Received some great feedback on this piece from folks. Below I try to go beyond treating the Municipal Newspaper as an interesting historical anomaly to consider it (or something similar) as a potential alternative to the collapsing commercial model. washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0…
Some have bristled at notion that gov could fund news-a reaction that invariably comes up against any media subsidy plan. It’s a legitimate concern b/c state capture is a real vulnerability. But such hazards don't justify knee-jerk rejections of a potentially democratized system.
A key factor here is *public ownership*. Indeed, on the masthead of the LA Municipal News was stated: "A Newspaper Owned by the People". We'd ensure that the governing board is elected, citizen journalists serve as reporters, & elect their own editors. Local ownership & control.
If this model were tried today it wouldn't be a replica of the past. Not just in big cities, but small towns and communities across the county. Most importantly, it wouldn't just be a newspaper - it would be a multimedia news center, even providing *municipal broadband services.*
.@ryanlcooper makes a strong argument for how this could be funded at the local level in big cities: theweek.com/articles/78675…. To be replicated nationwide might call for a federally funded network of news outlets (perhaps a federalism model where each state receives a block grant)
This network of local outlets could be layered on the public broadcasting system or (as I’ve argued elsewhere) upon public infrastructures and spaces such as libraries, universities, and post offices to house community media centers and broadband services. thenation.com/article/societ…
Put bluntly: there’s no commercial solution for the journalism crisis. We’ve wasted a decade trying to find one. If we want local journalism, we must start experimenting with non-market models. Historical & international models can broaden our imagination as to what’s possible.
