The Federal Trade Commission has set out on the somewhat quixotic journey of trying to identify ways to save journalism as we know it from possible extinction. Through a series of public forums, the last of which will take place in Washington on Tuesday, the commission has been gathering and analyzing an array of suggestions to help make the business of gathering and reporting news profitable again. The commission is expected to produce a final study late this year.
Susan S. DeSanti, director of the commission’s office of policy planning and the person overseeing the “reinvention of journalism” study, as it is known, said that coming up with a set of suggestions now could be premature, given the state of flux in the news business.
Steven Brill, who ran a news media watchdog publication and is now developing a system for newspapers to charge readers for access online, said journalists should find it uncomfortable that the government is considering ways to subsidize their work.
Mr. Brill, like others who have been following the commission’s work, doubts there will be any significant policy changes recommended, in large part because there is no public appetite for government intervention to save the news media.
Read more at the New York Times.
