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Undertoad 03-25-2009 11:23 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarpop (Post 546086)
It makes me very sad. Obama is worried about the auto industry going away, but has he said anything about this? Why aren't we trying to save newspapers? :(
U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers

glatt 03-25-2009 11:30 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad (Post 549314)
It's an interesting idea. But if the papers have no profit, will a tax break help them?

Happy Monkey 03-25-2009 11:36 AM
Sadly, many of the papers do make profits, but not enough to cover the debt of the companies that bought them up.

Shawnee123 03-25-2009 11:39 AM
No. We still need cars. We don't necessarily need newspapers (playing devil's advocate; I like newspapers too.)

It's progress and technology. I want to revive the failed papyrus industry: would it help anyone to do so? I hear the plants that produce gas-powered street lamps are in trouble, would rescuing them help our economy?

Like it or not, it's the future.

classicman 03-25-2009 11:42 AM
from the link -
Quote:
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.

HungLikeJesus 03-25-2009 11:53 AM
As Sheikh Yamani, the former OPEC oil minister, said, "The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones."

sugarpop 03-26-2009 05:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman (Post 549321)
from the link -
Quote:
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
I don't know why that would be applicable. Just look at how some churches endorse certain candidates while threatening fire and brimstone if you vote for others.

classicman 03-26-2009 05:35 PM
applicable to what?

sugarpop 03-26-2009 08:00 PM
Why "they would be prohibited from making political endorsments" would be applicable to newspapers simply because they were nonprofit. So are churches and religious organizations that are nonprofit, yet they do it.

classicman 03-26-2009 08:37 PM
Did you read the article? At all?

classicman 03-26-2009 09:31 PM
Washington Post, New York Times seek new cost cuts

Quote:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two of the most respected U.S. newspaper publishers, The Washington Post Co and The New York Times Co, are embarking on new cost cuts in the face of dramatic declines in advertising revenue.

The Times said it laid off 100 workers and is cutting non-union salaries. It is also asking unionized employees to accept similar concessions to avoid layoffs in the newsroom.

The Post is offering a new round of buyouts to newsroom, production and circulation employees, and said it could not rule out laying off staff.

"This was a very difficult decision to make," said a memo signed by Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson. "The environment we are in is the toughest we have seen in our years in business."

The moves come as a host of other U.S. newspaper publishers have reduced staff, declared bankruptcy or shuttered once-vaunted newspapers, as readers seek news online and elsewhere and as the recession crimps advertising spending.

Non-union employees at the New York Times and the Boston Globe would get a 5 percent pay cut for nine months, along with 10 days off. At other units, including the company's Worcester, Massachusetts, newspaper, the amounts would be a 2.5 percent pay cut and five days off.

The Times has laid off workers before, including 500 at a newspaper and magazine distribution unit that it closed. It also held buyouts in its newsroom last year and laid off a small number of employees there.
No one is safe.

monster 03-26-2009 09:47 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sugarpop (Post 549806)
Why "they would be prohibited from making political endorsments" would be applicable to newspapers simply because they were nonprofit. So are churches and religious organizations that are nonprofit, yet they do it.

there are many different types of non-profit orgs. Religious groups are just one type. Most types are not allowed to make political endorsements to receive the tax breaks they do. Churches are already brainwashing, so a little extra is neither here nor there.... besides, they own the govt anyway....

::lights blue touch paper and retires::

Happy Monkey 03-27-2009 12:35 PM
Churches aren't legally supposed to endorse candidates. Of course, few politicians would take the PR hit of enforcing that law.

sugarpop 03-28-2009 08:40 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman (Post 549833)
Did you read the article? At all?
No, I didn't. I was responding to what was posted. I did, however, see a segment about this on Hardball or somewhere several days ago.

Just so I know the rules, do I have to click on every single link that is posted in order to reply, or can I simply reply to what is in front of me, in the thread? Because if I have to read every link, I will kill myself.

jinx 03-28-2009 08:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lionel Hutz
Mr. Simpson, don't you worry. I watched Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn't on, but I think I got the gist of it.

classicman 03-31-2009 08:35 AM
Sun-Times Media Group files for bankruptcy

Quote:
(AP:NEW YORK) The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban newspapers, says it has filed for bankruptcy, making it the fifth newspaper publisher in recent months to seek protection from creditors.

The company said it filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Delaware court Tuesday. It will continue to operate its newspapers and online properties.

It retained Rothschild Inc. to help with a possible sale of assets.

"We firmly believe that filing for Chapter 11 protection and exploring the potential sale of assets or new investment in the company offers us the best opportunity to protect our respected media properties for the long-term," Jeremy Halbreich, the company's interim chief executive, said in a statement.
This is another big hit for the industry. Interesting that they filed in a Delaware court.

glatt 03-31-2009 09:00 AM
This week, the Washington Post dropped some content from their print edition. Moved stuff around within the paper, dropped an entire section (Business), and moved a bunch of stuff to the web. It's maybe 10 pages thinner now.

Sucks. They had already slimmed down a year or two ago. It's becoming a shell of its former self.

Tiki 03-31-2009 10:55 AM
This guy I'm dating keeps comparing the local newspaper (The Oregonian, admittedly one of the worst in the country) to his hometown newspaper (whatever it is in Milwaukee, WI) and I kind of just want to ask him if he's been home, lately. Papers are suffering. Content gets dropped. That, sadly, is life right now.

Also I love my home town and sometimes I want to punch out the pretentious fuckers who move here and then won't stop complaining about how wherever they came from is WAY BETTER.

sugarpop 03-31-2009 07:15 PM
Damn Tiki, I would think Portland would be a pretty cool place to live.

Arianna Huffington, along with other donars and organizations, is creating a fund for investigative journalism. I think that's great, because I was kinda worried about losing that aspect of journalism that newspapers supply. http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2...tive-team.html

Tiki 04-01-2009 01:28 AM
Most of the people who move here, but the few who don't are really vocal about it!

I laid the smackdown on him, he knows not to do it anymore.

classicman 04-06-2009 05:14 PM
AP cuts newspaper rates, moves to protect web news

Quote:
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Associated Press unveiled rate cuts on Monday to help member newspapers reeling from declining advertising revenue and said it would sue websites that use its members' articles without permission.

Changes announced by the AP at its annual meeting in San Diego include $35 million in rate assessment reductions for 2010 on top of $30 million it already instituted for 2009.

The 163-year-old newswire service also will allow member newspapers to cancel their membership with one year's notice instead of two, while offering a discount to papers that stay on a two-year cancellation notice.

Jim Kennedy, AP's vice president of strategic planning, said in a telephone interview that AP would have to reduce its costs to compensate for the rate cuts. That includes not filling vacant jobs and possibly buyouts.

Dean Singleton, AP chairman and chief executive of Denver-based publisher MediaNews Group, said, "We feel it is critical to help our members during these extremely difficult times, and these numbers show our deep commitment to doing that."

U.S. newspapers are buying out or laying off workers to stay in business. Some, including EW Scripps Co's Rocky Mountain News and Hearst Corp's Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have closed in recent weeks. The New York Times Co has said it might close the money-losing Boston Globe.

The AP, a nonprofit cooperative formed by its member newspapers, said revenue from U.S. papers would fall by about a third between 2008 and 2010.

In 2007, 25 percent of its $710 million in revenue came from U.S. newspapers.

Seventeen percent of its revenue comes from digital sales, such as the Internet and mobile devices, Kennedy said, adding that the number could grow to more than 20 percent in 2010. Most newspaper publishers get about 10 percent of their revenue online, and the other 90 percent in print.

The AP also threatened to "pursue legal and legislative actions" against websites that do not properly license news content. It said it would develop a system to track its members' and its own news distributed online to determine whether it is being legally used.

"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories," Singleton said.

classicman 04-06-2009 05:46 PM
Times co. threatens to shut down Globe

Quote:
By Robert Gavin and Robert Weisman, Globe Staff

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90- minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising and business office employees.

The concessions will be negotiated individually with each of the unions, said Totten and Ralph Giallanella, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local 259, which represents about 200 drivers who deliver the newspaper.

"We all know the newspaper industry is going through great transition and loss," said Giallanella. "The ad revenues have fallen off the cliff. Just based on everything that's going on around the country, they're serious."

Catherine Mathis, a Times Co. spokeswoman, declined to comment. Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley also declined to comment.

Earlier this week, the Globe newsroom completed cutting the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs. But the deteriorating economy has made the paper's financial outlook much worse. Management told union leaders Thursday that the Globe will lose $85 million in 2009, unless serious cutbacks are made, according to a Globe employee briefed on the discussions. Last year the paper lost an estimated $50 million, the employee said.

classicman 04-21-2009 10:35 PM
NYT Co. 1Q losses worsen as ad sales plunge 27%
Quote:
The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived after the results were released Tuesday.
The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis.

The results in the most recent quarter included charges totaling 18 cents per share to cover the costs of jettisoning employees and other one-time accounting measures.

Even with those charges stripped out, the loss was much worse than analysts expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had predicted the New York-based company would lose 4 cents per share.

Revenue for the period dropped 19 percent to $609 million -- about $22 million below the average analyst estimate.

Chief Executive Janet Robinson painted a bleak picture for the spring too, predicting ad revenue will fall in the 20 percent to 30 percent range in the current quarter. The company is being hurt most by lower spending on real estate, automotive, help-wanted and movie ads.
How long before they start begging for money?

TheMercenary 04-22-2009 07:37 AM
How long before they close the doors and turn off the presses?

spudcon 04-22-2009 09:02 PM
Maybe someday the newspapers will wake up, and realize they're losing readers because we can get more objective news on the web, instead of one sided crap they've been getting away with for years.

glatt 04-23-2009 07:36 AM
The papers aren't losing readers so much as they are losing advertisers.

Craigslist is free, so nobody buys classifieds, and the economy is so bad right now, the big companies aren't advertising like they used to.

classicman 04-23-2009 08:32 AM
Quote:
Architectural Digest has lost 47% of its ad pages this year.
Publications which are losing nearly half of their ad pages are almost certainly not going to make it for another year no matter what subjects they cover. Conde Nast has already closed or cut back several of its other magazines.

Clodfobble 04-23-2009 05:46 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by spudcon
Maybe someday the newspapers will wake up, and realize they're losing readers because we can get more objective news on the web, instead of one sided crap they've been getting away with for years.
Seriously, dude? You don't think the fact that the content on the web is free has anything to do with readers' preferences?

robsterman1 04-28-2009 11:08 AM
Sadly, many people do prefer a hardcopy rather than having to logon to a newspaper's site to view their dose of news

classicman 05-13-2009 12:06 PM
Judge approves Tribune bonus payments
Quote:
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The Tribune Co. can pay more than $13 million in bonuses to almost 700 employees for their work last year, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday.

But the judge denied authorization for the Tribune to make more than $2 million in severance payments to more than 60 employees laid off shortly before the Chicago-based company filed for bankruptcy protection.

Judge Kevin Carey authorized the bonus payments after Tribune chief financial officer Chandler Bigelow III testified that the bonuses are critical to keeping key managers motivated as Tribune tries to adjust to a tough economic climate for media companies.

"We need to motivate and incentivize the key people who will implement change," Bigelow said. "These are really good people we're talking about. They're the best and the brightest of the company."

These are true bonus', NOT retention payments.

Where did we hear that type of praise before?

classicman 05-28-2009 09:13 PM
Quote:
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. publishers are betting readers will fork over a few more quarters for their newspaper, one of the few ways they can boost revenue as advertisers cut spending.

New York Times Co.’s flagship newspaper will cost $2 at newsstands as of June 1, a 50-cent increase, and subscription prices also will rise. A.H. Belo Corp. said this month it will consider more increases next year after raising the Dallas Morning News 25 cents to $1 in February.

Price increases at the Washington Post and Tampa Tribune also paid off with higher circulation revenue, a rare area of improvement in an industry that posted declines in advertising and readership in the past year. Ad sales have dropped so low that publishers said they are willing to lose some readers to get more money out of the loyal ones.

“Those rate hikes will continue as long as they can keep pushing them through,” Alexia Quadrani, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst in New York, said in an interview. “Circulation is relatively a positive story, but unfortunately it doesn’t do too much to offset the declining advertising.”

In 2007, readers paid 35 cents for the Washington Post, less than half the current newsstand price of 75 cents, and $1 for the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, which now costs $2.

Raising prices too far may carry unintended consequences, including driving readers to free news Web sites, said Tom Corbett, a media analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. Most publications have suffered declining readership as consumers seek more news from the Internet or television.

classicman 11-25-2009 02:19 PM
Washington Post to close three regional bureaux
 
Quote:
The Washington Post daily newspaper is to shut its bureaux in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
Executive editor Marcus Brauchli told staff that although the posts of six correspondents in the offices were safe, three news aides had lost jobs.
In a memo, he said the national paper would focus more on political stories and local news coverage in Washington.
Like other US media, the paper has seen a decline in advertising revenue and circulation in recent years.

Pressures

The offices are due to close at the end of the year.
The paper has a circulation of more than 582,000 copies during weekdays and 822,000 on Sundays, with most papers distributed in the Washington area.
This is seen as its latest attempt to cut costs.
The newspaper division lost $166.7m (£100.5m) during the first three quarters of this year.
However Mr Brauchli tried to reassure his staff that the paper would continue to provide its readers with national stories.

He wrote: "We will continue to cover events around the country as we have for decades, by sending reporters into the field."
:headshake

Clodfobble 11-25-2009 03:07 PM
Maybe nobody wants to buy their paper because they insist on giving words like "bureaus" an ancient-ass wannabe French spelling.

monster 11-25-2009 09:47 PM
The online replacement for the Ann Arbor News makes sucking donkey balls seem like an attractive option.

classicman 12-02-2009 09:22 PM
Washington Times firing 370 employees, Miami Herald 24
 
Quote:
The Washington Times will lay off 370 employees, reportedly around 40 percent of its workforce, as part of a major overhaul that will also see the paper distributed for free in some places.

In a statement, the Times' president and publisher, Jonathan Slevin, said the cuts were part of a strategy to transform the paper into a 21st century media company.

"We have developed plans to secure our position and advance our vital role in an evolving media marketplace and through challenging economic times," he said.

Acknowledging the tough times being experienced in the media industry and economy as a whole, Slevin said future plans had to be constrained by "current marketplace realities."

"In this regard, the company is aggressively working to achieve efficiencies of scale that must include significant staff reduction of its 370 personnel."

Politico newspaper reported that the figure represents around 40 percent of the Washington Times workforce.

The announcement also included a new circulation model, under which the paper will be distributed for free to
"targeted audiences in the branches of the federal government as well as at other key institutions."
Link

Thats an interesting thought - NOT.

classicman 12-02-2009 09:28 PM
Quote:
The newspaper industry is suffering "market failure" and the government will need to help preserve serious journalism essential to democracy, an influential US congressman said Wednesday.

"The newspapers my generation has taken for granted are facing a structural threat to the business model that has sustained them," said Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California.

"The loss of revenue has spurred a vicious cycle with thousands of journalists losing their jobs," he told a meeting on journalism in the Internet age hosted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Waxman, who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over the FTC, said the "depression in the media sector is not cyclical, it is structural."

"While this has implications for the media it also has implications for democracy," he added. "A vigorous free press and vigorous democracy have been inextricably linked.

"We cannot risk the loss of an informed public and all that means because of this market failure," he said.

Without endorsing any proposals, Waxman noted various proposed remedies, including new tax structures for publishers, providing non-profit status, changing anti-trust regulations or eliminating a law that bars owning a newspaper and a television station in the same city.

Acknowledging that talk of government support for the press raises "red flags," Waxman stressed it is not the job of Congress to "deny the evolution of media."

But "as we look at these various solutions, government's going to have to be involved in one way or the other," he warned.

"Eventually, government is going to have to be responsible to help resolve these issues and our whole society depends very much on reaching some resolution of the problem."

US newspapers are grappling with declining print advertising revenue, falling circulation and the migration of readers to free news online, while several major US publishers have declared bankruptcy.

classicman 02-01-2010 08:29 PM
Gannett Turns A Profit In 4Q, Ad Sales Still Dropping
 
Quote:
Gannett Co. posted its largest profit of the year in the fourth quarter as cost-cutting efforts were aided by a lessening decline in advertising sales. But shares of the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher tumbled after company executives didn't offer any hope for an upturn in newspaper advertising this year.

The report released Monday showed that newspaper and magazine ad revenue plummeted by almost $1.2 billion, or 28 percent, from 2008. Print advertising remains Gannett's biggest source of revenue despite efforts to bring in more money from the Internet and other media.

Fourth-quarter ad revenue at Gannett's publications, which include USA Today and more than 80 other daily newspapers, fell 18 percent, or more than $172 million. That followed year-over-year declines of 32 percent to 34 percent in each of the first three quarters.

Newspaper ad sales have been deteriorating for several years, but the erosion widened dramatically beginning in the summer of 2008 as the economy headed into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The fallout has driven at least 14 U.S. newspaper publishers into bankruptcy protection. Although Gannett isn't among them, questions about the company's financial stability caused its stock to fall as low as $1.85 early last year. Those worries have faded now that the ad slump isn't getting any worse.
Link

I call BS. The fourth quarter is by far the best for papers as virtually every major retailer increases their spending astronomically. The first quarter of this year will tell a more accurate story.

monster 02-01-2010 08:34 PM
Nah, they all did their seasonal advertising online. No-one looks for Black Friday deals in the newspapers anymore -online is faster and easier to compare.

classicman 02-01-2010 08:35 PM
You'd be amazed, Monnie.

monster 02-01-2010 09:22 PM
No, I wouldn't.

monster 02-01-2010 09:26 PM
I've watched from the inside through my friends who are the business editor, the retail correspondant and the advertising sales manager of the locals rags. The ones that only exist online now.... with increased revenue q4 because their ads were cheaper and more navigable by the punters.

classicman 02-01-2010 09:56 PM
Well after spending 20 years in the business, the 4Q by far generates more revenue than any other and in some cases more than two or all of the others combined.
Speaking of online sales . . .
Quote:
Print advertising remains Gannett's biggest source of revenue despite efforts to bring in more money from the Internet and other media.

xoxoxoBruce 02-02-2010 12:52 AM
In the 4th quarter the Philly paper was loaded with sale supplements, but I don't know if the ads in the regular printed sections were up to normal.

classicman 02-02-2010 07:58 AM
Those inserts are big money makers, but ROP has the highest profit margin. Page counts have been so down for the last year++ The news to ad ratios have also been skewed over the same period. From those I spoken with and what I've seen, the 4thQ was a much needed shot in the arm for the industry.

I find it interesting that the stocks went up rather nicely and then dropped almost right at the end of the season as well. I believe those in the know were taking profits when they could and then got out.

monster 02-02-2010 09:04 AM
OK, clearly you know way more about it than I do, so I'll leave you to your quotation from other sources thread. :)

classicman 02-02-2010 09:41 AM
But but but - I was just getting into talking about it with you. <sniffle>

monnie? MONNIE??? Come back!

classicman 03-01-2010 03:25 PM
Seems as though right behind their print counterparts is the network news...

Quote:
ABC News is making no secret about what is behind the sweeping staff cuts it now faces: raw survival instinct.
“I just looked out at the next five years and was concerned that we could not sustain doing what we were doing,” said David Westin, the president of ABC News, as he explained the decision last week to jettison up to 400 staff members, a quarter of the news staff, in the coming months.

The same compelling motive already instigated strategic retrenchment at ABC’s broadcast competitors. NBC, the one network with a cable news channel, MSNBC — and, not coincidentally, the only network in a sound position of profitability — has drastically pared down its operations over the last few years. So has CBS, which is losing money already and has cut about 70 jobs this year.

But with news available more places than ever, on cable channels and Internet sites, and with revenue challenged by heavy dependence on shrinking advertising dollars, the future for the news divisions at ABC and CBS remains deeply insecure.

“Long term, it’s going to get harder for these guys to exist as they are currently constructed, with the exception of NBC because it can offload the costs on MSNBC,” Michael Nathanson, an industry analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, said.
Link

classicman 05-03-2010 02:36 PM
Big Paydays for the Chiefs in the Media
 
Quote:
The media industry may be going through some rough times, with the landscape changing day to day, but at least one aspect is business as usual: big paydays for the people at the top.
Top executives at the country’s largest media companies continued to reel in multimillion-dollar pay packages in 2009, a year of widespread cost-cutting throughout the industry. In several cases, the packages even increased from the year before.

At the top of the list is Leslie Moonves, chief executive of the CBS Corporation, whose pay package in 2009 totaled almost $43 million, more than twice what he made in 2008, according to an analysis by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm.

Not far behind was Viacom’s chief executive, Philippe P. Dauman, who was paid nearly $34 million, a 22 percent increase over 2008. Sumner M. Redstone, who controls CBS and Viacom, was paid more than $33 million from the two companies combined.

“Anybody who reads the business section knows the margins are being squeezed at media companies, so the fact that there are these huge packages makes no sense,” said James F. Reda, the founder of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm with offices in New York and Atlanta.
Link

classicman 06-14-2010 03:59 PM
... unless you plan on a nice big payout from the Gov't.


Quote:
The internet is a matchless device for distributing information on true, and truly disturbing, developments. Case in point: the FTC's recently released discussion draft on "reinventing" journalism.

Those who have read the 35-page document are mostly left agog by its absurd reach and its dangerous suggestions.

Among the items under discussion: Enhanced postal subsidies for newspapers, which already have their own uniquely cheap postage rates. Tax credits for organizations with journalists on the payroll. The formation of a new journalism cadre within AmeriCorps.

The estimated $35 billion required to keep traditional journalism afloat would be raised via several mechanisms, including a check-off box on tax returns. Those who are sympathetic to the industry's plight -- nationwide, they must number in the dozens -- could send a portion of their tax return to ameliorate the woes of the nation's MSM. As the report states,"If desired, this proposal could be structured to apply to commercial, as well as non-profit, news entities."

No plan is complete unless it calls for new taxes, and the discussion includes some doozies, including substantial new taxes on news aggregators on the web. Critics have quickly dubbed this plan the "Drudge Tax," but it would also impose new taxes on others, including Digg and the Huffington Post. The paper also floats a proposal to add a five-percent tax on consumer electronics, producing an estimated $4 billion annually. These funds would be distributed by the FTC.

The report also suggests that a "Fund for Local News" could be created using existing and new fees imposed by the FCC "on telecom users, television and radio broadcast licensees, or Internet service providers." These funds would be distributed directly to newspapers and other media outlets by state panels.

If written into law, this program would make the government a partner with each participating newspaper.

I'm not prone to hyperbole, but I frankly cannot imagine a greater, more odious conflict of interest than this one. As a journalist of thirty years standing, I wish I had an ounce of faith that publishers would reject the money, but I don't. After all, newspapers exist to make money, and they will quickly convince themselves they can enjoy the government largesse and remain independent in thought and spirit.
Link
Wow.

Redux 06-14-2010 05:20 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman (Post 663075)
... unless you plan on a nice big payout from the Gov't.

Link
Wow.
LOL....The FTC hosted a series of workshops on the Future of Journalism: “How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?” and released a pre-draft mid-level staff report exploring a wide range of options from a wide range of perspectives on whether to recommend policy addressing the issue of journalism in the internet age. The report made no recommendations or specific proposals....just seeking and gathering information from interested parties.

At the very least, one should read the FTC statement on the misinformation that has gone viral across the right wing news sites and blogs in the last few weeks, after the report was widely distributed by the FTC.
Through this document, we seek to prompt discussion of whether to recommend policy changes to support the ongoing reinvention of journalism, and, if so, which specific proposals appear most useful, feasible, platform-neutral, resistant to bias, and unlikely to cause unintended consequences in addressing emerging gaps in news coverage.”

The FTC has not endorsed the idea of making any policy recommendation or recommended any of the proposals in the discussion draft.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/journalism.shtm
The danger of the internet? Believing everything you read from partisan sources w/o, at the very least, looking at both sides.

In effect, the FTC held a bunch of brain-storming sessions, invited lots of people with different interests who were encouraged to toss out ideas, compiled all the ideas in a very preliminary draft report, with no comments or recommendations...a common practice in preliminary brainstorming sessions like this.

And suddenly, its government take-over of the media.

added:
I do like some of the wacky headlines, all of which completely misrepresent the actions of the FTC:

Journalism 'Reinvention' Smacks of Government Control, Critics Say
FTC: We Will Reinvent Journalism By Force
FTC Reinventing Journalism Today’s Watchdogs May Be Tomorrow’s Lap Dogs
FTC Suggests Tax on Consumer Electronics to "Reinvent Journalism"
FTC Floats Drudge Tax
Meet the Commie Behind Obama FTC's Campaign for "Reinventing Journalism"

and of course, the classic American Thinker - Putting the Watchdogs on the Payroll


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