The future of journalism is unclear in light of a loss of credibility and increased technology, a panel of professional newspaper editors and reporters determined Wednesday.

The newspaper industry is at a point where we are asking ourselves do people really need newspapers, Cole Campbell, the editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, said as he began the panel discussion at the SIU Law School auditorium.

About 60 students and faculty attended the discussion, which was part of the week’s activities for the 50th anniversary of the SIU School of Journalism.

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Former Sen. Paul Simon, director of the Public Policy Institute and a panelist, said the newspaper industry is facing declining readership.

A diminishing percent of the population reads newspapers and that’s not good news, Simon, a former reporter and newspaper owner, said. Concentrating newspaper ownership has not been helpful.

Jim Squires, former editor and executive vice president for the Chicago Tribune, agreed and said newspapers have become too focused on the bottom line.

We in this business have the mentality of Proctor and Gamble, Squires said. We have become a bar of soap, and we have to determine how to make us appealing.

It’s become a matter of what is it we put around our advertising.

Mike Lawrence, assistant director of the Public Policy Institute and a panel member, said he was uncertain of the future of newspapers.

I don’t know what form newspapers will end up in, he said. But what I really care about most is that good newspaper journalism survives.

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Squires expressed concern about the survival of journalism.

We need to concentrate on future of journalism in some meaningful form, Squires said. We need to regain our credibility, which we have lost, and recognize and preserve our old values of newspapers, which will help the press and journalism to survive. Jackie Koszczuk, assigning editor for the Congressional Quarterly, said the Internet could play a dramatically increased role in the newspaper business.

Unlike the competition that has developed with television, Koszczuk said, we have to open our arms to the online world and make it our own.

We have to start doing old-fashioned reporting online in real-time rather than delayed-time.

Lorraine Kee, a reporter for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, said regardless of the form newspapers take, reporters and editors should strive to know their audience. Kee also said there are not enough minorities in the newsroom.

Our newsrooms do not look like the people we cover, she said. We don’t know what relevant to the audience and we lose credibility with them.

We just are not very in touch with those people.