In the Op-Ed portion of today's NY Times FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin had this to say about the state of newspapers across the country, and the solution as he see's it:
IN many towns and cities, the newspaper is an endangered species. At least 300 daily papers have stopped publishing over the past 30 years. Those newspapers that have survived are struggling financially. Newspaper circulation has declined steadily for more than 10 years. Average daily circulation is down 2.6 percent in the last six months alone.
Newspapers have also been hurt by significant cuts in advertising revenue, which accounts for at least 75 percent of their revenue. Their share of the advertising market has fallen every year for the past decade, while online advertising has increased greatly.
At the heart of all of these facts and figures is the undeniable reality that the media marketplace has changed considerably over the last three decades. In 1975, cable television served fewer than 15 percent of television households. Satellite TV did not exist. Today, by contrast, fewer than 15 percent of homes do not subscribe to cable or satellite television. And the Internet as we know it today did not even exist in 1975. Now, nearly one-third of all Americans regularly receive news through the Internet.
If we don’t act to improve the health of the newspaper industry, we will see newspapers wither and die. Without newspapers, we would be less informed about our communities and have fewer outlets for the expression of independent thinking and a diversity of viewpoints. The challenge is to restore the viability of newspapers while preserving the core values of a diversity of voices and a commitment to localism in the media marketplace.
He portray's the newspaper industry as the Model-T attempting to compete in this day, and age of digital hot rod's. Now, how he comes to the conclusion we would all be less informed is beyond me, since broadcast outlet's also gather the new's in the same fashion the print media does, and as we all know there is no shortage of independant thinking on the web, or on television.
There are plenty of sites to visit on the web in all locales dedicated to current event's, and local happening's.
One way as we all know the newspaper industry can act to restore their health is to restore their credibility, and stop running their stories through the leftist filter, start reporting just the new's, and not what they deem fit for consumption.
The core values of diversity are varied opinion's, but only when tempered with truth, and fact and without favorable, or conveniant omittance.
Mr. Martin goes on proposing legislation that would change the lay of the land, and level the playing field so to speak in order to prop up this archaic, and stubborn industry, by suggesting newspaper, and print have the opportunity to combine into one big cadre'.
"Eighteen months ago, the Federal Communications Commission began a review, ordered by Congress and the courts, of its media ownership rules. After six public hearings, 10 economic studies and hundreds of thousands of comments, the commission should move forward. The commission should modify only one of the four rules under review — the one that bars ownership of both a newspaper and a broadcast TV or radio station in a single market. And the rule should be modified only for the largest markets.
A company that owns a newspaper in one of the 20 largest cities in the country should be permitted to purchase a broadcast TV or radio station in the same market. But a newspaper should be prohibited from buying one of the top four TV stations in its community. In addition, each part of the combined entity would need to maintain its editorial independence.
Beyond giving newspapers in large markets the chance to buy one local TV or radio station, no other ownership rule would be altered. Other companies would not be allowed to own any more radio or television stations, either in a single market or nationally, than they already do.
This relatively minor loosening of the ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in markets where there are many voices and sufficient competition to allow for new entrants would help strike a balance between ensuring the quality of local news while guarding against too much concentration".
We allready know who these two medium's overwhelmingly shill for, and in my opinion diversities allready on it's deathbed.
But the hope of diversity isnt.
The newspaper industry in all their pompous arrogant glory, now want to blame the public for it's shortcoming's, and failures, and expect us all to prop them up, instead of making their product marketable again.
Free enterprise suck's doesn't it? Put out a crappy product noone want's to buy, and then blame the consumer, and the government.
"In addition, each part of the combined entity would need to maintain its editorial independence".
How will this be insured, against a broadcast outlet just being a mouthpiece for a newspaper?
"In their role as watchdog and informer of the citizenry, newspapers are crucial to our democracy".
But not if the majority of print outlet's are partisan, just as the broadcast media is.
"But if we believe that newspaper journalism plays a unique role in the functioning of our democracy, then we cannot turn a blind eye to the financial condition in which these companies find themselves".
They have turned a blind eye toward's the problem, by continuously not giving the public what it want's, and only reporting what is favorable as far as political posturing.
Redesign this jalopy, or maybe it's time this Model-T hit the boneyard.
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