Democracy depends on an informed electorate, and thus on the ability of the public to obtain complete and accurate information on issues of public policy in a timely fashion. Indeed, an informed public is the best protection against government and corporate corruption and incompetence. We have depended on newspapers and news broadcasters to send in the investigative reporters to dig out the news.
Newspapers are cutting back on their newsrooms and reducing the numbers of journalists that they hire; increasingly their reporting is biased to reflect the politics of their readers. The television networks play the same limited range of news repeatedly; they too increasingly bias their reporting to fit the politics of segmented audiences.
The Internet provides an alternative medium for journalism, but there is not an adequate institutional model for financing the services of an adequately large and strong cadre of investigative journalists working in that medium.
The traditional media use mixed financing obtained by providing complex bundle of services. Part of the reason that they are cutting back on the newsroom is that the Internet is cutting into some of their most lucrative services thereby cutting revenues. These media combine fees for service (e.g. newspapers), advertising fees, government funding (e.g. NPR), audience donations (e.g. public television), and funding from special taxes (e.g. the British television tax financing BBC), and philanthropic grants (e.g. NSF grants for science reporting, foundation grants). Some stations have stores providing broadcast related merchandise for sale (with tax exempt revenue); others sell educational content. Think too about the licensing requirements imposed in the spectrum allocation process that requires stations to broadcast news, and the non-profit status that allows donors to claim tax deductions for donations to public radio and television.
The Internet makes publishing and distribution inexpensive, but a newsroom with an adequate staff of reporters and editors is expensive, as is developing an online audience. There are examples of online news services that are supported by advertising, subscription, and fee-for-story mechanisms. I suggest, however, that a more comprehensive mechanism for financing a major, independent, Internet news service would be a great idea.
Perhaps some of the models of public broadcasting might be considered. A mixed financing model might be used, combining advertising and user donations with other sources of funding. I don't see any feasible way of bundling Internet news with other remunerative services (as for example newspapers have bundled news with classified adds, comics, games and information on films and theater).
How about adding to the mix for Internet news services:
- tax exempt status (tax exemptions for bequests and donations)
- operational foundation status that would allow non-profit operation and facilitate reception of grants and bequests and tax free income generation
- licensing requirements on Internet Service Providers that they contribute a portion of revenues to online news services
- special purpose taxes, such as a tax on personal computers that would fund a foundation for Internet news broadcasting.
There is a strong ratchet effect in public decisions of the kind I am requesting. It is hard to see how the United Kingdom could reverse the decisions that led to the BBC, or how the United States could referse those that led to the primacy of commercial broadcasting. So the decision on Internet news service support also might be difficult if not impossible to undo. So lets make the right decision up front.
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