In 2001, Leo Bogart – INNOVATION’s New York Director at the time – introduced me to a very fine journalist, Lawrence K. Grossman.
He was the distinguished former President of NBC News and of PBS.
And a few years later, in 2004, Lawrence sent me an interesting paper presented at the Breaux Symposium about Should the Government Subsidize the Press?
His 2004 ideas were quite unique.
And prescient of today’s concerns.
You can download it here, and read from page 163 in this PDF with the full transcript of his paper at the 2004 Breaux Symposium.
The New York Times now has published a revival of these old ideas, but ignoring Lawrence’s original arguments in the matter.
Shame on them!
But at the same time, I have to say that I don’t agree with the Sarkozy subsidies to save French newspapers.
And I don’t agree that endowments will save American newspapers either.
What we need to save is journalism, not newspapers.
What we need to save is free reporting.
Free editing.
Free distribution.
And the free press.
I’m sorry, but subsidies or endowments will only promote the laziness of managers and newsrooms.