GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa — African Journalists were critical today of reports that U.S. journalists receive subsidies and payments from foundations and the U.S. government. Two recent Annenberg reports were discussed at an annual media forum here, at the Highway Africa Conference 2010: "Public Policy and Funding the News" focuses on historic and current federal subsidies for news media. And "Philanthropic Foundations: Growing Funders of the News" is an analysis of increasing foundation support for American journalism…….
Tag: government action
Government Financial Support of News Media Continues Steep Decline, Adding to Financial Crisis in News Business
Government financial support that has bolstered this country's commercial news business since its colonial days is in sharp decline and is likely to fall further, according to a CCLP report released January 28, 2010. Because these cutbacks are occurring at the height of the digital revolution, they will have an especially powerful impact on a weakened news industry Public Policy and Funding the News is a unique effort to begin examining how involved the government, at all levels, has been in subsidizing news throughout American history to foster an informed citizenry; and what this support has meant for publishers, journalists……
What is Government’s Role in Supporting the News Business?
A new report on the role of government in supporting newspapers and other news organizations will be released by the University of Southern California’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy on Thursday, January 28, 2010. That same day, a press briefing will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. at 9:30 a.m. The report, Public Policy and Funding the News, is co-authored by Geoffrey Cowan (pictured, left), USC Annenberg School dean emeritus and director of the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP), and David Westphal, former Washington Editor for McClatchy Newspapers and current CCLP senior fellow……
CCLP Research Briefing: “Public Policy & Funding the News”
The Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) presents findings from a new report by Geoffrey Cowan (pictured, left), USC University Professor and CCLP director, and David Westphal, CCLP senior fellow and USC Annenberg executive in residence. The report, Public Policy and Funding the News, is sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The report "analyzes some of the financial tools that government has used to support the commercial press throughout our nation's history — from postal rate discounts and tax breaks to public notices and government advertising. It documents cutbacks across a range of sectors and presents a framework……
Cowan & Westphal: Reality check. Shrinking government support contributes to news media economic decline
A mythology about the relationship between American government and the news business is again making the rounds, and it needs a corrective jolt. The myth is that the commercial press in this country stands wholly independent of governmental sustenance. Here's the jolt: There's never been a time in U.S. history when government dollars weren't propping up the news business. This year, federal, state and local governments will spend well over $1 billion to support commercial news publishers through tax breaks, postal subsidies and the printing of public notices…….
Carnegie Corporation taps CCLP for examination of government’s response to the crisis in the news industry
From a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the future of journalism to a new tax cut for newspapers signed into law by the governor of Washington state, policymakers nationwide are responding to the crisis facing the news business. "It's … a time of real hardship for the field of journalism ….. But it's also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy," President Obama told members of the White House Correspondents' Association. Thanks to a grant from Carnegie Corporation, the USC Annenberg School for Communication's Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP)……