Can Human Rights Watch, the NGO that's eyeing a significant role in the world of journalism, muster the credibility needed to deliver the news even as it acts as advocate for human rights? That's the kind of question journalists sometimes ask when they hear that NGOs like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others are aspiring to fill some of the void created by the shrinkage of news operations. But it's not a question that concerns Carroll Bogert. "I would say that in general, we do much more than journalists do to assure we have the facts right," said Bogert,……
Tag: westphal
Alex Jones: Endow ‘NewsHour’ with $2 billion
Alex Jones has led one of the nation's most successful nonprofits on politics and the press for nearly nine years. Like many people, though, he doesn't think the fundamental answer to the news media's precipitous slide will be found in the largess of philanthropists and foundations. "The solution to what's happening to news media these days is going to be a commercial one," said Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. There are two exceptions, though, and one of them is a big one.Jones wants one or more of the world's richest people……
Knight Foundation seeks ideas on community news needs
Over the next two weeks the Knight Foundation is asking the public to help define communities' news and information needs. Journalism's biggest foundation is skeptical that communities will have the information they need to be effective citizens in the digital age. You can view the Knight Foundation's press release here…….
New Voices program backs 8 hyperlocal sites
Eight more hyperlocal community news sites have received funding from J-Lab's New Voices program. Each will get startup funding of $25,000 — courtesy of the Knight Foundation — over two years. Half of the winning proposals are associated with universities. Since 2005, New Voices has provided funding for 48 hyperlocal programs. You can read about the winners and view the New Voices press release here…….
The New Yorker; David Denby reviews… newspapers
You might know him as an astute critic writing about film for The New Yorker. But David Denby writes about other things as well — including some ideas on how newspapers survive the Internet age. You can read Denby's letter to the New York Times here…….
Will community news sites keep growing?
A few of my newspaper editor friends have tweaked me recently about the reporting I've done on community news Web sites. All had the same question: Given these sites' mostly tiny size (audience, news content, revenue), haven't I been hyping their impact a bit? It's a fair question. So is a related one that also comes up. Aren't many of these sites likely to fail because, despite valiant efforts by their creators, they'll be unable to generate sustainable advertising revenue? Since coming to USC Annenberg last fall, I've reported extensively on the rise of community Web sites, in posts at……
Newspapers as non-profits? Tax savings but some big downsides
Given the fact that many newspapers seem headed toward nonprofit status anyway, it's perhaps not surprising that someone would try to make it official. Legislation introduced this week by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland would enable newspapers to establish themselves as tax-exempt nonprofits and qualify for significant expense savings courtesy of Uncle Sam. Under the Cardin measure, they wouldn't have to pay income taxes on income derived from advertising sales. That's a big difference from existing IRS regulations, which customarily extract federal income taxes on advertising revenue derived by nonprofits. (There are a number of exceptions to this, including one……
Newspapers search for business model
American Public Media's "Marketplace" interviewed Senior Fellow David Westphal about the problems facing the newspaper industry. The business is in limbo, with no clear version of what the next phase will be, Westphal said. "A lot of people make the good point that the public's demand for news and information has really gone up – not down or stayed the same; it's gone up," he said. "The problem is that there is not … a business model around the next bend that we can look at and say with confidence, 'Oh, I can see where the money's going to come……
Watchdog journalism: Hardly a newspaper afterthought
I've just helped judge a journalism contest for my alma mater, McClatchy, and have a couple of observations to report: First, don't believe those who argue that newspapers' investigative reporting is so minimal that it's easily replaced. It isn't small, and if newspapers couldn't do it anymore, the void would be very deep. Second, high-quality watchdog reporting isn't simply the province of big national players doing "secret prisons" or "secret eavesdropping" stories. It's also the heart and soul of newsrooms across the country that keep watch over their communities and regions. I say these things not primarily to brag about……
The public gets a voice in the ‘future of news’
The media revolution has reached a new and important stage: The American public is being let in on the discussion. In the last two weeks' articles in the New York Times and Time Magazine have helped push the question of "whither news media" before a much bigger audience. I say it's about time. Of course, it's not as if the industry's increasingly dire business outlook has been a secret. The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings of the Tribune Co. and the Minneapolis Star Tribune were plenty telling. So was the Detroit newspapers' decision to limit home delivery to three days a……