The Future of Journalism: News or Entertainment?

Ina Jaffe is a national desk correspondent based at NPR West, NPR's production center in Los Angeles. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR newsmagazines,including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Covering California and the West, Jaffe has reported on nearly all of the major news events, elections, and natural disasters in the region. She also reports on national stories, such as the 2008 presidential campaign and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
In addition to captivating and informing listeners, Jaffe's reports have garnered critical acclaim. Her three-part series on California’s Three Strikes sentencing law won the 2010 Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association and the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. For her coverage of California politics, Jaffe received the California Journalism Award in 2002 and again in 2003 for reporting on minority political power in Los Angeles and the historic recall election that made Arnold Schwarzenegger governor.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Jaffe was the first editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon which made its debut in 1985. As Weekend Edition Saturday editor, Jaffe shared a 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for the report "A State of Emergency" which covered racial conflict in Philadelphia.

Born in Chicago, Jaffe and attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison and DePaul University receiving Bachelor's and Master's degrees in philosophy, respectively.

Kelly Kahl was named senior executive vice president, CBS Primetime in September 2004. In this position, Kahl oversees the coordination of all CBS programming, with particular attention to how all parts of the entire CBS business unit interact to serve the audience and maximize business opportunities. He has primary responsibility for program planning and scheduling of CBS as well as supervising coordination between CBS programming divisions and the network’s respective operations in sales, marketing, affiliate relations, research and with the CBS Television Station Group. Kahl’s responsibilities also include oversight of scheduling for the CW Network, a joint venture of CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

In previous positions with CBS, Kahl has been responsible for overseeing all scheduling of primetime series, specials, television movies and mini-series for both CBS and UPN. He played an instrumental role in the strategic move of “Survivor” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” to Thursdays, which instantly made CBS a competitive force on the night. With the addition of “Without a Trace” in the 2002-2003 season, CBS won Thursdays and broke NBC's 18-year stranglehold on the night.

Kahl joined CBS in January 1996 following three years as director of network research at Warner Bros. Television. Kahl previously worked at Lorimar Television in 1990 as a research intern, research analyst and manager, before assuming responsibility for the research department in 1993.

Kahl is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison (B.A., communications, 1989) and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications (M.A., communications management, 1991).

Abigail Goldman, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for national affairs reporting, wrote for the Los Angeles Times for 16 years.

Goldman began her career at the Times in 1993 as a summer intern in the features department. She moved on to cover local news throughout Los Angeles County, including the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, Southern California wildfires and gang crime.

In 1998, Goldman joined the paper’s business department to write about the retail and toy industries. She shared a Pulitzer Prize and a Polk Award for the series she co-wrote, "The Wal-Mart Effect." The following year, her examination of toy maker Mattel Inc.'s efforts to be an ethical manufacturer at its facilities across the globe was a finalist for the 2004 Livingston Award for excellence by professionals under the age of 35.

She earned her bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master's at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. For the last several years, Goldman has been helping train a new generation of reporters at UCLA.