“It is now possible to contemplate a time in the near future when major towns will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.” ~ Time’s Walter Isaacson
As Wall Street is seeing bailouts in the hundreds of billions, another important sector in America is being ignored: journalism. In a recent article by The Nation, John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney write extensively about the decline of newspapers and what the government could do about it.
The basis of the pair’s argument for government support of newspapers is basically that as an institution newspapers provide for the continuance of America’s democracy.
“The founders regarded the establishment of a press system, the Fourth Estate, as the first duty of the state. Jefferson and Madison devoted considerable energy to explaining the necessity of the press to a vibrant democracy. The government implemented extraordinary postal subsidies for the distribution of newspapers.”
To prevent this devastating death of newspapers, Nichols and McChesney believe that an annual tax credit for the first $200 spent on daily newspapers should be instituted.
But that’s just to start us off.
The authors argue that the $450 million spent annually by the government (lower than in most democracies) on public media should be increased to $60 billion, or $20 billion a year for the next three years.
Now, I’m not sure if government support is the way to go — after all it could be a slippery slope — but with fewer and fewer options on the table, I wonder if it should at least be discussed. With the current recession, however, I doubt Congress is going to be ready, willing or able to finance such a large operation, even if there is some economic benefit to be had from keeping journalists out of the unemployment line.
There is, as always, a larger point to this discussion. If newspapers cease to exist, what will happen to journalism? Despite online innovation on the part of newspapers, staffs are still decreasing at a rapid rate — The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reducing its paper staff of 165 to one of just 20 individuals to run its online operations. Will these smaller staff lead not only to less coverage overall, but more coverage on topics without real public impact (especially entertainment?). If even smaller staffed online ventures prove unprofitable, will corporations abandon the enterprise all together for the sake of profit?
When I think about the end of newspapers I think about the thousands of papers that were published on Election Day and on inauguration day. Around the world, people celebrated and read about the new United States president — Barack Obama. And those same people saved their newspapers. In the U.S., papers flew off the newstands, even selling out in some places.
Thirty years from now, we will go through our attic and we will find those papers, tinted yellow by the passing time. And as we leaf through the pages that are beginning to crumble, we will reminisce about the historical events.
But, I wonder, will we also be reminiscing of the days when newspapers still existed?
