Waxman says US Government May Bailout Newspapers
The topic of bailouts is on the table again, but this time it’s not in reference to the banking industry, it is in reference to the US newspaper media business.
Reports of Henry Waxman’s (House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman) commentary on newspapers, given at a conference hosted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission today, show that the US government is seriously thinking of stepping into the publishing world, with hopes of fixing the failing business model. The government is considering taking actions such as making ‘publisher friendly’ changes to related tax codes.
The ultimate question that should be asked is how will government involvement change or shape news media? For years, newspapers or the news industry has been seen as the source for unbiased editorial. How freely will opinions and viewpoints be given, especially in the way of political review, under a government defined media structure? Either way, a government bailout will more than highlight the past mistakes of the industry. The mistakes that surround the newspapers inability to shift to audience adaptation of the Internet in a timely fashion, which is more than the launching of a Web site with banner positioning. A timely shift would have meant newspapers aligning (changing) staff and ‘spend’, so that the heavy focus would have been with their Web properties, as opposed to legacy businesses – a hard thing to do when it means changing the business model your company has followed for almost a century in some cases. However, blaming the Internet and more specifically Google for the failure of print media is not a viable reasoning to be given. Newspapers have celebrated something that no pure-play ever had before them and that is brand recognition and trust. Acting on the creation of an eBusiness, at the rise of the Web, would have ensured them longevity and an admired sense of success.
Given the obvious delay to act on the part of newspapers, is a bailout still in order?
