Will Tycoons Save or Ruin Newspapers?

Today's New York Times quotes Roy Greenslade of The Evening Standard as follows: "There are five reasons for owning newspapers, and all begin with a P: profit, propaganda, political influence, prestige and public service. There's no profit in The Standard,so you've got to look at the other things." His comments were provoked by the fact that The Standard is about to have a new owner: Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, the former K.G.B. spy who has become a billionaire banker.

Greenslade's formula resembles the ownership typology that I set forth a year ago in a paper called "Leading the Way to Better News: How the Powers that Be became the Powers that Were." But something essential has changed during that year. The profit motive has become elusive, at best, and now seems more fit for nostalgia than investment decisions. Hopefully new solutions, or a turnaround in the national economy will lead publications back to profitability. But the sugar-daddy solution is looking more and more attractive - and inevitable.

Enter Carlos Slim, the Mexican businessman, second richest man in the world, and now savior of the New York Times. No doubt we will quickly learn more about what Carlos Slim and the Times have in mind. Maybe his loan/investment is a temporary fix. But for papers owned by companies that have no other major source of income - companies that were not as wise as the Washington Post Company, which is kept profitable by the hugely successful Kaplan, Inc. - the tycoon solution may become an increasingly common "solution." If that happens, hopefully their primary motive will be prestige and public service, not propaganda and political influence. But don't count on it.

The Role of State Run News Media

As the commercial news media in the US reduce their newsrooms, will news consumers start to rely more and more on international sources, some of which are state funded? Certainly the BBC has become a much more important source of news for a great many Americans, thanks to the availability of the BBC on the web. Will we begin to rely on other news outlets such as Al Jezeera, which is now available on the web in English (but not on many cable systems, which is another topic)?

According to a report in the New York Times this morning, "Chinese state-controlled news organizations plan to spend billions of dollars" to acquire international media assets (heaven knows there are plenty for sale), to open "overseas bureaus" and to generate more content in English and other languages. The United States has made similar efforts in other countries over the years, but we are not used to having an international competitor with such vast resources enter the field.

Interestingly, while other countries are using government money to fund news stories that will be read in America, and may well make their way into blogs and other news aggregators, America's own international news programs cannot be distributed in this country. Our Center on Communication Leadership and Policy hosted a conference on that topic in Washington yesterday. But thanks to the web, you can access VOA on the web, and VOA stories are the fifth most used source of news on the Google aggregator.

The development and use of international sources of news, including those that are state-funded, will be an interesting thread to watch and discuss during the term.

Geoffrey Cowan