9 of 31

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 3

collected like sports scores, election results or weather reports, but it hasn't really changed the amount of effort, skill and contacts that investigative or international reporting requires. Even if the distribution models have changed, we still need strong, professional institutions like newspapers to gather and make public that important information.

That's why we need to act now.

Few heads turn in Washington DC when a regional paper from a distant corner of the country folds. But if the newspaper crisis continues and we start hearing talk of national institutions like the New York Times or the Washington Post closing their doors, people will panic about the grim prospects of a democracy without a fourth estate.

At best we'll get the same solution we've gotten for all of the problems that we knew were looming, but tried to ignore until it was finally impossible: a newspaper industry bailout. And it won't work for the same reason the financial bailout and the auto industry bailouts probably won't work it will just pump more money into flawed institutions under failed leadership, without addressing their flaws or changing their leaders.

The better alternative is to act now, before panic ensues, and actually change the way we think about journalism. Is it a product that corporations sell to us in whatever form is most profitable, and only as long as the money keeps flowing? Or is it something that we think of as a public good and value for its own sake?

If we choose the latter, we should urge the incoming administration to create a new National Endowment for Journalism - let's call it the NEJ - a federal fund aimed at supplementing the free market for media and enhancing the aspects of journalism that contribute most to the public welfare

One simple idea would be to create an enterprise reporting fund
where editors at existing newspapers (or radio stations, TV stations or websites) could apply for money to execute reporting projects they
couldn't otherwise afford, allowing them to pay for staffing, reporting expenses, travel abroad and production of in-depth international or investigative coverage.

The Pulitzer Center On Crisis Reporting
has been funding reporting using this model on a smaller scale for several years with a lot of success (disclosure: my organization, the Common Language Project, received a Pulitzer Center grant last year for reporting on water scarcity in East Africa). Newspapers would keep the same means of distribution, but could grow their revenues by delivering an enhanced product at little additional cost.

Another great use of NEJ funds would be to enhance public broadcasting. Currently, NPR and its local affiliates

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Internet as a threat to newspapers?
We want to hear your view. Write now!