Newseum is Closing; First Amendment Mission Goes Forward
There is still time to visit! The Newseum is open through the end of the year.
Please follow the link below for frequently asked questions about the Newseum’s closing.
|
After more than 11 years and nearly 10 million visitors, the Newseum will close on Dec. 31, 2019. Thank you to everyone who has visited, especially the members, donors and Founding Partners whose support made it all possible.
We know visitors love the Newseum (don’t take our word for it; read the TripAdvisor reviews for yourself), but it has struggled financially for a number of years and continuing to operate in our current location has proven unsustainable. In January 2019, we announced an agreement to sell the Newseum building on historic Pennsylvania Avenue to Johns Hopkins University, a premier academic institution, which will use the facility for its D.C.-based graduate programs.
The Freedom Forum, creator and primary funder of the Newseum, remains committed to continuing its mission to champion the five freedoms of the First Amendment and to increase public awareness about the importance of a free and fair press. These educational efforts are needed now more than ever and that critical work will continue online and through public programs in Washington, D.C., and around the country.
All of the artifacts and exhibits in the Newseum will remain on public display through the end of the year. In early 2020, once the Newseum closes, deinstallation of its exhibits will begin and artifacts will be moved to a state-of-the-art support center where they will be housed and maintained. The collection will continue to circulate for outgoing loans, educational programs, public events, digital initiatives and more. Additionally, the Newseum’s popular Today’s Front Pages, which digitally displays nearly 1,000 newspaper’s front pages each day from around the world, will continue after the Dec.31 closing.
There is still time to visit! Purchase tickets online now and get a 15 percent discount. There is also a full calendar of public events and programs running through December.
How can you help? If you’ve read this far, you really care about the First Amendment! Keep in touch by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and online at newseum.org. Become a member and enjoy free admission to the Newseum through 2019 and next year be among the first to receive invitations to engaging public programs with leading thinkers on First Amendment issues.
Please follow the link below for frequently asked questions about the Newseum’s closing.
| Frequently Asked Questions |
So sorry to hear this. I loved visiting there a few years ago. I am in California, so I won’t be able to get back there again. Huge loss!
I’m heartbroken. Visiting this place is a unique and singular experience. I hope I’ll be able to see it one last time
Yeah that is awesome man. How did you get there? You are one amazing man. I am heart broken too.
I only heard about the Newseum 3 days ago. I never knew it existed. When a friend told me about it (she was lucky enough to visit it for the first time just this month) she wept telling me it was closing. I’m too far to visit in time and am terribly sad that I won’t get to see it. I hope the exhibits travel and that I will have the chance to see them.
What will you do with your fabulous collection? Will you be trying to find a new location? This is such a shame.
What a shame, as a photojournalist for many years, I truly enjoyed visiting the Newseum several years ago, and was happy to see one of my images on display in the semi circle structure of images surrounding a piece of the Trade Center. I was finally getting around to contacting the Newseum to send in a better copy of the image, and read that it’s closing! What a great place, and I hope that they find a way to relocate down the road. Hope
My question exactly. I donated some rare copies of first or last editions of newspapers and always hoped they’d be available for others to enjoy.
I am desperately sorry to hear that you are closing. With today’s political climate that scorns investigative journalism and the notion that the press serves the people by keeping a wary eye on the activities of governing officials, the mission of the Newseum is more vital than ever.
(I will be bringing my 12th grade Girl Scout troop to visit your establishment before you close at the end of December!)
From Iowa…been a visitor…very sad you have to shutter because symbolically, our world needs a more informed populace and you symbolized same. Best wishes and hopes that your mission can be carried on…someplace else, in some other ways.
So sorry the museum will close. In the current political climate, we need the first amendment message and promotion of these values more than ever!
I hope the Newseum can continue to play a part in restoring and preserving first amendment freedoms as we rebuild our democracy in the near future.
So sorry to hear of the closing. As a life long journalist, it is sad to see what has happened to the newspaper industry. Please keep me informed and I hope to be able to travel to DC and visit once again before you close.
I am so sorry to hear this – I have run a school trip from Epsom in the UK to DC every two years since 2008 and the Newseum has been a real highlight for us since you opened. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do.
A great institution which needs to be replicated and all if it’s contents archived and made available to the public. Library of Congress.
I’m sorry to hear this. I was hoping to visit next year. If I’d known it was closing, I’d have tried to fit in a visit on my trip to Washington, DC earlier this year.
At least I’ve seen the newspaper front page headlines visible from outside.
I’m sure the Newseum board thought of moving the Newseum. Why didn’t it do that?
How very sad, and frustrating. I deeply hope that the Newseum can be recreated in some accessible form, as we continue to desperately need its history and broad perspective. I hope to be able to squeeze in a last visit before it closes.
I’ve always said the Newseum or the Spy Museum should ever fall into financial trouble then the Smithsonian institution should take over.
That’s a GREAT idea. Did anyone contact the Smithsonian? (And if the building is being sold, where’s that money going? Maybe it should go to the Smithsonian along with the collection.)
Pity. Stands to reason, though. History is now a matter of opinion. Science is a hoax. Factual news is archaic so why try to recall it ever existed at all?
I had the privilege of visiting the Newseum in Washington, DC over Labor Day weekend in 2019. I was very impressed with the preservation of news history (such as the gallery of newspaper images from 9/11/01) as well as the interactive exhibits. What is on display at the Newseum is history that needs to be preserved for generations to come.
My daughter’s entire 5th grade student body from her school in Raleigh visited DC. I was a chaperone. The Newseum was such a positive, informative, diverse, dynamic, and highly engaging experience for them. It was my daughter’s favorite museum ever. She’s been to NYC, Chicago, Italy, Williamsburg, Toronto, and British Columbia, and we have great museums here, so that’s really high praise. I’m very sad.
I hope the Newseum will continue its online presence, including the papers from across the country. That is so important for helping people in this vast and diverse country understand each other better. In an election year, it is so important.
Thanks for the wonderful work you’ve done and for the experience my daughter had. I chair a local nonprofit and know what a challenge it is, and how much work and love goes into making every effort for it to sustain.
Is it a coincidence that the closing if the Newseum is happening under this Administration? This is an important museum to have in the nation’s capital!
I’m extremely sad! Knowing the Newseum is closing was shocking. I had the privilige to visit it when I participated in a program for English teachers sponsored by the Panama’s government in 2016 and I have to say it was one of the most enriching experiences I have ever had. Even when you were not in DC, teachers have the possibility to take advantage of all the awesome resources they prepare. Instead of loosing such a great place like this -which promote freedom of speech-, we should work to have more of them all over the world. It’s a shame!
Yes, it is a pure coincidence, and only that. The administration has no play in whether this business is viable. The pubic interest does not sustain the significant overhead costs of this private venture, and the business model obviously over-estimated revenues or underestimated costs, or both. Suggesting this is no coincidence is a feeble attempt to throw shade where it doesn’t belong.
As another post stated, factual news is a thing of the past, and all the large media outlets are guilty of relegating themselves to the category of “entertainment” vice being members of the free press. These are all for-profit corporations, headed by people with obvious special interests and political bias, and the deifying of their work is misinformed, at best. Calling today’s journalism “history” is offensive to history.
Nobody suggested the the Newseum closing is due to the present administration, but the question is valid. Asking questions is what we depend on journalist to do. Journalism is the incubator of written history. There were no historians landing on Normandy’s beaches or fighting the British. Journalistic tell the story of our world. Historians pull it together.
Why do I think there are those in Washington who would call this fake news?
Please tell me you are moving somewhere else! This is a unique place.
Can the Newseum be saved? What can we the public do? Since newspapers are becoming relics, don’t we need this museum more than ever? Even if losing the location is a done deal, can’t we work to open it somewhere else?
I’ve taken 5 different groups of 8th graders to the Newseum over the past decade. While I understand it’s too late to keep it open in its current state, but the major news networks should band together with a public service campaign to raise the funding to an endowment level so the Newseum can open again on a new site or city (Philadelphia would be fitting).
This was one of my favorite places to visit! So sad to hear that it’s closing!
The demise of the Newseum is disappointing and disconcerting as well. I believe the location, a bit off the beaten path from other museums in the nation’s capital, was a factor in the number of visitors. In addition, the ongoing decline in the public’s interest in print journalism, was not helpful. Recently, a poll indicated only 36% of those polled read a daily paper. Beyond journalism, the loss of the Newseum is bad news for our society.
Could it be moved to Columbia Missouri, home of the world’s first journalism school? Has that option been explored?
Since 2015, I have brought my 11th graders to the Newseum every year on our annual history trip to Washington, DC, from Tennessee. Each year, several students remark that the Newseum was their favorite museum of the trip. This year on our visit, I found out the sad news of the impending closure and I must confess I was bummed out for the rest of the day.
In this time of attacks on the press & journalists as purveyors of “fake news” if one happens to disagree with the content or angle on the news story they report, it seems to me that we need a memorial to print, photo, and broadcast journalism now more than ever.
I hope that the Newseum can find support and reopen in another venue sometime in the near future. I would hope that the Smithsonian Institution could take it under its umbrella or that the major newspapers/big-broadcast networks could champion this tribute to the power and integrity of the free press.
I will miss visiting the museum.
I have been visiting the Newseum for the past 9 years with a group of high school students from NJ. Our first stop has always been the Newseum, a trip high light, the trip will not be the same without being able to visit such a great inspirational place. My wife and I are going to make it down and visit one last time before the end of the year. Very sad to hear of the closing.
A tragedy and scandal, losing this wonderful institution. I visited in summer 2016, it was the highlight of our trip.
My late brother Professor Michael C Emery helped in esteblishing the original Newseum in Virginia. He worked on the Timeline and many of the Front Pages were from his and our late father, Edwin Emery ‘s book.
My sister and I attended the opening in Virginia and I was able to also come to the opening in Washington D.C.
So sad to hear it is closing. Hope you can find a place for all thr great artifacts and especially the memorial to the fallen journalists. We all need your presence in the world.
I enjoyed visiting immensely and am sad to see you leave the brick and mortar space. Please keep all the exhibits in virtual form. I hope you can offer programs on cspan to continue to educate the public. Have you thought about exhibits that would travel to other museum sites around the country
The daily front pages will stay? I hope.
If there’s any way this wonderful and important museum can be saved, it deserves to be. Today, more than ever, the importance of a free press is paramount to our democracy. Can’t someone like Jeff Besos or Michael Bloomberg underwrite the it’s continuance. I would volunteer my time to do whatever needs doing to keep Newseum open.
If only there were a super-wealthy person who owned a newspaper in, say, DC, who could easily part with several million dollars to support such an institution…
My favorite museum in DC. So sad to read it is closing. The artifacts are very very special, so please preserve them. The display of journalists and photographers killed on the job is a very sobering exhibit. Will try to get to DC before the end of the year. Thank you to everyone who created and maintained this amazing place.
Each year I bring my 8th grade class to Washington DC and consistently one of their top favorite museums visited during the trip is the Newseum. I’m so sad to see it go. Thank you for your years providing an excellent and comprehensive view into the world of news reporting. You will be greatly missed.
This breaks my heart. I am a 4th generation newspaper owner, and hope to pass on our papers to my children, who are teenagers now. I had hoped to visit DC next year with them and the Newseum was a big part of that plan. Here’s hoping that one or more of America’s many multi-millionaires will step up to preserve this history, without which our democracy would not have survived.
I was a journalism major in high school. My friend just moved to Virginia, and visited last weekend. I was so jealous. Now I’ll never get there.
Not just sad, I am shocked to hear this! As a part of State Dept.s Edward Murrow (IVLP) programe, i have visited Newseum in 2013. It was a proud moment for the Journalists world over and my memories are still fresh. Despite many overtones and undertones, still Newseum is like an epitome of the profession, later have advised many to go there to experience a proud moment in life. How can anyone allow such a facility to disappear?
I was shocked and dismayed, but I have known about it for a while. As an 8th grade World Studies teacher, I have brought students to the Newseum at least once per year for over 20 years, starting when it was in Virginia. It has fit in perfectly with my US history course, and we often would attend the excellent educational workshops. I also saw special events like the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with Robin McNeil and Tom Brokaw. The Newseum will be greatly missed by all of the students at Green Acres School!!! I wish some donor billionaire would have stepped in!
I was stunned to hear about this. But was it predictable in a time when facts are “fake news” & “media” is pejorative? I visited this monument to Journalism on two occasions and am so glad to have done so.
This closing will be a devastating loss of world history. Going digital cant be the one and only solution. The presented solution to archive these historical pages defeats the whole purpose of having established this Newseum. Its about tens of thousands of newsprint pages that are manuscripts of world history and tens of thousands of persons that enjoyed seeing them and tens of thousands of persons that will not get the chance to see them again. These papers belong in DC as treasures to be viewed in the format that they are now in. The written words on each piece of newsprint is part of an event that in some way, shape and form was our history. So much education is under this roof. Find another roof for them, seek help and seek new resources. Now is the time to use social media and spread this sad prognosis in every corner of our one world! Give the people who care about preserving history a chance to say maybe I can help.
This is sad, terrible, awful news. The trends are all in the wrong directions. WON’T SOME BILLIONAIRE ACT FAST AND SAVE THE DAY FOR ALL OF US???!!!
I spent 5 years working in Rosslyn, and remember when several of the artifacts now in the Newseum were displayed in Freedom Park. I was sad to see them move from right next to my office, but loved the collection’s new home when it opened. Hope all those incredible pieces find another publicly accesible home in the DMV soon.
The Newseum is one of my favorite museums. The Pulitzer Prize photo room is a powerful, moving experience in and of itself. I am so sorry this amazing institution is shutting down.
Sad – maybe the Smithsonian should take over your stuff. It’s history
This is deplorable. I heard that perhaps it was moving, yet to totally close this museum is a great disservice to all who honor free speech and the tireless efforts of journalists everywhere. Surely there is a solution. What a sight from its rooftop and the feeling that it gave to inspire those wishing to speak freely.
Thanks for the years of your existence. SAD
It’s unreal that the Newseum is closing after more than a decade; it’ll be deeply missed :'( …
The news industry with its billions of dollars wouldn’t lift a finger to preserve this! Pitiful!
Shutting down? Oh no! I’m based in California, and have attended numerous events at the Newseum over the past decade, it’s one of my favorite places for attending or hosting events (with HP or NetApp). I was planning on hosting the Equality 2020 Summit at the Newseum next year. Extremely disappointed that the venue will not be an option for this critical event!
A continueing indictment of the liberal media today. The American citizenry need to figure out how best to deal with the complicated and complex issue of the media’s collapsing role as a bulwark of liberty, the civil society, and republicanism.
The American free press has a long history that has unfortunately culminated in an ideologically possessed institution that is firmly aligned with one political party and is mostly hostile to America’s founding principles.
Such a shame! We visited Newseum during a Thanksgiving trip a few years ago with my family and it was the most exciting place to visit for all of us. Unbelievable to see that they are closing for financial reasons while U.S. stock market is at its best performance ever and while CEOs are getting paid millions in bonuses.
I was very sad to hear that the Newseum is closing. It was my favourite place to spend time in D.C. Even though I am Canadian, I took out a membership in support of this institution. As a public relations academic and practitioner, I think strong, independent journalism is key to democracy continuing to thrive. It was wonderful to have this institution that celebrated the history of journalism, in a beautiful and immersive multimedia format. It s sadly symbolic of the challenges the journalism industry is facing currently. I will miss the Newseum every time I go to D.C. from now on.
I’m heartbroken. My first visit was amazing and emotional. From seeing history unfold in pictures and papers, to the Berlin Wall and 9/11 exhibit, and the memorial to journalists killed while reporting events, no one can walk out without being affected. I took my husband this past summer and he could have spent days there just taking in the photography. This is such a huge loss. I hope the Newseum can find another home or be eventually taken under the wing of the Smithsonian.
Michele, your last sentence reflects my sentiments exactly! We celebrate–and rightly so–so many different groups on the Mall, so why not the one group without which no form of government call rightly call itself a democracy, namely, a free press. Guess I need to start researching the process for getting a museum built!
This is such a tragedy! My heart is broken! Our children learned so much visiting the museum.. we all did!!! Real life past and present unfolding before our eyes…. The visit was such an emotional journey. It is my sincere hope that the Newseum can reopen one day. The importance of such protection and display of our first amendment right is so important – especially now!
Sad news to learn of the closing, I always looked forward to my groups visit the Newseum every year, when we traveled to Washington on the safety patrol DC trip from Gainesville Fl. The kids learned a lot from the news of the past and current events. The current location is a great improvement from the Rosslyn location. I hope the exhibits are displayed somewhere for the good of the nation.
How can I request a traveling exhibit from the Newseum for the high school where I am a Journalism adviser. I recently was able to secure an exhibit from NASA for our school and it was a huge hit!
For more information or to book a traveling exhibit, contact travelingexhibits@newseum.org.
This museum is a sanctuary that enables anyone from anywhere on Earth to see and hear how generations of Americans treasured and abused the 5 freedoms of our 1st Amendment to the Constitution. Now we’re closing it because of money; an amount of money equal to the cost of a few our flying military death machines that do nothing what so ever to educate or inform. Our priorities have gone to hell.
I am sad to hear of the Newseum’s closing. I have been there twice, having returned from my second visit only an hour ago, and have enjoyed it greatly, along with my grandchildren.
I am not shocked, however. Once the news media allowed itself to be fully co-opted by one political party, furthering an agenda rather than reporting the news, the end could be seen.
Visiting the Newseum was a highlight of our trip to Washington four years ago, and we are greatly saddened by its closing. So much of our national and world history are contained within those walls.
Sad to see this museum go. When Chris Wallace points out that media are under sustained attack (by you-know-who and others), when publisher Julian Assange is being cruelly treated by the U.S. government and its lapdogs in England — and mostly ignored in mainstream media — the loss of a museum dedicated to free speech is regrettable.
BTW, a search for “Assange” on this site turns up nothing.
Every individual commenting on here in defense of the notion that “ one political party” happens to be the beneficiary of the work of journalists are profoundly wrong. You display your ignorance and support of tyranny in your parroting the words of demagogues. We are in deep trouble as a nation: the right eschews facts and knowledge to instead elevate the naked wielding of power.
This was inevitable as the media have become increasingly partisan to the point where most reporting has been little more than cheerleading for leftist propaganda.
It’s also not surprising that the Newseum ran into financial straits given the parallel in massive deficit spending on worthless pursuits by the parts of government populated exclusively by self-licking ice-cream cone types who have lost touch with reality. Free everything means free nothing.
A grandiose shiny palace in a high-rent district, dedicated to the denigration of half of the population, will not stand, as has been so amply demonstrated by the Newseum’s failure.
I went to the Newseum every time I visited D.C., and loved taking my daughter there. The Ronald Reagan and Kennedy speeches came to life in that Museum. The rotating exhibits, the films… I just can’t believe the museum is going to be closing down. It’s hard not to get emotional when going through the Newseum. It has a complete history of the United States through the eyes of journalism… where else can you find that? It truly was a special place.
I have been to the Newseum twice over the years as a visitor from the San Francisco area. I have been to DC many times as a child and an adult. I found it to be one of the best museums in all of DC. It is a tremendous disappointment that it will be closing. A museum like this is sorely needed. My best to all of the staff who made this one of the highlights during my visit to DC. I will miss it terribly.
it is really a pity. We are from Lugano, Switzerland and we visited the museum last June and we enjoyed it very very much.
Sergio
This is so surprising to me. While I never visited it in DC, I do believe it originated in Arlington(?). I visited it several times when I had students in DC with the Close Up program. I do not remember there being an entrance fee, which could be the reason attendance would be low. I was always quite impressed with it in its original location. Uncertain as to why it moved; sad that it is closing.
As a former employee, who moved from the Rosslyn location and was there for the grand re-opening, it’s sad news to know the Newseum is closing. I loved working there and made life long friends. DC is losing a great institution.
It’s heartbreaking to lose such a museum of this caliber. It’s bad enough we lose other museums and therefore our heritage; but, the Newseum, being unique, should and must be preserved. It is crucial to our democracy. Maybe some kind of affiliation with the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Archives or even the National Park Service (could this become a National Historic Site and therefore save the museum?)