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……Continue Reading CCLP Research Briefing: “Public Policy & Funding the News”
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Free press, with profits
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by Geneva Overholser and CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan about the important role government plays in sustaining serious journalism. "It's clear that journalism is in crisis, and in the current recession, things are likely to get much worse," they wrote. "With a new administration and a new Congress seeking fresh solutions to other crises, we need to consider new possibilities to help ensure that journalism remains able to provide the information needed by a great democracy."……Continue Reading Free press, with profits
Curtin, Glickman and Zacchino appointed CCLP senior fellows
A top news executive and two leading global policymakers have been appointed 2010-2011 senior fellows of Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. As part of CCLP, senior fellows contribute to the Communication Leadership blog, participate in public programs and lead projects in specific areas of engagement for the Center…….Continue Reading Curtin, Glickman and Zacchino appointed CCLP senior fellows
U.S. Newspaper cutbacks erase 40 years of gains
TOKYO – Sometimes pictures really are worth a thousand words. At year’s end, a dramatic chart published by Silicon Alley Insider was shared by email among journalists and former journalists showing just how much the newspaper industry has shrunk in the past decade. The graph measures newspaper employment, showing a steadily upward curve from 1947, when 230,000 people were employed at U.S. newspapers. The curve peaks in 1990 at almost double that number – just over 450,000 jobs at U.S. newspapers…….Continue Reading U.S. Newspaper cutbacks erase 40 years of gains
How Will Journalism Survive The Internet Age?
PaidContent cited an article written by CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan and Senior Fellow David Westphal for USC's Online Journalism Review. Cowan and Westphal wrote that government intervention to aid the journalism industry isn't a new idea…….Continue Reading How Will Journalism Survive The Internet Age?
P&G’s Cultural Revolution
BNET cited Distinguished Fellow Warren Bennis in an article by Noel Tichy, who co-wrote "Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls" with Bennis. "I've written 12 books on leadership and my co-author, Warren Bennis, has written 37. What we've learned after spending all this time with CEOs is that judgment is a process. Business leaders don't make decisions in a blink; that's for firefighters and ER nurses," Tichy wrote…….Continue Reading P&G’s Cultural Revolution
Frontline’s Fanning decries commercialism in public broadcasting
Public broadcasters face grave risks of losing credibility and trust through increasing commercialism of their work, says David Fanning, founding executive producer of the award-winning series Frontline. It is "shameful" he says about the ways some public stations use pledge drives to market products for local sponsors. "This is our deepest embarrassment as public broadcasters…we spend more of our energy and promotional time pushing programs that have nothing to do with our mission." Fanning delivered remarks at the annual James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting in November before an audience of public broadcasting leaders, community leaders, scholars and……Continue Reading Frontline’s Fanning decries commercialism in public broadcasting
Everything Old Is New Again – and Again and Again
For last year's elections, major newspaper web sites introduced such innovations as issues tracking and geotagged election watches, evidently unaware that these very tools had been introduced by Evans Witt and others back in 1996 on the first newspaper election web sites, when new media were really new. Some sites even had audio and video clips in 1996. OK, video over dialup was pretty jerky, but it was there, 13 years ago, the dog walking on its hind legs.Now we see print editors gearing up for tablet computers, as reported this week by the New York Times. The Times even……Continue Reading Everything Old Is New Again – and Again and Again
2009: A year for philanthropy-driven news
This article appeared as an op-ed in the Sunday, Dec. 13, edition of Newsday.Will news nonprofits bankrolled by foundations and philanthropists be pillars of the future media ecology? To judge by the fast decline of mainstream media’s business model, and the fast rise in philanthropy-funded journalism, it’s starting to look that way.This has been an extraordinary year for the creation of new-media organizations and Web sites, and a big reason is the money that foundations and wealthy individuals are investing. Thousands of community news sites have been launched, and most of the prominent ones are nonprofits. Just in the last……Continue Reading 2009: A year for philanthropy-driven news
Entrepreneurship and the Community Web: Motherlode of ideas
One of them is fueled by a $2 million investment and embarked on a plan to establish community news network in 50 American cities. Another is a south Los Angeles site serving a neighborhood just 1 square mile in geography. One has been in the community news business for six years; another is just now starting to monetize his site.These were among the news sites represented at Friday’s “Entrepreneurship and the Community Web” conference at the University of Southern California. To my knowledge, anyway, it was the first time a large group of community news sites had ever gotten together……Continue Reading Entrepreneurship and the Community Web: Motherlode of ideas