Not-for-Profit Journalism
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-07-19/not-profit-journalism
As traditional news outlets cut back, some say the future of journalism is in trouble. Others say, 'not so fast.' How not-for-profit news organizations are reviving local news coverage and in-depth investigative journalism.
Guests
Bill Buzenberg
Executive Director of the Center for Public Integrity. He was Vice President of News for National Public Radio, as well as an NPR foreign affairs correspondent and London bureau chief from 1978-1997. He was also Senior Vice President of News at American Public Media / Minnesota Public Radio from 1998-2006. He co-edited "Salant, CBS, and the Battle for the Soul of Broadcast Journalism."
Stephen Engelberg
managing editor, ProPublica. He's the former managing editor of The Oregonian in Portland. Before joining The Oregonian, Mr. Engelberg worked for The New York Times for 18 years, including stints in Washington, D.C., and Warsaw, Poland, as well as in New York.
Evan Smith
CEO and Editor in Chief of The Texas Tribune. He spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly as the magazine's president and editor in chief. On his watch, Texas Monthly was nominated for sixteen National Magazine Awards, and twice was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Ken Doctor
author of 'Newsonomics' and news industry analyst for Outsell. He spent 21 years with Knight Ridder and blogs at newsonomics.com
Comments
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Between corporate sponsorship, punditry and self-promotion, I'm afraid journalism is a rare commodity in the for-profit media. True journalists must be frustrated. I feel that corporate media is way to beholden to big-bucks, sponsors. During news programs we are inundated with ads for Boeing, parmaceuticals, insurance giants, investment brokers, etc., etc. Definitely not ads for stuff we buy like detergents and breakfast cereal!
These days, I depend on NPR and PBS for the honest, in-depth news coverage. If a story involves one of their corporate sponsors they always tell you on PBS.
Not so fast - plenty, if not most, of good journalism is done in the for-profit sector. But instead of taking donations, they're selling advertising space in order to pay their reporters, pay the mortgage and run the presses. And, most publications will notify the reader of relationships with any advertisers mentioned in the story. At least that I have seen.
I don't think there is anything wrong with this business model. It's allowed for massive, in-depth stories that take months to develop see the light of day. In a non-profit sector, there is always the question of where the next donation is coming from. At the end of the day, those non-profits are in the same boat as the corporate entities when it comes to pandering to the people with money. When it comes to government backed journalism, now we run into the dangers of an Orwellian Ministry of Truth running our newsrooms... dystopian I know, but a real concern.
Want money? Pay the beast.
I would never solely depend on NPR or PBS for honesty, or in-depth news coverage. A lot of the work they do is wonderful and very credible, but their reporters tend to be unabashedly of one political mindset. I believe they have good intentions in the work they do, but the problem is ... "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
Instead, pay attention to the reporters. Learn their names and follow what they do. If they are ethical and believe in honesty, then it won't matter if there is an advertisement for Cheeto's running right next to an article about Sun Chips' food poisoning. I've seen many wonderful reporters move from one institution to another because they've come into conflict with publishers or editors.
According to the "The Nation" magazine, 95% of all news media is owned by 5 corporations.
Is it any surprise that the quality of news has been dumbed down to American idol results and cute blonde teenager disappearances?
Also why would anyone expect corporate news to be the often vilified "liberal press"? What a smoke screen.
I want to say that journalism hasn't totally died yet. I just started a newspaper, which came out last week, and it made a profit on the first issue. It is a news based paper, ultra local, and right now just monthly. The mainstream paper is in dire straits financially, and doesn't have much local support anymore. Most advertisers can't afford the rates for daily ads, people don't really want to pay for their news when it is free on the tv, the radio and the internet. Monthlies and weeklies, are usually free, and less money to advertise in.
So small local papers will continue to exist. They might be too small to do the investigative journalism necessary. The mainstream is not doing it anymore either. Bummer.
I think newspapers have done a poor job explaining the basics of news gathering. It seems like every discussion of journalism leaps to bias and stays there. Personally, I think newspapers could do themselves a favor by explaining the 5 Ws and that pesky H -- and what it means when a media outlet doesn't include one or more of them in their output.
Yes...on the local need. Traditional media can no longer provide adequate coverage of where we live and work. When we launched our nonprofit online hyper-local, citizen reporter based site www.therapidian.org (9 months ago) we knew it was critical to collaborate with traditional local media. We all live here and the quality of news and information is critical to the functioning of our community. We also new that it needed to be something other than a nonprofit version of traditional news. We must look to empower unheard voices and create structures that serve beyond the "bleeds it leads" news and information.
Quite different from the us/them model, our successes so far have been because this is a project of, by and for the community and locally focused. (Over 150 registered citizen reporters and 80 nonprofit reporters). It is, however, foundation funded so far (Knight and local community foundation, etc.). Sustainability will be yet to be determined.
Laurie Cirivello
Publisher, The Rapidian
Grand Rapids Community Media Center
Grand Rapids, MI
In addition to the loss of effective local newsrooms... there has been a significant loss of editorial cartoonists nationwide. These local commentators had great impact in the local discourse. They are one of the first to be laid off. Let's hope the new non profit on line media companies learn to harness the power of this great form of journalism.
I'd like to see non-profits take over the business world. The integrity issue really is important. We need more businesses with the best interests of their customers and society as their overarching priority.
I just returned from an extended stay in Portland, OR, and read The Oregonian daily and got excited about that paper and the depth of the local coverage. Back in Austin, TX, I grabbed the Austin-American Statesman, and, alas, I was disappointed, again, by the lack of substance--and Austin Is The Texas Capital! But, today's show (re: new online formats) revealed that, indeed, new kids are coming! As an old school hold-the paper-in-your-hand guy, I'm excited.
Thanks for your show.
Rick Wright
Austin, TX
I love public radio, but it is far from non-partisan. It's reporting is extremely tailored to Democratic Party politians and policies.
Try telling the truth about Israel....it won't happen.
Commercial media has two businesses. The first is to sell their version of the news. The second, and perhaps the more important business, is mergers and acquisitions, which allows several financial advantages over growing their business. M&A activities must pass muster by antitrust agencies, which puts pressure on commercial media companies to lean toward positively reflecting the policies of administrations when those policies are perceived to be pro-free market. It's my opinion that the last Bush administration played the bully pulpit well by implementing laizzez-faire, while holding a hammer of anti-trust over their heads if they did the job of journalism.
I feel as if journalism needs to operate in a hybrid of traditional for profit and non-profit reporting. A lot of times the main news sources get too caught up in their bottom line that they won't or can't finance many international pieces or specific local news pieces that go under reported. The Pulitzer Center on Crisis reporting is a non-profit news source that sponsors international reporting that gets published by many traditional news outlets as well as on their website www.pulitzercenter.org . This works in that the articles/documentaries/photos and what not that they report on get the visibility of a for profit media outlet (i.e. New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post) yet the topics themselves are under reported stories that normally wouldn't be reported about. Its not trying to reinvent the wheel on how reporting should be done but instead using what is already there and making it better.
NPR is the only Radio Station we listen to. Some of the comments declare that the subjects are too Democratic. Isn't that what we want, more democracy? We only get one paper and that is the local one, and read a lot of non-fiction books. We also enjoy the information from NPR and the Internet.
An example of the new journalism is
Glynn Wilson's Locustfork.net.
(www.locustfork.net)
I find his investigative, "watchdog"
writing and reporting MOST valuable!!!
The media caters to its ad customers and their political ideologies, not it's viewers. Non-profit news has been doing the job mainstream media refuses to do such as, investigative and unbiased reporting on the real issues that matter to the public. Because of this the ratings for NPR, Democracy Now, Progressive Radio Network and PBS have soared, while mainstream news continues to lose credibility.
Before you get too excited about Propublica being a "news" outlet you need to recognize who funds this entity. The Sandler Foundation is the major funder and also funds Acorn, John Podesta's Center for American Progress, Oceana, etc. Large amounts of greenbacks do not need to be affiliated with a Corporation, Union, LLC or whatever to shape the news.
Remember...if you take the king's gold, you dance to the king's tune. My advice is to get several "news" sources and especially listen those that might make you uncomfortable as well as your personal favorites. Drudge, Propublica, Fox, Democracy Now will round you out.
This is great to start NPR jounalism. suggest to get volunteers to get charity news to put on, with quality control from editor.
This ensure a lot of updated content, reasonable quality, and more viewers.
We, CSR TV in Hong Kong and China, share same belief, and operate small TV Channel exclusively for charity functions and Corporate Social Responsibility. Now we are on Web, iptv and mobile.
We need a lot of Green videos for a series of programs. Can anyone show me who to contact (gov, environmental org, etc) to get these?
great thanks
Lai
nagar@scut.edu.cn