You executive-produce Dateline NBC. You spend four years as president of NBC News. In September, you say you're ready for a new challenge. So what do you do?

If you're Neal Shapiro, you teach "News from the Inside Out," a new course in the Communications and Media Studies department at his alma mater, Tufts University.

It sounds like an interesting course: "Why do so many broadcasts look the same? Why do major newspapers chase some stories and not others -- and why are these often different from those aired on broadcast outlets? How is the technological revolution changing how information is reported and who reports it -- and how consumers receive it?

The course starts in January. Shapiro is teaching it with a freelance newspaper and magazine reporter...