Supporting Journalism as a Public Good

By Matthew Lane, Project Disco

On June 11, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing on “The Free and Diverse Press.” One of the main topics of discussion was how to preserve the value of journalism when new technology disrupts it. In a previous post, I explained why I do not believe that antitrust immunities are the right fix for the news industry. But what is? Fortunately, the FTC examined this issue a decade ago and presented suggestions in a 2010 discussion draft. These proposals are helpful, because they offer ways to support journalism through multiple models rather than fixing the common advertising-supported journalism model currently in place. The Internet is changing the industry in ways that radio and TV did not, and looking for model-agnostic solutions seems the most appropriate. But before we can discuss solutions, we need to define the problem.

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