News media outlets all over America are facing some serious challenges. Come hear from local/regional industry professionals about what’s going on in Southern Oregon and beyond.

Bert Etling, Ashland.news Executive Editor, previously was Editor in Chief of The Applegater newsmagazine and edited the Ashland Daily Tidings from 2014 to 2019, leading a local news revival for the cherished community paper. Before that, he edited The Cambrian, a weekly newspaper published by the San Luis Obispo Tribune, part of the McClatchy Corp. During his 13 years as managing editor for The Cambrian, the paper won numerous awards, including General Excellence, the top prize in the prestigious California Newspaper Publishers Association Better Newspapers contest. Etling began his community journalism career in 1982 at the Santa Ynez Valley News in Solvang, Calif. He has a degree in philosophy from Stanford University.

Bob Wise has been Vice President and General Manager of KOBI-TV NBC5 for 20+ years. In that time he has produced four U.S. Senate debates and five Gubernatorial debates in NBC5 studios. The station has won three National Association of Broadcasters Service to America Awards for the following programs: the Southern Oregon Meth Project, Youth Education Success (YES) and the suicide prevention mental health awareness campaign, In This Together. Wise has received the Oregon Broadcaster of the Year Award twice.

The monthly Big Ideas discussion series features prominent local experts speaking on relevant and timely issues affecting our community. Lectures are jointly sponsored by the Ashland Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and Jackson County Library Services.