Should bail-outs be extended to newspapers?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

I like newspapers. I don't like the idea of a world without newspapers.

But the government cannot be involved in deciding which media outlets go out of business, and particularly not in such a direct way.

So I'd have to oppose any media bail-out on principle.

"Lehman fails, AIG is saved" is already uncomfortable. Applied to the press it's a First Amendment problem also. (A subsidy for one outlet is a de facto restriction for a competitor.)

[LiberalFighter]

1. No bail outs. But...

they should prohibit media conglomerations.

Control of the media should be broken up so there is competition and free press isn't stifled because of control by one company.

[demwing]

2. No more coporate bailouts - lets try a "Credit Rating Bailout"

where workers and families get a break on their Credit Rating

[AngryAmish]

3. Only those that expose the correct editorial philosophy

The rest can fuck off.

[rvablue]

4. Sad as I am about the death of the newspaper industry and how it will affect the country,

no, I don't think there should be a bailout. It's antithetical to the biz itself and creates a conflict of interest.

On top of that, how would the government decide who gets the money? I certainly don't want to see it going to WND......

I think, first, the country is going to have to learn a hard lesson once traditional and ethical journalism has disappeared to realize they are going to have to PAY for unbiased, in-depth information.

Until then, God help us.

[Phx_Dem]

5. No.

[rucky]

6. Only if it's used to fund actual investigative reporting.

Something we don't see so much anymore.

[cherokeeprogressive]

7. No. NO MORE BAILOUTS

[timo]

8. screw them man

let a dinosaur die, propping them up with a bailout is a bad idea!

[Kitsune]

9. Only to papers in two-paper towns.

And, as others have insinuated, only for actual journalism, not for editorial payroll and whatnot.

[ShadowLiberal]

10. No, newspapers need to learn how to adapt in the Internet age, not stay stuck in the past

What's happening with the newspapers is a cultural and generational shift, and they need to adapt at getting younger customers to read them (and somehow make money off of it, be it internet ads, a fee, whatever), otherwise their problems will just get worse and worse overtime.

I think I'm sort of the perfect example of this, I'm 24 years old, I live in PA, and probably the biggest paper here is the Philadelphia Inquirer. A lot of doctor's offices have one or two from today available in the waiting room, at least one of my grandparents subscribes to it. Do I read it? Yes, on Sunday nights when I visit my grandparent who subscribes to the Inquirer, while waiting for some of the others to finish dinner/get dessert out. Are there some good stories in there, yes.

But would I ever pay money for the Philadelphia Inquirer to be delivered to my house everyday, or only certain days of the week, or even pay to read their news on their website whenever I want? No, I'm a cheap bastard, I can do without the Philadelphia Inquirer's stories, I might be a bit more ignorant about state news because of it, but I can just get the national news (which is usually what I'm interested in) on the internet for free at places like msnbc.com, cnn.com, politico, etc. I can get all of that news I want, about the topics I'm interested in for free at countless news sites, and I've rarely felt like I was missing out on some kind of news because of it. I wouldn't even pay to read a website's news because there's so many other news websites that are just as good and free.

Why can't the newspapers convert to a politico style business model, politico does deliver papers in the DC area a few days of the week, but they're primarily a web based news company, and obviously it's working out great for them so far. They probably also really reduce their expenses by focusing on just one broad related topic to, instead of trying to give their readers stories about like 15 different topics, most of which their readers probably aren't very interested in.

[me b zola]

11. I love newspapers and don't want to see them die out

But ultimately they can only succeed if they have a functional business plan.