Representatives of big media companies--said to include Time Warner and NBC Universal, among others--will don hard hats Tuesday, May 23, and make a visit to what will be the new broadcast studio of the Newseum, the Washington-based museum/educational center dedicated to journalism past, present and future.
The media companies are said to be bringing with them what is being billed as "one of the largest combined news media gifts in history."
In the future department, the new Newseum isn't scheduled to open until fall 2007, but the occasion is the announcing of new founding partners for the facility, which will be three times the size of the old Newseum.
Architecturally, it is mean to suggest transparency and freedom in the dissemination of news. To make that point crystal clear, the exterior of the building will include a 74-foot-high rendering of the First Amendment and an "immense front wall of glass through which passers-by will be able to watch the museum fulfilling its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other."
In addition to galleries and exhibitions, the buildling will house studios, theaters, a newsroom and shops. And in its own version of Times Square news tickers, there will be a Great Hall of News featuring a 40-foot-by-22-foot HD screen– visible from outside the museum– airing historical footage and breaking news.
Mike Fetters, spokesman for the museum, would not comment on who the founding partners were but did say they included large media companies and families with "deep ties to journalism history."
