Sunday, November 19, 2006

Heaven Help Us, Return of the Press Barons?

Posted by olvlzl.

This article in today's Boston Globe goes into more detail about press ownership and the consequences of different models. While not agreeing with all of it the article gives a lot to think about. The short version is, Even so, the newspaper industry's recent difficulties suggest that public ownership is no more a panacea than private ownership. "It's not ownership per se," says Jay Harris, "it's the values of the owners that matter."

Then why not get rid of the owners and investors? Particularly interesting is the mention of the St. Petersburg Times and the Manchester Union Leader which are now owned by journalism schools. The St. Petersurg Times is a great paper on some days and the Union Leader is less bad than when the late and unlamented Bill and Nacky Loeb* and owned it.

*Pat Buchanan called Nacky his "political godmother", for example.