Re: [Pen-l] how much would it cost us to buy the SF Chronicle?

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is a good idea, but is unlikely to be implemented.

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 8:33 AM, Robert Naiman
<naiman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Shouldn't part of the government's economic recovery package be a
> rescue for the nation's big city dailies?
>
> And shouldn't the rescue consist of buying them and taking them nonprofit?
>
> A federal government entity could be set up, "the corporation for
> public print journalism," and it could make no interest, long-term
> loans to communities to take over their community newspapers and run
> them as nonprofits.
>
> The framework would be: a big city daily serves important social
> functions, and it might not be the case anymore that this institution
> can be run on a profit-making basis, and so what.
>
> All the progressive periodicals - the Nation, the Progressive, In
> These Times - operate at a loss and always have. The difference is
> made up by donations.
>
> Nonprofit big city dailies could take donations and grants.
>
> The corporation for public print journalism could also make operating
> grants and grants for special projects, as the corporation for public
> broadcasting does today.
>
> It would save a lot of jobs, and could moderate the anti-labor bias of
> the mass media.
>
> One can imagine different models for running the papers, and different
> models could be tried locally within certain national parameters of
> regulation. But if it were up to me, the newspapers would be largely
> autonomous within broad parameters. The goal would not be to turn them
> into left papers. The goal would be to preserve them as community
> papers. There would be oversight in terms of a board representing
> different sectors - labor, government, readers, donors; they would be
> expected to have gold-plated labor and community relations and model
> environmental policies, but editorially, within broad parameters of
> fairness, accuracy, and balance, they would be largely left alone.
>
> How much would it cost to buy the big city dailies that are near the
> auction block? If a coalition of local government, labor, and
> community groups wanted to do it and had access to financing, wouldn't
> it be feasible? One reference I saw recently in the press indicated
> that some papers were on the market without buyers. Is this not the
> time to buy them and take them nonprofit?
>
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> _______________________________________________
> pen-l mailing list
> pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
>



-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l