If there was any overarching theme from the keynote speeches and the dynamic mid-day panel at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media, it is that we cannot think about the future of any one media policy in isolation. We're now in a time of convergence. And as more of our media move online, we have a key choice to make.

Will our new media system be a resource for all Americans, an engine for economic growth, and a platform for new forms of art, entertainment, education and information? Or will we let the digital divide grow, expanding the information gap and cutting more people off from the benefits of the Web?

Two decades of mindless deregulation -- only briefly interrupted -- topped off by a veritable tsunami of consolidation across not just communications, but most business sectors, have succeeded in bringing our economy low and endangering the essential civic dialogue on which democracy depends. The sins visited upon old media must not be permitted to deny the promise of new media.

Journalism is indispensable in a democratic society. So if the market is failing, what should we do? First, we need to agree on what we're trying to save. This is not about newspapers -- or not just about newspapers. It is about newsrooms and newsgathering. It's about serving local communities. And it's about understanding that journalism is a public service -- not just another business.

America's broadband failures are the result of policy failures. The FCC dismantled the legal framework responsible for creating the open Internet and left nothing in its place but thin assurances that what once was, would always be. And while other countries implemented the broadband policies that we once championed, America's policy was just to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

What we are proposing is a new direction. A fair regulatory approach that protects consumers, promotes competition and allows the companies with the best ideas and products to make money. A combination of public policy and market forces will achieve these outcomes. It is not an either-or proposition. Companies can make profits and the public interest can be served simultaneously.

At the Newseum, where the media reform group Free Press held its "Changing Media" summit, White House aide Susan Crawford said that the fate of the journalism industry is very much on President Obama's mind as he develops his ambitious tech policy agenda.

At the Free Press Summit: Changing Media, Acting FCC Chair Michael Copps issued a call for ways to adequately fund public broadcasting.

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said that broadcast licenses for radio and television stations should be shortened from eight years to three years. Copps also said the FCC should rewrite public interest guidelines for broadcasters.

Speaking at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media, Obama administration member Susan Crawford said that the
White House feels that universal access to broadband is critical to the nation's economic success, and could be crucial to the future of journalism.

At the Free Press Summit: Changing Media, Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said it was time to do away with the eight-year, "postcard" station license renewal process and replace it with a three-year renewal with public interest obligations attached.

At the Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C., progressive reformer and Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps was basking in his element as he preached the gospel of media reform. He suggested that traditional media may be going the way of the VCR and analog TV sets, but also raised the issue of regulating media's presumptive new king: the Internet.

Remarks by Michael J. Copps, Acting FCC Chairman at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C.

Remarks by Craig Aaron, senior program director of Free Press, at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C.

Remarks by S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C.

Remarks by Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, at the Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON -- The Free Press Summit: Changing Media in Washington, D.C., tomorrow will feature keynote speeches by Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps, Vivian Schiller, president of National Public Radio, and Susan Crawford of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council.

Free Press has released a new report on how the government should respond to the current crisis in journalism. Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy provides an in-depth analysis of ideas and proposals being debated around the future of the news business and advocates for a range of short- and long-term strategies.

The Internet is now in the center of government plans to create new prosperity and participation in the 21st century. Policy failures of the past can't be repeated if we want good jobs, better health care and a robust democracy. A new report by Free Press, Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Policy, analyzes past policy and points the way to a better future.

Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps and Susan Crawford of the National Economic Council, a presidential advisory board, will give keynote addresses at the "Free Press Summit: Changing Media" at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on May 14.