Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: Setting the price of a free press
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:26:37 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Keith Bostic <keith () bostic com> Date: August 22, 2009 5:58:57 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Setting the price of a free press Reply-To: keith () bostic com On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 3:58 PM, David Farber<dave () farber net> wrote:
This is more than a slippery slope, it is a cliff. The same can be said of several major industries -- TV, telecom etc.. Shall we gut the anti- trustlaws?
I don't think that's where he's going -- I think he's focused specifically on "serious journalism", wherever that journalism is produced. That said, I think he's wrong. First, let's agree the existing financial model of "advertising supports news" is dead. Advertising has left the building, and it's never coming back.Second, let's agree "serious journalism" is an essential part of a democracy.
If newspapers are allowed to collude, then it's unreasonable for them to remain for-profit entities. You shouldn't be a monopoly and then unilaterally decide how much money you'll make. In which case... why not strip newspapers down to their public-service functions (for example, get rid of advertising), and have them funded as a public service by the public? Congress can directly fund news organizations, and we're done. That said, the existing newspaper owners are unlikely to agree -- they're fighting hard, not to solve the problem of investigative reporting in a democracy, but the problem of making money by owning a newspaper. Since the latter is a hugely difficult (if not impossible), problem to solve, I doubt newspapers will survive. --keith =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Keith Bostic keith () bostic com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Current thread:
- Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 22)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 22)
- Re: Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 22)
- Re: Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 23)
- Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 23)
- Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 23)
- Setting the price of a free press David Farber (Aug 23)