Marti Harvey on Future of Newspapers |
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This interview is part of the Future of Journalism interview series. This is an interview by OurBlook with Marti Harvey, faculty member and student newspaper advisor for the Eastfield College EtCetera. Eastfield is in Mesquite, Texas (near Dallas. What do you think of the idea being bandied about that governments as a last resort should bail out failing newspapers? MH: I don't feel comfortable with government bailing out newspapers because of the inherent conflict of interest, i.e., journalism's watchdog function. As it is, investigative journalism has really suffered due to the need to keep profits up at newspapers, and I fear adding government bailouts to the mix would be just another nail in the coffin for good investigative journalism. For-profit journalism, though, is not the best model, either. I'm afraid the need for editorial content as an avenue to provide space for advertisers has created an environment for homogenized content. With wire service content costing less than good old-fashioned, pound-the-pavement journalism, newspapers have resorted to the quick fix without branding themselves with good investigative content. If a newspaper wants fluff or non-original content, then these models are OK. But I don't think that's what good journalism should be. In the event governments decide to do it, should they attach conditions as is being done for other bailout loans and grants or should it be a blank check? MH: If governments do decide to bail out newspapers, they should be able to attach conditions to executive pay or profit incentives, but the First Amendment rights of journalists should not be affected. This should be stipulated in any agreement. Philanthropic groups also are being mentioned as a possible savior for newspapers. What do you think of that as a possibility? MH: The philanthropic model such as NPR could be a good model. The only problem is that with limited philanthropic resources, we could have fewer newspapers. That would be OK if quality reporting was the foremost goal. Local community papers do seem to be less hard hit than big dailies, so they could take up the slack as far as variety of coverage, i.e. local features and sports. Then the big dailies could concentrate on the investigative function. Texas doesn't seem to be as hard-hit by the recession as the rest of the country. What is the financial situation with the papers in your state that you follow? MH: The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star Telegram seem to be bleeding red ink as much as other newspapers. It seems the Austin American Statesman is in better shape financially. I'm not sure why that is, but I do see the AAS as a better newspaper. The DMN has made so many cuts and increased its subscription rates so dramatically that I feel they are fighting a losing battle. Asking subscribers to pay more for less just isn't a good business model. Do your students give a hoot about whether newspapers are going to survive? MH: My students do seem to care if newspapers survive. In the past we have talked about going to web-only news due to soaring printing costs, but the uproar from students has quelled that talk. I still see students sitting at tables with laptops; however, they are reading the print edition of the campus newspaper. It's something they can save and it seems they see it as a more official record of campus events than the Internet versions of the same content. With the prospect now that many newspapers across America are on the brink of bankruptcy, what do you think the effect will be on our society if they don't make it? MH: I think we will begin to get a more homogenized version of news with fewer and fewer points of view. The public agenda will be set by a few large corporations with their own interests. The watchdog function will be relegated to very few with limited resources. Government and corporate entities will have fewer constraints and oversight on their public responsibilities. Unethical entities will be able to take advantage of the environment and have more opportunities to pursue their own agendas without regard to public responsibility. Marti Harvey has spent 10 years in the field of public relations, including radio, nonprofit and corporate areas. She is working on her master's degree in communications at the University of Texas at Arlington. She has worked for the Dallas Morning News, the Mesquite News and the Rowlett Lakeshore Times.
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