Ben Bradlee, on the future of newspapers

(from an interview on a PBS show with Jim Lehrer)

JIM LEHRER: But do you think that the newspapers,

faced with this decline in circulation, should
reexamine what they're doing?

BEN BRADLEE: They're examining, reexamining it.

Boy, that's topic A. Every, every paper you go to,
they've just had a meeting and they're discussing
what to do about falling circulation. And there's one
word is the answer.

JIM LEHRER: What is it?

BEN BRADLEE: Stories.

JIM LEHRER: Stories?

BEN BRADLEE: Good stories.

JIM LEHRER: So, when you say stories, what stories

are they not doing, kinds of stories that they're not
doing?

BEN BRADLEE: Well, I mean, they're just well written

stories, some story that makes you, you know, say I'll
be damned, that's a good story.
JIM LEHRER: Yeah. I didn't know that kind of thing.

BEN BRADLEE: Yeah, I didn't know that or that's

beautifully written or I feel really better for having
read that. That really piqued my curiosity.