In a lead story in the business section today, The New York Times takes a somewhat cursory, but notable look at the growing number of nonprofit and foundation funded news gathering organizations whose stories are being picked up by major, respected publications like The Washington Post and the Times itself. You can read the full article here.
The piece, written by RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA, is generally neutral on the potential positive or negative impacts of this trend for the public. It names some of the most high profile new players — ProPublica (a member of PPC-NYC), Global Post, Politico, Kaiser Health News, The Fiscal Times and the Chicago News Cooperative — and puts the outsourcing of news gathering in a bit of historical perspective. It raises only one example — the Bush Administration producing its own “news” to try to manipulate Medicare debate — of the potential negative ramifications the trend. The analysts cited in the piece mostly states the obvious: that the “respected” newspapers and its readers need to be aware of any potential agenda of the news producing source and take that agenda into account.
What the piece fails to notice is that most of the new nonprofit news producers are unlike the generalist syndicates of the past like Associated Press and Reuters that were in the business to make money. Instead, most of the new news syndicates have been created because of a perceived inadequacy of the current news coverage of specific topics or geographic locations. THIS is the real trend. News syndicates have been around forever and large news organizations have always relied on them and freelancers. But the fact that nonprofits and foundations who want to see better coverage and more public attention to their issues are taking more control and creating their own news. That’s the news here.
These are some of the key points the author makes that should be noted:
“There are more pressures than ever to acquire content from outside sources, and there are going to be even more going forward,” said Alan D. Mutter, a media consultant and former newspaper editor who blogs about the news business. That means that despite declining resources, newsrooms, he said, “have to get better at due diligence in terms of who this provider is,” and at explaining it to their audiences.
And…
“We went through a corporate era, and with more media fragmentation, maybe we’re going back to a stage when individual owners are really more in charge,” said Philip S. Balboni, president and chief executive of Global Post. For an established news organization, “there is, of course, a greater danger when you outsource than when it is fully within your control,” he said, and it will become more important than ever “to be very careful about who you use and to monitor the content that you use.”
Read the article. More and more foundations are taking on a “news production” role and I am pretty sure this is a topic we should explore at a PPC lunch session soon.
About Michael Hamill Remaley
Michael Hamill Remaley is the President of Hamill Remaley Communications. Previously, he was Director of Communications at the Russell Sage Foundation and Prior to that was Vice President and Director of Communications at Public Agenda. He has held a variety of positions at organizations such as The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, TCC Group and the Center for Social Policy and Community Development.