kids, teacher.

Right.

And people still love their local newspaper and trust it.

And the statistics bear that out when we ignite funds and a lot of research in this space and trust in media, in the case of public media, for example, by a 2 to 1 margin, people trust it versus distrust it.

That's significant.

Right?

That's not what you hear, right?

When you're talking in these broad strokes.

And people are just saying you can't trust the media.

But when you ask people what they tell you is they trust it much more than they just trust it.

That's important, by the way, that same the same is true when you're talking about national media versus local media.

People trust their local news sources so much more than they trust the national media.

And so I like to bank where momentum is.

I like to spend, you know, invest where the strength already is.

And so I think all of us would do well to like, break out of this very nationalized conversation and focus on what's right in front of us, which is we actually still trust our institutions locally.

We have 400 people here who probably generally like each and trust each other, and are willing to work together.

So can we break out of that?

You know, what is noisy and is creating a distorted sense of reality?

Yeah, yeah.

As you as you've gained sort of a deeper understanding of the Knight Cities.

I think one of the dynamics of Akron is that it's of a size that one person, one institution can make a difference.

And, I mean, I think everybody here will agree that there's half a degree of separation between everybody in Akron.

Probably everyone ran into somebody they know today.

How does that, size of a city like when you think of Akron, its size, what are its opportunities in terms of one person or one startup institution or one legacy institution to make a difference that's maybe different from, you know, the larger metropolis?

You know, I don't know if this is the hard wired optimist in me or what, but I actually think one person can make a difference everywhere, no matter the size.

City.

And I see this, right?

I mean, I've been in I've been in Detroit a couple of times in the last year and you know, I'll, I'll, you know, walk the Joe Louis Greenway with, you know, the director and she's put that on her back and she's going to go do it.

We, you know, you see, you see that here.

But I think one person, it takes one person to take the first step.

And then hopefully to take the hand of the next person.

Right.

And then ultimately, you're building a coalition.

And as you hear me talk about some of the things that I examples that I was citing earlier, it was the one person who had the idea, the spark, you know, the audacity to think that something was possible.

And then it took maybe 2 or 3 others to say, oh, well, I'll go in on that with you or I'll support that, and then maybe, you know, some funding and what have you.

In the next thing you know, you have a miracle.

But it just took the one person to take the first step.

And I think that's true no matter what kind of city you have.

Yeah.

And in more recent years, it seems like Knight has been committed to finding that one person and giving them a little bit of money, then giving a great big pile of money to one, you know, again, one institution or one, recognizable entity.

How does that grassroots dynamic factor into your thinking is?

I think it's I think it's both.

I love those stories.

I've been studying a lot of, of those efforts, you know, the you know, we gave the seed grant.

That was the idea that surfaced an an interesting, smart person and like, okay, we'll make that $25,000 bet or $50,000 bet.

And the next thing you know, that spark actually did something.

And now we're back with, you know, $250,000 investment, and we're helping us scale.

So I love to see that progression, to the point that, yeah, we do actually do the really big grants too.

Right?

And and usually it's over time.

But I love that sense of Knight as sort of the, you know, igniter or the or, you know, or the catalyst, if you will, you know, a little bit of, of seed funding.

But we also make big bets on big institutions too.

Right?

You know, a lot of our university partners and obviously University of Akron, we've made, you know, significant, significant investments.

And they're not I just said bets.

And I think that's common language, but I don't see them as bad because, again, we're not the ones doing any of these things.

Right.

What we're doing is recognizing the incredible ideas and innovations and, you know, and, you know, passion and commitment that everybody else has and just putting hopefully a little bit of wind in the sails of that.

Well, to that end, and on the other side of that formula, one of the biggest donations Knight has or pledges that Knight has made in Akron is that the 2022, $20 million, investment in the post building.

That pledge has changed and the project has changed.

So I wonder if you could talk about how it's changed, where it is now and how you see that project is important to.

I think it's always important that we remain really flexible.

Right, in our support of our partners.

And, you know, when when President Niemeyer took on the role, at U of A, he rightly, as I did when I came into my role, you know, took a step back to study, you know, all of the different initiatives that were on deck.

And, you know, he called me and said, you know, I'm studying this, and I actually think that we can accomplish all that we hope to, but we can probably do it in some ways that might, you know, create more efficiencies that might make more sense for the university.

Well, I'm all ears on those conversations because that's smart.

That's right.

That's what it should be.

And so and so he's, worked to, reshape the projects.

And, and the projects have come down, but proportionately, we're still in and very deeply committed for, you know, a little more than half of, of that of that project.

And, and excited for that because seeing that building, you know, really be a connector into the downtown and to have, university of Akron students, but also faculty and staff and have access to Main Street, I think that's really powerful for downtown.

And and I'm thrilled that that president, continues to see that as important to the university.

And we're thrilled to partner with him on that.

And what is the adjusted dollar amount of the pledge?

Are you you're right here, President Nemer.

Good.

You're good, you're good.

Okay.

Right.

15.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's 15.5 million.

Is is what it is.

And basically still a little more than half of the total project costs.

So this is your second visit to Akron.

I'm wondering, first of all, just sort of as a visitor, what has jumped out to you that looks like excitement or that looks special?

And and then from your role as the head of the foundation, what opportunities do you see that maybe we aren't recognizing?

That's a great question.

I look, there's a lot of, at play.

I mean, I rattled through a lot of these.

I'm truly, genuinely excited to get, back and see, the progress on, Summit Lake Park.

You know, one of the things that I personally deeply enjoyed doing as I make my way through cities is, you know, it's all well and good, to spend time with, you know, everybody who's in sort of a leadership position.

But it's especially important to me to spend time actually in community.

So to be, at the park and to be listening to, what the people of that community thought was important to them in terms of what that park would actually be and offer.

And then to see the people leading that effort.

Listen and, and move forward with plans that actually will meet that, that hope and ambition, that's special.

That's where the magic really happens in community.

And so that was really, important.

And every single one of our cities where I see that happening, I want us to be running alongside those efforts.

And so, so I'm excited to see, what comes of that.

I'm excited to come actually enjoy, the, you know, the events at Lock Three Park and, you know, when I, when I come into our cities, I don't want to just be in a, you know, meeting room or what have you.

I it's important to me to actually be part of the community.

Well, we'll have a good LED Zeppelin cover band for you.

Also, make sure of that.

Great.

I saw a quote where you described the Knight Foundation as moving at the speed of news, and I wonder if you could define what you think of as the speed of news, and maybe give an example of how that operates.

Sure.

I'll tell you, I'm not from philanthropy, right?

This was all new to me.

It's a very different animal than working, in a, you know, daily media environment.

And, and so, coming into this work, I would tell you very sincerely that my first, sort of description was slow.

Everything slow everything is a process.

And, you know, I see a lot of heads nodding.

Yeah, I see you on the other side of the situation.

And, and I thought, surely we can work more quickly.

You know, there are a lot of things to solve in this world, and they do not need us dragging our feet.

And so how can we turn ourselves to be more attentive, you know, and responsive and, and agile, frankly, to, to meet the moment.

And, and, you know, I think it just is born out of a place.

You know, people joke.

There's no sort of natural predators, you know, to philanthropy.

And so you get a little sluggish.

And I just don't think we should be that way.

I think we we absolutely need to be, you know, sitting up straight and figuring out how to be helpful.

We had, just in this last year, a number of situations that arose.

You know, one I'll mention is in the state of Florida, the governor, some unexpectedly, vetoed, zeroed out all arts funding from the state.

As as he was signing the budget bill, he uses line item veto when he zeroed out arts funding.

Well, I don't need to tell any of you whether you're in the arts field or just running a business when you have an expectation that your revenues are going to be a certain amount, and all of a sudden, you see, you know, 20, 30% shortfall, that's not easy to recover from.

And so if we'd done things the way, you know, tour of typical course, in, in following our processes, we might have created an initiative and that initiative would have been a few million dollars and not initiative would have had to get us to our next board meeting, which was three months away.

And you can imagine that a lot of bad things are going to happen in that process, in that timeline.

So instead we said, well, what's the easiest way and the quickest way that we can identify who is most hurt by this veto, how much money that is?

How much of it is sitting in night cities in Florida?

And we wrote 96 grants in two weeks and got the money out the door.

And that and it's possible.

It's possible.

So that's that's the practical response.

Philosophically, what would you say to a political leader who says we don't need to be paying money for, you know, art, you know, that that that's you know, what's what's important about the arts that requires.

I have a practical conversation.

The arts are an economic driver.

They build community and they connect us, and they do all those things that I think we can generally agree are true about art.

It's an economic driver.

I've seen stats recently, just here in Summit County and in the greater Akron area.

The arts contribute $3 billion to the economy.

You don't want to hurt that.

In fact, you should be thinking about ways to put more wind in the sails of arts and culture.

Because it is a true economic driver.

I love a good return on investment.

That's wonderful.

You know, whatever small amount we're contributing to, to the arts, it's coming back multi-fold into creating jobs into it.

And not just in the arts, but all of the tangential businesses, right, that benefit from having thriving arts and culture in a place.

So if you don't want to have the the sort of softer fields conversation about how good it is to have, you know, culture and connection and all those things, fine.

Don't have it that way.

Talk about the dollars and cents.

It makes good sense.

There's great return on investment.

So just have a conversation about dollars.

And then the the the answer to me is obvious that thank you.

So I'll ask one more question.

And then I know we want to leave time for, questions from the audience.

There's a quote I keep on the wall of my office at the university that, writers of fiction and nonfiction should be writing about cities as characters.

And it's, the the author, Tom Wolfe, he says, because cities are, quote, feverish with moral tone.

And and I'm always thinking about, like, what's the moral tone of the city that I've written so much about, which is Akron?

But which if I put that concept to you, what do you see as the moral tone of the night cities that you have come to understand?

Like, if you could put a characterization to what the moral tone of the modern American city is.

You know, I guess I'll rely on, you know, what it, what it really feels like is the, the through line across all of our cities, you know, the, the words I use today about Akron, I really believe and I've come to see it in all of you.

You know, there's, there's a real, there's a real grit.

There's a real no nonsense.

But I'm seeing, over and over again whether I'm in Macon, whether I'm in Detroit or Philadelphia or Charlotte.

I was just in Long Beach, of all places.

And there is a we're just going to get things done.

We love this place.

We care about this place.

We care about each other.

And we don't only care about our own little tribe in this place.

We care about the broader community.

And we are going to figure things out and get things done.

And to me, that's what's going to get us over all of the rest of this nonsense we contend with on a broader national scale is just all of us locked arms in local communities saying, we've had it with that, we've got work to do, let's get about it.

Well said.

David, thank you so much for for moderating.

And mayor Bill, thank you so much for your insightful comments.

And on behalf of our entire community, I think I can speak on behalf of the community.

Thank you to you, to Kyle, to current trustees Christine and Ramona, as well as former trustees, Bill and Jim, for your investments in this community.

It's truly appreciate it.

So I have a long list of questions, way too many to ask, in this time frame that we have.

But you spent over two decades at Gwinnett and led USA today in the USA Today Network through major transitions.

What were the biggest lessons you learned while navigating digital transformation and legacy media?

Even when you love a thing, it's really hard, to, to make it work.

And, you know, no surprise, legacy media space has required a lot of hard decisions about, how to how to consolidate, how to drive digital transformation.

At the end of the day, at the heart of it, it all comes back to local.

Are you are you truly, being authentic to a place to go back to the Jack and Jim Knight?

Belief, about their own newspapers?

Are you being authentic?

Are you truly putting the resources in a local community driven by local people to, to, to, help be part of the solution and the sense of place and the sense of connection in a community.

And so what I, what I have learned and what I believe and what I'm now trying to bring tonight, Foundation, is a sense of getting back to those local roots and back to that local sense of ownership in, your local news sources as truly central to communities well-being.

That's great.

Thank you.

We always have students from the area here at the roundtable on a regular basis.

As a Latina in in media leadership, what challenges did you face on your path and what advice would you give a young journalist or someone from an unrepresented background?

Boy, we don't have enough time for that story.

But I would say first, I can't tell you how much it thrills me to know that there are students, in the room and those who are considering, a career, in in journalism, in the media.

I can tell you, a it is, one of the most rewarding things to see the tangible effect, the tangible positive difference that your work can make.

In your communities.

The number one thing I would say to people, and I say this all the time now when I meet with college students is, you know, when I was in your shoes, I thought my aspiration was to go work at the New York Times or what have you.

And, you know, please, please, please use your, good skills and your passion and get back to your hometowns and work in journalism in your hometown.

I don't think there's any greater contribution that you can make if journalism is your calling, than to go back into the place that you deeply know and deeply care about and do that good work.

There.

Great.

I think thank you.

Someone in the audience had an interesting question as they watched stations like MSNBC and Fox News.

They deliver the same news, but the delivery is completely opposite.

Why is that?

To eat, drink at the round table.

We might.

We might need to.

Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

So much to say about that.

Like so much of what sadly, we see, particularly in the cable news environment.

Isn't journalism.

I know that's shocking, right?

But it's it's it's not it's not journalism.

It's entertainment.

It's pundits filling screen time.

And, you know, the advent of the 24 seven news channel, you got to fill the time.

Most of those people, are not journalists and may all look the same.

Right?

You've got an anchor desk and you've got people, you know, talking about news topics, but they're not necessarily doing that in a strictly dispassionate, objective fact based way.

And, and look, the idea that you have on some of those sites, you know, you say, well, we're super inclusive, we're going to bring the people on the left and the people on the right, and now they're all going to shout at each other.

In these conversations, it doesn't matter whether it's Fox or MSNBC or any place in between.

That's not helpful.

That's not helpful to anything.

I'm not sure we walk away more informed.

We probably walk away a little angry, right?

We probably walk away feeling frustrated.

Maybe we feel confused because we turn on the one channel.

My husband, my husband always goes to all the channels because he wants to understand how people are talking about things, right?

Most people don't do that right.

You get trained on the one, you watch Fox, you watch MSNBC, and that's what you do.

And I say, please, just maybe step away from all of that, and, and spend more time with, you know, actual journalism, and, and actual journalism, even newspapers have since the beginning of their history, they've had, opinion sections clearly labeled as such.

They are opinion journalism.

And there's an important role in that.

But your news coverage needs to be the truth wherever it shall lead you.

Let's follow the facts.

Let's make sure the sourcing is solid.

Let's be transparent about how we do our work.

Let's let's explain the steps we took to get at the information and who we spoke to.

Let's correct our errors.

When we make them, it's inevitable that we make them, but let's correct them.

And I think that when you see that in your news sources, by the way, even when they do make mistakes, that's a good thing.

That's a good thing.

Those are high ethical standards.

So be discerning and demand more for yourself and maybe turn off the cable news.

Smart, smart advice.

Mayor, about you mentioned the cuts in public media, but we've also heard about the cuts from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as others.

What can we and Knight do to strengthen the arts and humanities across our community and throughout the country?

Yeah.

Look, we're we're certainly not going anywhere.

We're going to continue to focus on these things that we think are so important to community building and, and to strong communities and, and certainly the arts.

And it breaks my heart to see, the federal government stepping away from what I think are, in the big scheme of things, not necessarily major investments in terms of the federal budget, but incredibly meaningful to the, small institutions, that they support.

And as I said, provide great return on that investment back to communities.

And, and so we're going to continue to, to do all that we can.

But I know everyone in this room is smart enough to understand that there is no way that all of philanthropy, together with all pooled resources, can possibly fill the gap that's created when the federal government walks away.

And so so that's something we all have to be, you know, really clear eyed about.

But but we're certainly not going anywhere.

So how can local media take greater responsibility for shifting from deficit based narratives to one that uplift the people and organizations, enriching our communities?

Yeah.

Look, I think that's an excellent question.

And one of the things is a source of, some of the challenge, I think from a trust perspective, as, as news organizations, local level, local newspapers, others, have experienced such dramatic business model, challenge, resource constraints.

A natural, byproduct of that is that they have fewer resources and have to pick and choose what they're focused on.

And, you know, I've been in this business a long time.

You ask 100 journalists where they add the most unique value and what they can do that others can do.

And probably 100 will say watchdog journalism, accountability journalism.

And by the way, that is super important.

That is part of the role.

There's a reason that, you know, freedom of the press is enshrined in the Constitution, but that's not your whole community, right?

The local news is in some ways a center of gravity.

It's how we see our whole community reflected when we're doing it right, which means you're also covering the things we should be celebrating and the amazing people doing important things.

Interesting things.

It is about arts and culture.

It is about high school sports.

It's about all of the things that make a full community, a full community.

And if the only thing you're prioritizing is, you know, watchdog coverage is important, you should do that.

But the community is going to see that the only thing you seem to care about is all the stuff that's not working.

And that doesn't feel authentic because we all experience the full community.

Right?

And we know there's good things and we want to feel pride in our community.

And we hope that our local news source is seeing and reflecting the full community.

So I would really challenge, our local newsrooms to step back and to really think about that and to be really attuned with the audience.

And by the way, you're part of this community.

You live in it, you experience it, right?

You go to church, you have kids in school, you're doing all of these things.

Let's make sure that your coverage is reflective of that.

All right.

These last three questions, we'll finish off our Q&A session.

And they're more personal in nature.

Looking back over your career, is there a pivotal moment that shaped your leadership style or perspective?

Yeah.

You know, I guess I guess a lot of different ones.

I, I feel very blessed.

You know, I'm.

And some people know this.

Not everybody.

You know, I'm a daughter of refugees.

I'm a first generation American.

And I sometimes can't really believe the place that I sit now and the things that I get to do and the, work I get.

I'm blessed to do.

And so I've never I've always had very present the fact that throughout my life and throughout my career, there have been people who have either extended their hand to to show me through a door or to help me see what was possible that I didn't see, or frankly, sometimes who showed me what not to do and not to be in terms of how I wanted to show up in the world for others.

And I think it's it's always important to be grateful for both of those things and to make sure that as I, take the next step forward, I'm never forgetting that at least one hand needs to be extended to the next person behind me to help them through the door.

And so that's really informed my life, my hopefully leadership, approach.

And it's it's just always important to remember where you came from.

It's great.

Since we're at the top of the hour, I'll close with one last question and can you share with us a interesting Bernie Kosar story?

Well, you know, I will.

I will say this and, you know, I think you'll be okay with me saying that.

I'll tell you the day I met Bernie was the first day I joined the board of trustees at the University of Miami.

And Bernie was a trustee.

And I saw him across the room, and I was like, wow, that's pretty close.

Are.

And I was like, I wonder if I'm going to have the courage to go up to him and introduce myself.

And they introduce new trustees.

And he was sitting a few tables from me and the first break that we had, I see Bernie walking toward me and I thought, I wonder who's behind me.

And Bernie was coming straight from me, and he was coming to introduce himself to me.

And honestly, I couldn't even believe it.

And then he said, well, now we have to take a picture together.

I had no idea what was going on.

And then he says, let's throw up for you.

And he has his Super Bowl ring on and he says, you wear it.

I thought who is this guy?

But that tells you a lot about what I've gotten to know about my friend Bernie, who's just an incredibly humble person and a really kind and welcoming person.

And I'm just grateful to know him.

Thank you again for being with us today and have a wonderful day.

This has been a production of Akron Roundtable, PBS Western Reserve, the University of Akron, and Ideastream Public Media.