(upbeat music) - We're now joined by our good friend and media colleague, Jeff Kanige, who's editor at a great publication, NJBIZ.

Good to see you, Jeff.

- Good to see you too, Steve, thanks for having me.

- You got it.

You know what?

You're way more than a publication.

As we put up your website, tell everyone what NJBIZ is and why, this is part of our "Media Matters" series, why it matters more than ever.

- Well, yes, we do have a publication, a weekly newspaper.

We also have a website, njbiz.com, and we produce a series of events pretty much once a month.

Awards events, recognition events, things like that.

What we do is we focus like a laser on New Jersey businesses.

We give business owners, corporate executives the information they need to make better decisions about investments, about hiring, about expansion or contraction.

What we try to do is give these folks all the information they need to run their businesses in a better way.

It's been tough for that kind of information, as I'm sure you know, daily newspapers are cutting back around the state, around the world, around the country.

So we figure, we think we are providing the kind of information that they really can't get anywhere else.

- Along those lines, Jeff, this is, as I said, part of our series, "Media Matters," and staying in any one place doesn't work, meaning constantly evolving, which NJBIZ does every day, and they're one of our longtime media partners.

We created, as I mentioned to you offline, the Adubato Center for Media Leadership, privately funded, a family foundation, to look at media leadership, which is what this is a part of, and the website will come up for the center.

Here's the question, from your perspective, Jeff, you just talked about, it's a print publication, it's digital, it's got a website, we have all these events, we have awards.

Is media leadership in 2026 dramatically different than media leadership would've been in 2016?

- I have to believe that's true.

I mean, well, 2016, yes.

I mean, you're still talking about there was the.

- 2010, 2010.

- Okay, yes, because back in 2010, you didn't have all these podcasts, influencers, digital media, digital video, multimedia was something that we were just starting to get into, if I recall correctly, when I was working in New York at the time.

So yes, I mean, there was a lot, there are a lot more channels, there's a lot more competition.

Even though print publications have been pulling back, you have all of this competition from digital.

It doesn't take that much, as you know, to put up a website and to start producing videos, and to start sending out information.

And a lot of that information is misinformation, disinformation.

It's very difficult to know what you're getting, and yes, it's far more difficult, in the face of all of that, to convince people that what you are presenting to them is information that they need and that they can use and rely on.

- Let me ask you this, I often think about the next generation of media leaders, and part of this Adubato Center for Media Leadership puts aside money for scholarships for students on the college level going into media and journalism who are challenged by paying for their tuition.

That being said, I often wonder, when I've taught at different universities, media, journalism, communications, and I think back on those courses I taught, I never really talked about the economics of media and journalism.

I think it's more important than you think.

For younger people going into our profession, whatever the heck that means, do you think they, say they say, "Now I just wanna be a journalist.

I just want to be on the editorial side.

I wanna write, I wanna report, I wanna do investigative reporting, I wanna do business reporting.

I don't wanna be involved on the business side."

Do you really have that luxury?

- I don't think so, I really don't.

Back in, we talk about 2010, 2016, when the internet and online sources became much more prevalent, we started to be told, as reporters and editors, that one thing we had to do to make sure that we were successful was to develop our personal brand and make ourselves into essentially a profit center, a business, a revenue generating organism, if you will, because that's the only way you can survive.

As you say, if there's no money, there's no publication, there's no website.

- How hard was, I'm sorry for interrupting, Jeff, because by the way, go on njbiz.com website.

You'll see so many interviews.

Jeff does one-on-one interviews, features.

He did one on us a while back, but he also does these great panel discussions on all sorts of issues.

Check that out.

How challenging was it, or is it, for you, Jeff, to be the brand?

- Well, it's something that I'm used to.

I've been doing it for a long time, actually dating back to my time when I was working in New York, I was at a publication called The Deal, which covered mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcy, private equity, things like that.

It was acquired by thestreet.com, which was more of an investor-focused website, and I was editor in chief there for a while too.

And that was, at that point, when I was editor-in-chief of thestreet.com, I was also an executive of the company.

I was in board meetings and I was part of the budget process, all of those things.

You can't get away from it now.

Not everybody's involved, in our staff, is as involved as I am.

I don't think I go to more meetings than anybody else does.

So there's that.

But I come back from those and we have our planning staff meetings, and a lot of the discussion is on the kinds of things that we can do to help generate revenue and to help keep the company afloat.

- Question about media independence.

how the heck do you keep your journalistic independence while being involved on the business side?

'Cause I find it challenging at times.

- It is challenging because you're always tempted to, you're having to choose, because again, I'm sure you're aware too, resources have been pulling back.

Our staff is smaller now than it was before the pandemic.

We don't have a lot of leeway and there's no fat at all.

So when you're talking about deciding what you're gonna spend time on and who's going to do what, part of your calculus is, is this gonna result in, is it worth it to produce the kind of revenue?

And is it worth our time to do this?

Even if it sounds like it's a great story.

Fortunately, our company is committed to doing good journalism, and so that is always front and center of what we do.

I don't know that that's the case everywhere.

I hope it is.

And I think at some places the lines are blurrier than they are in other places.

And you talk about years ago, I would never have thought, when I first started out, that it would be like this, that it would get to this, that separation that you talked about, that was a real thing.

That was something that we felt, that we talked about.

It was like a brick wall that could not be breached.

And now, as you say, you have to be a business person too.

You can't just sort of be pure and pure as the driven snow.

You have to worry about where the money's coming from.

- PS, not to mention, there are owners of certain media organizations who step in on the editorial side and say, "Yeah, that endorsement you were gonna do of that candidate?

That's not happening.

You know the programming we have, you know the department we have that covers X, Y, Z?

That's going away."

Who's making that decision?

The person who controls the money, the owner, the publisher.

I'm off my soapbox.

That's Jeff Kanige.

He's a great editor at our partners at NJBIZ, our media partner.

Hey, Jeff, cannot thank you enough.

We look forward to future conversations about being a leader in the media in these challenging times.

Thanks, Jeff.

- Thank you, Steve.

- You got it, we'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Adubado Center for Media Leadership.

The Center for Autism New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Fund for New Jersey.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And by NJ Transit.

Promotional support provided by The Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- Hi, Mary.

So sorry you’re not feeling well today.

Let’s see what we can do.