CREATING A PUBLIC SQUARE IN A CHALLENGING MEDIA AGE A White Paper on the Knight Commission Report on Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age Norman J. Ornstein with John C. Fortier and Jennifer Marsico Executive Summary Much has changed in media and communications costs. Newspapers would benefit from looser technologies over the past fifty years. Today we face the rules and more flexibility. News organizations dual problems of an increasing gap in access to these should be able to work together to collect technologies between the “haves” and “have nots” and payment for content access. fragmentation of the once-common set of facts that 2. Implement government subsidies. With high Americans shared through similar experiences with the costs of operation, the newspaper industry media. This white paper lays out four major challenges should be eligible for lower postal rates and that the current era poses and proposes ways to meet exemptions from sales taxes. these challenges and boost civic participation. 3. Change the tax status of papers, making them tax-exempt in some fashion. This could Challenge One: Keeping Newspapers Alive involve categorizing newspapers as “bene- fit” or “flexible purpose” corporations, or Until They Are Well treating them as for-profit businesses that have a charitable or educational purpose. A large part of the average newspaper budget com- prises costs related to printing, bundling, and deliv- ery. The development of new delivery models could greatly reduce (or perhaps eliminate) these Challenge Two: Universal Access and expenses. Potential new models use screen- Adequate Spectrum technology advancement (using new tools like the iPad) and raise subscription revenue online. To The Obama administration wants to provide uni- ensure the continuation of newspapers, we make the versal broadband and expand fiber-optic networks. following recommendations: Given the costs associated with these two goals, how do we make this happen? 1. Alter antitrust laws to make it easier for news- papers to make the transition to new models. 1. Find public-private partnerships. Graham Rigidity in industry operations has raised Richard, former mayor of Fort Wayne, iii CREATING A PUBLIC SQUARE IN A CHALLENGING MEDIA AGE Indiana, was at the forefront of government assessments, bus and subway schedules, and parking leaders in the expansion of broadband and restrictions). Government can play an important role fiber optics. He partnered with Verizon to here, as our recommendations indicate. implement a FiOS network in Fort Wayne that lowered government costs, while simul- 1. State governments should facilitate the stand- taneously improving services. Verizon paid ardization of information across various munici- the costs of putting up the network while the palities. Some local jurisdictions do not have city expedited the permits and process. Both the ability to manipulate and produce infor- benefited. This should serve as an example mation, so states need to step in. States for future public-private partnerships. could produce data that is standardized and 2. Use ongoing construction projects in commu- easily accessible across communities, perhaps nities to add fiber-optic cable and expand resulting in more innovative manipulation wiring. The “dig once” bill would require all and use of the information by outside sources. federally funded transportation projects to 2. Find additional avenues to encourage the add underground broadband conduit. This use of imaginative but less commercially driven bill should be amended to include sewers applications for smartphones and other devices. and passed as soon as possible. To produce information that citizens can 3. Hold an overlay auction using modern use, we should harness the American entre- spectrum-management tools to bring all the rel- preneurial spirit. Contests should be held evant actors into the process and best use by government on the national and state the broadcast spectrum. According to Tom levels to develop useful applications that Hazlett of George Mason University, 83 per- facilitate greater access to information. cent of the broadcast spectrum is currently 3. Build portals to enhance citizen access to infor- unused, and much of it could be applied— mation. Sites like THOMAS and Data.gov to Internet access and cell-phone coverage, perform the important service of increasing for instance—without any disruption to transparency and access to government existing services. Splitting the digital televi- data. Portals should be built in each state, sion spectrum into overlay licenses and then operated by state governments and using auctioning them off would raise significant local government data. revenue, which could fund the expansion of broadband capability and provide subsidies 4. Design and expand e-voter guides as a tool for to poor Americans to enable them to harness civic education. Oregon and Washington this communications system. State, both largely vote-by-mail states, send guides with candidate and voting informa- tion to voters along with their ballots. These guides should also be posted online and Challenge Three: Providing Quality Informa- made available at polling places. tion to Citizens in Communities One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in getting Challenge Four: Creating a Vibrant quality information to citizens is producing and Public Square disseminating information relevant to the community (such as election and budget information, garbage Media fragmentation has made it very difficult—if and leaf pickup schedules, property taxes and not impossible—to create the common set of facts iv Norman J. Ornstein with John C. Fortier and Jennifer Marsico that Americans shared in the early years of televi- funds would allow not just public televi- sion. Developing a public-square channel, the likes sion and radio to get funding, but also of which public television envisioned back in the other media. This would potentially enable mid-1990s, might help restore some of the lost more innovation and flexibility, as new commonality. Here are some suggestions to make a media sources emerge. It would also pro- vibrant public square a reality. vide an incentive for existing media outlets to pursue projects that are not commer- 1. Replace broadcasters’ public-interest obliga- cially feasible but that would enhance the tions with a rental fee for the use of public public interest. airwaves and use this fee to fund programming 3. Encourage social networking sites, as well as in the public interest. The existing broad- partnerships between social networking and casters’ obligations currently cost around traditional media. Facebook just surpassed $10 billion, while a rental fee (assessed on 500 million users; clearly, social networking broadcasters by a small tax on gross rev- is important to our communications future. enues) would result in about $2 billion of Traditional media sources should develop funding. The bulk of this money could go partnerships with sites like Facebook and toward funding a public-square channel, Twitter, enabling greater exposure for their which would also be financed by revenue own websites and news items. from the overlay auctions mentioned above. But not all the funds would have to Improving the current state of democracy—by be used for public media; other media out- increasing access to government information, pro- lets could receive monies to enhance the viding the tools and technologies that enable us to public interest as well. communicate with each other, and creating a public 2. Create a public-private foundation to allocate square that will keep us informed about our own money for public-interest purposes. Rather communities, geographical and otherwise—is obvi- than giving money directly to public ously a daunting task, but these recommendations media, creating a foundation to allocate would bring us much closer to achieving that goal. v Creating a Public Square in a Challenging Media Age The Knight Commission’s report, Informing Commu- pride of their household. Changing the channels was nities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, focuses simple—4, 5, and 9 were the choices—but it meant appropriately on the challenges the digital age pre- getting up physically from the chair and rotating the sents for traditional media and looks for ways to dial. Remote controls did not yet exist, so channels ensure that communities have the information that is were changed infrequently. There were shows that as vital as “clean air, safe streets, good schools and were appointment television—his family, along with a public health” to their healthy functioning.1 To that majority of Americans, would gather to watch I Love end, the commission focuses on making credible Lucy or Milton Berle—and they would sit patiently and relevant information available and accessible, through lengthy, sponsored commercials, rarely making sure individuals can receive and use that changing channels. Their television news choices information, and promoting public engagement. In were also three, but only two really mattered; the this white paper, based on a series of extended NBC Camel News Caravan (a cigarette-sponsored working-group discussions with a broad range of newscast!) with John Cameron Swayze (later, the scholars, journalists, technology experts, public offi- Huntley-Brinkley Report), and the CBS Evening News cials, and others, we will examine each of these cat- with Douglas Edwards, succeeded by Walter egories and look for specific and concrete