“Self government won’t work without self discipline.” That
was a frequent comment of radio commentator Paul Harvey during his
noon-time broadcast for decades.
The thought behind that comment is true for our government,
for our personal lives and business. And it came to mind when I read a recent
story on niemanlab.org, which referenced a possible tax on digital advertising
to help support traditional journalism.
I am a big supporter of journalism and traditional media.
The negative impact on communities and local government are well documented and
something that I’ve
written about before. Communities where the local newspaper has gone out of
business are seeing the
cost of government rise. Again as the saying goes; “Self government won’t
work without self discipline.” Local media is the watch dog for local
government, creating that self discipline. Left unchecked by a strong press,
government has proven to have little to no self discipline. Honestly if you
look at spending by both political parties in the US, you’ll see little self
discipline and that is with the press pointing things out.
In the Nieman
Lab article, the advocacy group Free Press is suggesting that a tax on
digital ads to platforms such as Google and Facebook could generate $2 billion
dollars in money to support journalism. As much as I love local journalism, I
don’t believe I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth when I say this is a
terrible idea.
I am an advocate of a free and independent press, with
special emphasis on independent. Media companies that would belly-up to the bar
for tax money would be sacrificing that independence. If you take tax dollars,
then you are subject to some level of accountability to the government and tax payers.
Politically speaking, I tend to be a Libertarian in many
respects. I want as little government as possible in my life. I also believe
that it is especially a bad idea if government picks winners and losers in
business. Offering up any tax dollars to help a struggling newspaper, no matter
how well meaning, is not good.
Newspapers and other media companies need to find a way for
sustainability in the future that doesn’t involve a government bail out through
taxpayer dollars. There isn’t a handout coming, and if there was it won’t be
without strings attached. Unfortunately, I don’t know that way to prosperity
for the industry. Kudos to the companies that are truly trying to experiment
and find a path for the future. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening in too many
places.
The prevailing business philosophy for some ownership chains
is to milk as much profit as possible in the short term, knowing full well that
the long term is grim. Some are investing in some digital, though most
newspapers are still well behind in digital offerings compared to competitors
such as local TV, radio and yellow pages. Yellow pages saw the writing on the
wall a decade ago, and now you’ll barely hear them even mention a print
directory.
In many cases, if a newspaper owner isn’t squeezing out
every drop of profit it can for the next few years, then they are drowning in
red ink on their books. In small towns across this country, your local weekly
or very small daily is currently in a fight for its life. They’ve cut and cut
staffing and are now providing very little content of consequence on a regular
basis. Ad dollars are just not there to sustain the old business model. Digital
competitors are taking dollars, and that is a major factor. But another factor
is newspapers are struggling to get sales people. In many cases, jobs go
unfilled or filled with warm body employees that aren’t very good at the job;
but they’re better than nothing.
The opportunity to reinvent or invest in the future came and
went for these newspapers, and now it is a monthly battle for survival. And
that battle is looming for more and more properties, and bigger papers in the
near future.
Recent news that the Reading
(Pa.) Eagle Company was filing bankruptcy Is just the latest in a string of
similar announcements. The family owned newspaper for over 150 years is trying
to find a buyer while seeking protection from creditors. The Reading Eagle is a
37,000 daily / 50,000 Sunday newspaper. The article said that the operation had
236 full time employees. Having just finished running a similar sized
organization, I can tell you that seems like a lot of bodies at a newspaper
that size. This is often the case at family owned properties, who have
multi-layered management trees and really large newsrooms. I hate the cuts of
newsrooms personnel, and at newspapers in general. But you also have to adapt
to the times somewhat. The days of a 1982 style newsroom and management
structure won’t work today.
“Self government won’t work without self discipline.” Add in
a long pause, which was Paul Harvey’s style and then his signature sign off.
“Paul Harvey, good day.” Newspapers can still have some good days in the
future. But it isn’t from tax dollars, and it isn’t from thinking like they
always have.
