Can Government Bail Out Newspapers?

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Maybe in Connecticut.

According to a report in today’s edition of the Register-Citizen, “Two of Connecticut’s top elected officials, Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, said they don’t want to see local newspapers close and would be interested in taking part in a bipartisan effort to save them.”

The officials spoke out after news broke that a number of local newspapers in the state are in danger of closing, including two dailies — The Herald in New Britain and The Bristol Press — as well as 11 weeklies, mostly in New Britain and Bristol. Around 100 jobs appear to be at risk.

“The newspaper is an information lifeline,” Blumenthal stated. “It provides really an essential service.” This is not the first time a public official has spoken out about the public service role of the press, but it is difficult to imagine what governments can actually do, without compromising the independence of the “fourth estate.”

We’ll keep an eye on this potential development to see if any of the obvious contradictions get resolved in time to ward off yet more newspaper closings.

Tags: Newspaper, Connecticut, Government, Vertical Industries, Recruitment & Selection, Enterprise Software, Software, Human Resources, Workforce Management, David Weir

In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.

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1

hotweir

11/25/08 | Report as spam

RE: Can Government Bail Out Newspapers?

My friend Dan Kreiss writes:

"Why would the "independence of the 'fourth estate'" necessarily be compromised? No one ever says that about the BBC, and Sweden has done an admirable job supporting their local newspapers for four decades."

"It seems to me that the far greater threat to journalistic autonomy is a market that has systematically degraded the quality of journalism and its role in democracy."
2

hotweir

11/25/08 | Report as spam

RE: Can Government Bail Out Newspapers?

As per Dan's comment, there is theoretically no problem with government funding per se, as long as the appropriate firewalls are built in. The BBC has been mostly, but not always, able to stay independent of government influence. My concern is not when an institution is set up with an independent funding source collected by government in the form of a TV tax or some other tariff. But for the private enterprises seeking bailout funds (like AIG, CitiBank, etc.) the federal government is taking an equity stake.

If to help local newspapers survive, the Connecticut state government did the same thing, it might raise concerns for their ability to remain independent of their government stakeholders. Of course one of the main duties of a free press is to act as a watchdog on government. When the government owns you, or is a major stockholder, you might constrained from playing this role.

That was my point, perhaps not yet entirely clear, however. This is an unprecedented moment for newspapers; maybe radical solutions need to be found. Or maybe it's all moot because they should migrate to online publication models.
3

MR 2 Spyderman

11/26/08 | Report as spam

RE: Can Government Bail Out Newspapers?

Is it the government's job to bail out every failing industry? If the day of the newspaper has passed, and they can not find a way to remain relevant to the buyer, they need to go out of business!

For me, bailouts are an attempt by a dying industry to take money from the citizens in taxes that they can't get from us in the free marketplace. Bailouts reward bad management, bad products, and bad quality. It's bad policy.