Tom Mattesky, former deputy Washington bureau chief for CBS News, told a Washington and Lee University audience that there will always be a demand for good journalism during a lecture on March 4 in Stackhouse Theatre of Elrod Commons.

Mattesky, a W&L alum, is serving this semester as the Donald W. Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor. From 1995 to 2007, Tom Mattesky was deputy Washington bureau chief for CBS News. He managed a staff of nearly 200 correspondents, producers and technicians and oversaw the coverage of the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the Supreme Court.

Even as newspapers are struggling in many markets and questions about the media seem to be daunting, Mattesky said that the changing landscape should not be seen as the end of journalism.

"Americans' appetite for news hasn’t diminished. It as increased," Mattesky said. "The behemoths of the print and broadcast worlds may be crumbling, but there are strong signs that niche media and news-on-demand sites are thriving and expanding on line and elsewhere. The landscape and platforms may be changing, but there is and I firmly believe always will be a demand for good journalism. Our democracy simply wouldn’t survive without it."

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