Filed under Foundations, Lunch Series, New Media
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On May 15, 2012, PPC-NYC members met to explore the topic “Foundation and Nonprofit Websites as Genuine News Outlets – What are the models, the biggest successes and the possibilities for the future?” Our discussion leader, Steven Waldman, was most recently FCC Senior Advisor to the Chairman and is the author of the report “Information Needs of Communities.”
The Dismal State of Journalism
The discussion started with Waldman detailing the condition of investigative journalism, community reporting, in-depth issue coverage and the traditional news media in general. Some key facts:
- From 2005 to 2009, newspaper online traffic doubled and digital revenue grew to $716 million. But that hardly offset the losses among newspaper companies of $2 billion in the print side of the business. “Print dollars being replaced by digital dimes,” Waldman characterized the situation.
- Spending in newsrooms on reporting staff dropped by 1/3, to a level not seen since before the early 1970s.
- Coverage of public affairs – especially focusing on courts, schools, legal affairs, state house, education, etc. – has deeply diminished.
- Fewer people cover more (more counties, more beats, more duties—tweet, blog, write, etc.)
- With fewer staff, traditional media have shifted coverage towards more easily reported institutions and reporting “official accounts of events” drawn from press releases.
- Stories that require intensive investigation and longer time-frames – like misuse of tax dollars – are increasingly rare.
- While the volume of local TV news has increased, the quality has arguably diminished, with a greater orientation toward “if it bleeds it leads.” TV news has more coverage of crime and less public affairs. TV news is not filling the print newspaper gap.
- At the same time, radio, magazines and cable news are all reducing staff.
- Traditional media find partnerships with nonprofits to produce news problematic because they generally assume that nonprofits will apply their own slant and advocacy objectives to any news that is produced.
- Kaiser Health News is a valuable model. But initially, some papers wouldn’t use it because they worried the reporting would tilt towards a specific policy agenda. But it has ultimately come to be seen as legitimate, unbiased news source. Full coverage of health issues from multiple perspectives has been key.
- Other forms of nonprofit journalism need ongoing support in the same funding model as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- Might traditional journalism outlets be converted to nonprofit status? Could that solve the problem? No, says Waldman, because most are now owned by private equity firms or in bankruptcy. Those who have stakes want to try to eek out some profit from what they’ve got left, so converting to nonprofit is very unlikely.
- Community foundations might be the logical entities to support community coverage, and some have expressed interest in funding local media. But boards and donors tend to shy from controversy. Perhaps a solution would be to create a larger statewide pool of money to cover local news.
- On the plus side for nonprofits and foundations, traditional public relations strategies are more important than ever because strapped newspapers are using press releases nonprofit staff to find information. They’re also using online search to research issues and often use press releases generated by nonprofits.
- Yes, social media is playing an increasingly important role in how people get their information, but there is also a greater need than ever for filtering of information, and the traditional print media still performs that role to a great degree.
- One way of supporting nonprofit journalism might be to use the money generated from FCC auctions of spectrum.
- Another possibility might be for foundations to support journalism “fellows” at traditional media – so, for example, a foundation would support a fellow to report on education or the environment at a newspaper. The fellow would be within the supervision of the newspaper but funded in part by the foundation.
About Michael Hamill Remaley
Michael Hamill Remaley is Vice President, Communications & Public Policy at Philanthropy New York and President of HAMILL REMALEY breakthrough 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.