The Lawrence Journal-World will sponsor a “Future of Newspapers” panel discussion as part of the Free State Festival later this month.

The discussion will begin at 6 p.m. June 25 at the Lawrence Arts Center. The event is free and open to the public.

Olaf Frandsen

Chris Cobler

Pam Fine

Julie Bechtel

Scott Stanford

The Free State Festival is billed as a celebration of ideas, film, music and art. The “Future of Newspapers” panel is one of more than 30 “ideas” sessions at the festival.

Panelists for the session are Chris Cobler, editor of the Victoria (Texas) Advocate; Olaf Frandsen, editor and publisher of the Salina Journal; Julie Bechtel, president and publisher of The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Ill., and the Herald and Review of Decatur, Ill.; and Scott Stanford, general manager of the Journal-World. Pam Fine, Knight chair and professor of journalism at Kansas University, will moderate.

The discussion will focus on what newspaper leaders see ahead for newspapers amid the disruption created by shifting reader habits, rapid technological advancements and dramatic changes in print advertising. Fine will lead the discussion, but the panelists also will take questions from the audience.

Some background on the panelists:

Cobler has been editor of the Victoria Advocate since 2007. Before that, he was editor of the Greeley (Colo.) Tribune. He was the first Donald W. Reynolds Nieman Fellow in community journalism at Harvard University. Cobler is a native of Topeka and a 1982 graduate of the William Allen White School of Journalism at KU.

Frandsen has been editor and publisher in Salina since 2012. He previously spent 30 years with Freedom Communications Inc., serving as a regional vice president with responsibility for eight daily newspapers based in McAllen, Texas. In McAllen, he also taught media law and ethics as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas-Pan American. Frandsen was the editor of the Odessa American in 1988 when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography for a photo of baby Jessica McClure being rescued from a well pipe.

In addition to oversight of the Pantagraph and Herald and Review newspaper, Bechtel is group publisher for all of Lee Enterprises in Nebraska and Illinois, including the Lincoln Journal Star and Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale. She previously served as publisher and regional executive at the Lincoln Journal Star. Her extensive newspaper career includes two years as the circulation director of the Lawrence Journal-World.

Stanford has been general manager of the Media Division of The World Company since September 2013. He previously spent 12 years as the editor, advertising director and general manager of the Steamboat Pilot & Today, a daily newspaper in Steamboat Springs, Colo., that shares common ownership with The World Company. In 2012, Stanford was named the Newspaper Person of the Year by the Colorado Press Association.

Moderator Fine joined KU in 2008 from the Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, where she was managing editor for print and digital and served on the company’s operating committee. Before that, she was managing editor and vice president of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, and served in a variety of roles at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including assistant managing editor, political editor, metro editor, bureau chief and reporter.