John Kerry: Newspapers need bailouts

May 7th, 2009 By: Michael van der Galien | Tags: , , , ,
Leave a comment

bankrupt kerryMy good friend Jimmy, notices that John Kerry has decided to hold a Congressional hearing to try to save newspapers. Like Jimmy, Andrew Malcolm is not terribly impressed by Kerry’s (good) intentions.

With several print newspapers already dead in recent months, others failing or under financial threat and a crass crowd of brash, disrespectful online journalists attracting millions of readers, the jut-jawed senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, is worried about the future of said journalism.

Why is it his business, some might ask.

Well, for one thing, as a youngster Kerry delivered the Washington Star. That newspaper died. As an adult Democratic candidate for president five years ago, Kerry got some rough treatment from opponents and journalists both on- and offline. His campaign died. Does anyone see a pattern here?

But the contemporary reason for Kerry’s journalism concern is that he chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (SCSOCTATI). Which is probably a big deal somewhere. (See below Kerry talking with an apparent politics blogger.)

Except for celebrity nudity and public confessions of marital infidelity by elected people, few things are guaranteed to attract media attention more than discussions about itself. It’s self-fulfilling. The press corps must be important if it’s getting so much coverage from itself.

Here is how this should work: if newspapers cannot survive financially, they do not have the right to exist. Newspapers are businesses just like any other business. If they did not try to develop new business models made necessary because of the rise of the Internet and (popular) blogs, online magazines, and investigative journalism websites, they deserve and must go bankrupt.

Newspapers have the tendency to overstimate their importance tremendously. Let them fall, and they will quickly realize that the overwhelming majority of the people could not care less.

You know why that is? Because others will take these companies’ place, and fill the gap they leave behind.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • SphereIt
  • NewsVine
  • TailRank
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

  1. New Podcast: Newspapers, Nonprofits and Social Media « A. Fine Blog
    May 8th, 2009 at 16:53
    #1
  2. beachmom
    May 8th, 2009 at 20:28
    Reply | Quote | #2

    Wrong. I watched the hearing. There is NO call for a bailout of newspapers. Not one Senator called for that, nor any member of the panel.

  3. You Know What’ll Save Newspapers? A Conversation with John Kerry. : The Sundries Shack
    May 9th, 2009 at 18:49
    #3
Comments are closed.

PoliGazette Comments Policy

PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree. Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors. Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.

(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should not be posted.

(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.

(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.

(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.

(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements. Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.

Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors by email only.