Summary of Public and Foundation Funded Journalism panel at #FTCnews
Summary of Public and Foundation Funded Journalism panel at #FTCnews
(Note: this is just from the panelists presentations - I am working on typing up notes from the very rich discussion happening after the first part of the panel - stay tuned)
Vivan Schiller, President, NPR
- I recognize the great potential for public radio in this shifting media environment.
- We are a good news story int eh midst of this sea of troubles.
- We have almost 30 million listeners a week who listen on average 4.5 hours a week.
- Morning edition has a larger audience than any of the broadcast morning shows.
- 36 bureaus, 17 overseas.
- NPR stations are often the last Locally owned and operated station in communities.
- We rely on underwriters, individuals and government funding.
- We are building our commitment and capacity for heard hitting news at every level.
Joaquin Alvarado, Senior Vice President for Diversity and Innovation Corporation for Public Broadcasting
- We have very strong trends arising out of the public media field and it will serve all of journalism.
- We need to pool our money in a targeted way to collaborate and fund innovation.
- We need to map investments and innovations that are going on and leverage lessons learned.
- Public money should fund innovative project not legacy products.
- We need to recognize the ways that diverse communities are accessing the news, and understand the innovation is key to that effort.
- We are going to put 7 billion dollars into broadband stimulus in the coming year - we NEED to ensure that there is public service media being produced on this system. We need to focus on education and journalism, because good content will help drive broadband adoption.
Jon McTaggart, Senior Vice President & COO, American Public Media
- For us at American Public Media, journalism is not a business it is a public service. We don't serve shareholders, we serve citizens.
- We don't trust the open free market for public education, safety or health. In the same way we can not leave the information needs of our communities (which support all three of these other things) to the free market.
- We have a sustainable business model. All govt. funding for our operation is 8%.
- Better public media organizations will make better partners for all news production.
Eric Newton, Vice President, Journalism Program, Knight Foundation
- The vast layers and structures of local and regional government ha never been covered adequately by news organizations.
- The market is not failing now - it has always failed in terms of public affairs reporting. The market has always picked and chosen the kinds of stories that will be told and covering government has been left out.
- Journalism does not need saving so much as it needs creating. We need to foster 20 times more journalism, at least.
- Our government policies are out-moded, out-dated, and hampering the expansion of news.
- Most of the money that flows to public media is status quo money, not money to foster innovation.
- Old policies do not treat new nonprofit journalism start-ups fairly (i.e. editorials, press galleries, difficulty of incorporating).
- Old policies don't treat student journalists fairly.
- The government itself is a huge producer of news and information already, but it does it poorly.
- Consumers have to have universal broadband access.
- Consider dropping the taxes on news and information.
Charles Lewis, Executive Editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop American University School of Communication
- The only free press is the one you own, if you can't afford to own one - start a nonprofit.
- There are groups around the world who want to join the new Nonprofit Journalism Network.
- Philanthropies have provided $128 million for journalism, $66 million for investigative reporting (research from J-Lab)
Mark MacCarthy, Adjunct Professor, Communication, Culture and Technology Program, Georgetown University
- Public funding is part of the future of journalism
- I want to do what I can to meet the challenges set for by chairman Waxman earlier today and answer some of his concerns and questions
- Congress should invest in CPB for public service news and journalism. The structures are there - we simply need to hire more journalists.
- All funding for CPB should have a provision focused on local news reporting - Independent TV Service is a model to look at for supporting new independent producers
- I don't think all local news can or should be funded by government, but it has to be part of the mix. The time to start developing the specifics is right now.
- Government involvement in media is traditional and all American: Museums, Libraries, Theaters, etc... Think also NIH, NSF, and other government bodies funding key public health issues.
Tom Leonard, historian, UC Berkeley
- How do you get a prosperous media? How did the prosperous media we that arose in the 19th Century come about?
- The debate we are having now has been echoed over the course of history. There have always been difficult shifts in journalism
- 3 Facts about Journalism in the 19th Century
- Newspapers benefited from the absence of copyright laws - The media giants who arose in 19th Century journalism were built on plagiarism and aggregators.
- There was a paywall in the 19th Century, but it was just as unsuccessful back then. People didn't pay.
- Government subsidies were also key: postal subsidies and legal announcements for example as well as broadcasting licenses.
- A prosperous press did not happen through stringent intellectual privacy laws, did not happen through paywalls, and did not happen by keeping the government at bay.
- It's ironic that we send millions of dollars abroad to build democracies and support media projects abroad, while we starve journalists here.
Josh Silver, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Free Press
- No matter if you like government subsidies or not, if you look at the economics, there is no way we can see a future of media without some investment from government
- There needs to be a psychic shift, we need to view journalism in the same ship as public safety.
- AIG has received 175 x more money than the CPB has received in the last year alone.
- Earmarks in Congress add up to 41x the budget of CPB.
- Office furniture in Congress adds up to 3x the budget of CPB
- We need to move from platitudes to policies.
- We have to think about all these issues in relation to internet policy.
