This just in: new Newseum opens in Washington
Newspaper revenue is plummeting and television networks are desperately wooing a dwindling audience. For industry veterans, the outlook has never been so bleak.
What better time to throw a huge party?
A seven-story, $450-million museum paying tribute to the news and those who report on it for viewers, listeners and readers opened today to great fanfare in a prime location on Pennsylvania Avenue -- midway between the White House and Capitol, not far from the National Mall.
The Newseum is a flashy addition to the museum collection that is one of the capital’s most distinguishing features and tourist draws. The gargantuan, seven-story palace is highly interactive and celebrates the glory days of a business that lately has been plagued by shrinking audiences and rising costs.
With speculation that the print version of the newspaper is slowly going the way of the Pony Express, perhaps a museum is where it should be featured. One exhibit explores the future of the digital age, highlighting the role of bloggers and citizen journalists, but the vast majority of content in the 14 exhibition galleries is focused on how the mainstream media covered the 20th century’s biggest stories.
A gallery displays heart-wrenching photographs that won the Pulitzer Prize. A James Madison impersonator talks with schoolchildren at an exhibit on the 1st Amendment. A mangled transmission tower that was once atop the World Trade Center is now displayed in an exhibit on how reporters covered the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A Journalists Memorial contains the name of 1,843 who died while reporting the news since 1837.
The museum’s location and size -- including a 74-foot-tall inscription of the 1st Amendment on marble above the entrance -- serve as reminders that the Fourth Estate has long played a fundamental role in the American system. The 250,000-square-foot facility -- which includes condominiums, a restaurant and a 535-seat theater -- has been in the works for nearly eight years. A much smaller Newseum in Arlington, Va., closed in 2002.
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