Will the State Rescuethe American Press?

On Wednesday, the American senators organized a series of debates relating to the future of journalism. In order to avoid the death of many more newspapers, some solutions are about to emerge.

The American government has interfered so much in the automobile business that the malicious gossips have given the firm General Motors the nickname “Government Motors”. One hears that banks are going to be nationalized… So, why, considering the serious crisis newspapers are going through, would the State not come to the rescue, despite the sacrosanct independence of the press media? That is the very polemical question that was asked on Wednesday, in the birth country of the Watergate scandal, by the senators during a debate relating to “the future of journalism”. The debate was organized by a sub-committee in charge of communication, and was presided over by the Democrat John Kerry.

Although the decision-makers at the White House exclude press groups from the funds originally needed for the economical rescue plan, the councilors are exploring several avenues in order to help this “endangered species”. The printed press has been decimated by the fall in advertising revenues (25% last year), the numerous debts many people are beholden to after buying more shares between 2005 and 2007, and the readers being more interested in free online newswires.

According to the most recent figures that were published by Papercuts – a blog whose purpose is to hunt down the job destructions among the different American newspapers – this business sector lost 15,970 jobs in 2008 and already has lost 8,922 jobs in 2009. In late February, the Rocky Mountain News closed its doors after 150 years of existence. The Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor just made the decision to give up their paper editions to replace them by online editions. The daily newspaper Detroit Free Press is released only three days a week. Not to mention the Boston Globe, which was threatened by a procedure of receivership at the beginning of the week and only survived due to an agreement from unions to decrease the salaries by more than 8%.

Non-profitable Organizations

To face this disaster, a Democrat senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin, has introduced a bill called the Newspaper Revitalization Art, which would enable the newspapers to benefit from a status designating them as non-profitable organizations. This would work in accordance with the model of the public broadcaster, amongst which is the PBS TV channel. Their advertising and subscription revenues and the perceived donations would be exempted from taxes. In case the beneficiaries could still talk politics, they would lose the right to take a stand in favor of a candidate or a party.

Another reform would consist in making some operating losses of the newspapers deductible. Finally, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, put the Attorney General Eric Holder (the equivalent to the French Ministre de la Justice) in charge of examining the necessary means to relax the anti-trust legislation and help the press groups negotiate in a better way while faced with the new free electronic competitors.

Press editors are also wishing for the restrictions that had been applied since the early 70’s to be lifted, as those restrictions prevent them from owning radios and television channels. The authorities might not be in disfavor of this project, despite a certain fear of monopolies emerging. “I think that politicians can encourage some initiatives without overstepping a red line” summed up Kerry, whilst announcing the founding of a commission relating to the “future of paper and ink”. [Editor’s note: quotations are translated and could not be verified as original wording].