‘The Reconstruction of American Journalism’ is a seminal analysis of the state of American journalism by two Journalism professors. One of whom - Leonard Downie, Jr. was executive editor of the Washington Post.
It is a sharp analysis of the state of the industry at a transformational moment. Newspaper news and television news are not going to disappear but they will play a diminished role in the rapidly changing world of digital journalism.
Recent discussions on the economic challenges of the newspaper and questions about online economic models (pay wall vs. ad-supported) haven’t addressed what may be lost and not necessarily supportable by the bloggers of the world. Namely public affairs and accountability reporting as well as detailed reporting on local and state issues.
The two questions they attempt to answer are:
What is going to take the place of what is being lost?
What should be done to shape the new landscape to ensure essential elements of independent original and credible news reporting are preserved?
They have six recommendations:
1. The Internal Revenue Service or Congress should clearly and explicitly authorize any independent news organization substantially devoted to reporting on public affairs to be created as or converted into a nonprofit entity or a Low-profit Limited Liability Corporation serving the public interest, regardless of its mix of financial support, including commercial sponsorship and advertising. The IRS or Congress also should explicitly authorize “program-related investments” by philanthropic foundations in these hybrid news organizations—and in designated public service news reporting by for-profit news organizations.
2. Philanthropists, foundations, and community foundations should substantially increase their support for news organizations that have demonstrated a substantial commitment to public affairs and accountability reporting.
3. Public radio and television should be substantially reoriented to provide significant local news reporting in every community served by public stations and their Web sites. This requires urgent action by and reform of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, increased congressional funding and support for public media news reporting, and changes in mission and leadership for many public stations across the country.
4. Universities, both public and private, should become on-going sources of local, state, specialized subject, and accountability news reporting as part of their educational missions. They should operate their own news organizations, host platforms for other nonprofit news and investigative reporting organizations, provide faculty positions for active individual journalists, and be laboratories for digital innovation in the gathering and sharing of news and information.
5. A national Fund for Local News should be created with money the Federal Communications Commission now collects from or could impose on telecom users, television and radio broadcast licensees, or Internet service providers and administered in open competition through state Local News Fund Councils.
6.More should be done—by journalists, nonprofit organizations, and governments—to increase the accessibility and usefulness of public information collected by federal, state, and local governments, to facilitate the gathering and dissemination of public information by citizens, and to expand public recognition of the many sources of relevant reporting.