Incoming National Press Club President Mark Schoeff warns of media crisis: "When watchdogs disappear, who is left to sound the alarm?"

Mark Schoeff Jr.: “When a crypto influencer can move markets with a hyped-up tweet, and a journalist investigating that same token’s technology can’t get a basic regulatory comment [from the company], we have a profound market-transparency problem,”

By ANGELA CASADO

Global Business Journalism reporter

Mark Schoeff Jr. arrived in Beijing last week with a wallet full of useless plastic. The veteran Washington correspondent — accustomed to navigating the world’s thorniest financial regulations — found himself stymied by the very systems he reports on: His American credit cards were incompatible with China’s dominant digital-payment platforms.

“It was a perfect, frustrating example of the fragmented global systems I cover,” Schoeff told Global Business Journalism students at Tsinghua University on Dec. 1. “It’s why stories about stablecoin regulation and cross-border payments aren’t just abstract policy — they’re about whether a reporter can buy a cup of coffee. It’s about [financial] access.”

That brief but telling moment of friction is a microcosm of the far larger challenge facing Schoeff as he steps into his new role as president of the National Press Club. Elected on Dec. 5, Schoeff will assume office next month at a time when the free flow of information — what he describes as “the oxygen of both democracy and global markets” — is under unprecedented strain from political pressure and the

economic unraveling of the journalism industry.

An industry in crisis, an economy at risk

Schoeff, the financial services reporter and newslettter writer for CQ Roll Call in Washington, delivered a sobering assessment of the industry’s condition. Press Club membership has plunged from nearly 3,000 to about 2,400, reflecting mass layoffs and the shuttering of Washington bureaus by news outlets worldwide.

“The next layoff is always around the corner,” he said, voicing an anxiety widely shared among reporters. “I’m 57, and I don’t know if I can make it to retirement as a journalist.”

This decline, he argued, carries profound economic consequences. Pointing to the 2023 regional bank failures, he noted that it was often local reporters who first spotted early cracks. “When those watchdogs disappear, who is left to sound the alarm before a crisis hits Main Street?” he asked. “The market hates uncertainty more than it hates bad news, and a collapse in reporting creates massive uncertainty.”

Modern battles over access and control

Yet the threats are not just financial. Schoeff highlighted a new front in the fight for press freedom: a Pentagon policy that has effectively removed journalists from their long-established press room and tightened restrictions on military reporting.

“This isn’t just a journalistic problem; it’s a market-intelligence problem,” he said. “When you can’t independently report on the world’s largest military, you create information black holes. Investors, analysts, and corporations are left in the dark about supply-chain risks, defense contracts, and geopolitical stability. That uncertainty is toxic to the global economy.”

In response to the recent turmoil, the National Press Club has transformed its Washington headquarters into a refuge for displaced Pentagon reporters, providing them workspace and launching an exhibit featuring the memorabilia they carried out on their final day before their exile — a quiet but powerful tribute to a free press under strain.

A legacy of exclusion and a challenging present

As Schoeff confronts these contemporary battles, he is also mindful of the Press Club’s complex

past. For decades, the institution barred women from membership — a barrier once challenged

when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev refused to speak unless women were allowed on the

floor.

“It took a Soviet premier to force the first integration,” Schoeff said, noting that full membership

for women did not arrive until the 1970s.

He added that the United States’ own political history reflects similar contradictions, pointing out that the country “was willing to elect a Black man before a woman” as president, with the victory of Barack Obama — a reminder of how gender inequality persists even as other barriers fall.

Difficult questions remain as the Press Club now grapples with a central question of the digital age: Who counts as a journalist? The membership committee routinely debates applications from nfluencers and partisan commentators while drawing a firm line against state-controlled propaganda outlets.

The implications are significant.

“When a crypto influencer can move markets with a hyped-up tweet, and a journalist investigating that same token’s technology can’t get a basic regulatory comment [from the company], we have a profound market-transparency problem,” Schoeff said.

Schoeff’s experience in Beijing — caught between incompatible financial systems — now serves

as a symbolic reminder of the challenges ahead. In a world increasingly divided into competing

technological and economic blocs, he sees his mission as ensuring that truth, not just money or

power, can still cross borders.