Congress Contemplates Fate Of Newspapers
Declining advertising and classified sales, waning subscription numbers, the 24-hour news cycle and new competition brought by Internet innovators are among the myriad challenges facing newspapers in the recession-plagued 21st century - and now Congress wants to get involved. On Tuesday afternoon, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy will hold a hearing titled "A New Age for Newspapers: Diversity of Voices, Competition and the Internet." Witnesses include Carl Shapiro, deputy assistant attorney general for economics at the Justice Department; Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney; journalist John Nichols; Newspaper Guild President Bernie Lunzer; Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott; University of Pennsylvania professor C. Edwin Baker; and Dan Gainor, director of the Business and Media Institute.
Next month, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet will hold a similar hearing to address the issues threatening the news media. The May 6 hearing will be Kerry's first since Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller tapped him to head up the panel. "An independent news media is vital to our democracy," Kerry said in a statement. "It holds power accountable while giving voice to the people and interests who might otherwise never be heard." United States history "is inextricably linked to the narrative of our free and independent press," Kerry said, yet America's newspapers are struggling to stay afloat. "I called this hearing to directly address a problem that for too long has had us turning the other way. Whatever the model for the future, we must do all we can to ensure a diverse and independent news media endures," he said.
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