Q & A

Looking forward
Alberto Ibarguen wants to memorialize the journalistic accomplishments of the past.
But he’s even more concerned about the future.

Alberto Ibargüen has fascination with the news and an unabashed passion for the First Amendment.
“Issues of free speech have been at the center of my thoughts as long as I can remember,” says Ibargüen, the president of the Miami-based $2.5-billion John S. and James I. Knight Foundation. The long-time news exec is also CEO of the capital’s new $500 million Newseum, an interactive museum of news dedicated to the First Amendment and voices struggling to be heard.
“ ‘Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.’ What a beautiful concept,” he says quoting the Constitution.
Concerning the Newseum, scheduled to open in 2008 in a prime Pennsylvania Avenue location, Ibargüen believes it will become a must-see stop for any visitor to Washington DC.
Of his own impressive career—during which he served as publisher of The Hartford Courant, New York’s Newsday, The Miami Herald and chairman of the board of PBS—he says, “It’s all been a great ride, a fabulous experience.
“I have always been lucky to have a good time and I have never looked back.”
HE: What are the Newseum’s highlights?
AI: I think the name is a catchy gimmick to draw attention. The reason it’s not called the News Museum is the intent is make this about the future. [It provides] the greatest platform for discussion of free speech, free press, freedom of religion, of assembly and the right to address grievances. [It is] a showcase with the greatest collection of history news anywhere in the world. There will also be artifacts like a big chunk of the Berlin Wall and of the tallest tower of the World Trade Center.

HE: How did you become interested in news?
AI: I was editor of the college newspaper at Wesleyan [University] and, though I was born in Puerto Rico, my family moved to New York when I was 8. Growing up in New York gave me a real appreciation for diversity and for a point of view.

HE: Did you consider becoming a reporter?
AI: I did, but I ultimately ended up in the Peace Corps in Latin America for five years, and then went to law school and started out as legal aid lawyer, so I had a lot [of exposure to] free speech issues. I was kind of a loud mouth and ended up on the board of the Hartford Courant Foundation, got to know the news people ... then I became publisher of the paper. That was 35 to 40 years ago.

HE: And The Knight Foundation?
AI: It’s a terrific challenge to figure out how to give away $110 million a year, and do it intelligently. What we do is community and journalism. And in community, we’re looking for social investing, not charity. Things that will cause systematic change. On the journalism side we do a lot of protection of [the media]. There are now 38 people in jail for murder of journalists who would probably be free except for our efforts.
We also started a program of giving away $5 million a year for five years to anybody in the world, individuals, corporations, non-profits, for ideas that will use a digital platform to deliver news and information to a geographic community.
We recently committed to $12 million because we liked the idea so much, and are starting on our second round. We’re advertising in eight languages beside English, including Russian, Chinese, Korean, and so far have had 1,600 applications.

HE: All this must be on the web?
AI: Yes. We have to go where the kids are. And I’m attracted to cell phone technology, because that’s how kids communicate. They text; they don’t e-mail.

HE: What do you carry?
AI: A Samsung, but the point is it has to be something that can take video and can text.

HE: Does yours?
AI: Yes. But I haven’t given up my Blackberry yet.

HE: So what’s the next new technology?
AI: I don’t know. That’s why we’re doing this project every year, to find out what actually works for both kids and adults.

HE: What is the future for newspapers?
AI: I think newspapers will continue, but more as a niche publication. Local and national newspapers seem to have business models that can still work. Regional papers—that’s a tough road right now. The issue is, what’s the trend?
That’s why newspapers need to pay attention to the kind of experiment we’ve started to do at Knight.
HE: Are you concerned about the lack of Hispanics as heads of major corporations and foundations?
AI: It concerns me more that there are not more women, though there are many, and not more blacks. There have been blacks in this country in a very prominent way for a very long time, a lot longer than Hispanics.
Given the rise of Hispanics in the U.S., I would expect to see more and more coming into the field. Organizations like Hispanics in Philanthropy just didn’t exist a few years ago, so I think it’s coming.
HE: Is there something else you want to accomplish?
AI: You mean what’s my next job when I grow up? I think the challenges in philanthropy are extraordinary, and I hope to be in this business for a long time. I think all this goes back to the beginning of our conversation about the Newseum.
Everything is related to ideas we live with today; it’s all interactive. Also, I’m a political junkie as a news consumer, but I’m not in politics. And this gives me the opportunity to be close to the fire, but not in it.