DescentBB

U.S. bill seeks to rescue faltering newspapers

Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:05pm EDT

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

\"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat,\" said Senator Benjamin Cardin.

A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.

Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.

Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.

Because newspaper profits have been falling in recent years, \"no substantial loss of federal revenue\" was expected under the legislation, Cardin's office said in a statement.

Cardin's office said his bill was aimed at preserving local and community newspapers, not conglomerates which may also own radio and TV stations. His bill would also let a non-profit buy newspapers owned by a conglomerate.

\"We are losing our newspaper industry,\" Cardin said. \"The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.

Newspaper subscriptions and advertising have shrunk dramatically in the past few years as Americans have turned more and more to the Internet or television for information.

In recent months, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle have ceased daily publication or announced that they may have to stop publishing.

In December the Tribune Company, which owns a number of newspapers including The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times filed for bankruptcy protection.

Two newspaper chains, Gannett Co Inc and Advance Publications, on Monday announced employee furloughs. It will be the second furlough this year at Gannett.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Abbott)

(Editing by David Storey)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... 7F20090324

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All I can say is, BULL____. (Sorry to offend, but I had to say it.) The political party in power does not want their favorite fountains of propaganda to falter due to the market abandoning them, so they are making them non-profit entities? Oh sure, so long as they don't \"endorse\" candidates directly- MY ASS. This is almost like Castro's \"Grandma\" newspaper needing a financial boost, so who gives it a break? Castro. Pravda isn't turning a profit? Vladimir might stop taxing them.

The independence of the media is a bad joke and the democrats are just adding the punchline. The next may well be the \"fairness doctrine\" - and in the end, the joke will be on all of us.

Naked political power grab by any means necessary. Get your propaganda repeated and squash the opposing views of others. Sound familiar?

The Democratic lead Government MUST bailout the newspapers. if they dont who's gonna spew their drivel

The newspaper survived the T.V., but it wont survive the internet. There is no newspaper in the U.S. that I would sign up to recieve even if it was free.

It is a service that isn't wanted by the younger generation. So ya, maybe the old hippies read the \"drivel,\" but I'm pretty sure they are set in their ways.

and calling it, \"favorite fountains of propaganda,\" makes me believe you are a bit out of touch...hang on...

...oh, just got a text message from Obama, gotta go.

I canceled my subscription to the boregonian a couple of months ago. they offered me 6 months free just to try to retain me. Print Media is dead, most of them are just too stupid to realise it.

Gooberman wrote:...
...oh, just got a text message from Obama, gotta go.

Hold on to your wallet....with both hands!

Let's see... National newspapers that have a majority of \"progressive\" writers...100 to newspapers that are \"conservative\" 1.

\"Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism.\"

from here.

I'm still surprized that we still read books on paper. I thought my generation would of been doing it by the internet or something by now.

Too bad my local newspaper has the ugliest internet layout ever:
http://tampabay.com/publication/
But this might be cool, I never really looked into it:
http://tampabay.com/mystpetetimes/

Dakatsu wrote:I'm still surprized that we still read books on paper.

you can have my library when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands ....

dissent wrote:

Dakatsu wrote:I'm still surprized that we still read books on paper.

you can have my library when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands ....

X2

dissent wrote:you can have my library when you can pry it from my cold, dead hands ....

ha! I'm going to have to quote at just the right moment sometime.

I think e-books are GREAT. My wife owns a sony e-reader. But my print library will still work even after the current favorite storage format has changed.

I wonder if the same mentality applied to institutions like AIG and fannie mae..

I guess I'm old fashioned. I like paper for reading. It's tactile and quiet and you don't have to burn out your eyes staring a screen to read print. Newspapers give us local news and gossip that you can't find as easy on the net. Also, there's nothing like curling up in bed with a good book that doesn't need power to use. You'll have to remember that newspapers have outlived the telegraph, telephone, radio and TV. But it looks like the internet will finally do the job.

What I wonder is when will they start charging us to fund the internet articles we search for and look at for free and I'm not talking about the access we pay for just to GET online from our homes. No one's figured out a model yet other than obnoxious pop-ups and full screen cover-overs. The AP is going to start charging for access to their news articles soon. Loss of advertising revenues is one of the big factors in the demise of the newspaper and even bookstores are in trouble too. Browsing a good bookstore is not the same as browsing the internet. You're more likely to find something unexpected.

I agree with tunnelcat --- it would be a shame to lose the local newspapers. But I think the internet competes with larger, national newspapers anyways. At least I did not hear much about local papers being in danger.

And I wholeheartedly agree with the bookstores. I always try to buy local and not via Amazon.

I think there's a big difference between books and newspapers, on a subjective level. I don't like reading books on a screen, because I feel like I'm staring at it for hours on end, and it end up bothering my eyes. On the other hand, I usually skim news media, and am done with it within ~1/2 hr. Internet news sites make it easier for me to get to what I'm interested in, and at the same time easy to skip what doesn't interest me much. A newspaper is just kinda big and annoying, if you ask me. Really, the only part I'll miss is the comics.

So, I agree with people saying that newspapers should be allowed to die. The demand for local news will still exist, and people will figure out how they prefer to get it, and that media method will be profitable.

I don't know that I believe the political take on it that this is a grab for power.... I just think that newspapers are nearing the end of their evolutionary life, and these actions would just prolong their death. *note- some will probably still survive, such a The wall street journal, and USA today.*

I say journalism needs to adapt, and the government needs to stop trying to tinker with the capitalistic system.