If you’d expect New York Times managing editor Marc Lacey to dwell on the troubled state of the news industry, you would be very wrong.

While there is no denying that the overall business model is fraught with buyouts and layoffs savaging the ranks, the NYT leader still can’t wait to get to the office every day – even if he has enter a side door to avoid the daily protests outside.

“It is true that news organizations are closing left and right,” Lacey, a Paul Miller Washington Reporting alum told this year’s fellows. “News deserts galore; TV viewership … it’s shrinking. It’s like if you start to look at this, you want to just curl up in a ball. It’s pretty grim. But I do have to say I feel, and I hope that you feel that right now the media’s role in our democracy just couldn’t be more essential.”

Journalism ‘Essential’ to Democracy

Indeed, there are “huge hurdles” to clear, prominent among them: waning public trust.

“I just very much believe that without the New York Times, without the media in general, without the responsible media in general, the people who are actually using facts to guide what they’re publishing – without that media – we would be in even worse shape than we are.”

A reminder of how bad things could be is never far. Lacey’s wife, who grew up in Venezuela, saw the unraveling of democracy when news organizations became targets of the state, undermining public trust.

“She knew, everybody knew, that the country fundamentally changed when the government started going after the media and when the public no longer believed what was in the media; when TV stations were co-opted; when newspapers were raided and people were arrested and no longer felt as though they could publish what was true,” Lacey said. “That was the beginning of the end of what was once a vibrant democracy.”

Despite the many challenges in the U.S., Lacey said: “I don’t think we’re anywhere near that point.”

“I believe the New York Times, where I work, we’re not going to reach that point,” he said. We’re never going to cower, we’re never going to be afraid.”

From AI to Zeal: Journalists in ‘Full Experimental Mode’

The Times is confronting a difficult moment from an enviable position. Lacey said the brand is “reaching more people, having more impact than ever in the company’s history.”

“A lot of people looking at us, looking at maybe our circulation numbers and looking at the sort of quarterly reports that we issue that are pretty positive in a very negative industry,” Lacey said. “They think that the New York Times has it all figured out. We don’t feel that way at all. And I think that’s one of the key things. We’re not sitting pretty up there thinking we have the formula and nobody else does. We believe that we have to rapidly change and adapt to stay relevant and to continue to grow.

“We’re in full experimental mode. We’re trying to think of new ways of reaching readers. We’re trying to think of ways to win over a skeptical public, how to make people trust us more. So, I think that’s one thing that when you’re at the New York Times, in all of the meetings I’m in, there’s this feeling that we have to change rapidly, but we’re … not doing it in a crisis, sinking ship environment and we’ve been there before.

Lacey urged reporters “to be part of the evolution” of their own news organizations.

“So, I guess I don’t actually know where our industry is going to be in five years or 10 years, but I do know that wherever it is, the foundation of the journalism we do right now is going to be part of it,” Lacey said. “And then there’s going to be all sorts of other things that we haven’t even imagined. AI (artificial intelligence), which we can talk about, is going to be part of it. But I would say it’s constantly be learning. And I think in previous generations of journalism, the journalism itself didn’t change that much. The printing plants changed and we got cell phones, but the actual craft of journalism stayed the same.

“Part of your job is to project to your bosses that you are game to try new things and that will lead to all sorts of adventures that you don’t even imagine.”

Access the full transcript here.