Policymakers have woken up to the plight of the newspapers and are on the problem:
Post Post-Intelligencer
The newsprint carcass of the Seattle PI isn’t even cold yet and we’re already learning new (and perhaps revisionist) things about the departed:
The two best print newspapers in the United States – the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the Christian Science Monitor – have just died.
How typical of us not to appreciate what we have until it is gone.
The author then goes on to suggest France as a model for saving newspapers where they are inculcating a (state-subsidized) love for newsprint amongst teenagers. (Hat tip to John who monitors cutting edge European policy innovations for Platformomics).
Senator Blowhard to the Rescue
Evidently the newspapers’ problem isn’t a demand issue like declining readership, they are just taxed too much:
With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.
Easy to offer tax breaks to money-losing entities that don’t pay taxes…
If governments really want to help newspapers, banning the Internet seems like a better way to address the root cause. Still waiting for a flat-out, cold-hard-cash newspaper bailout, but it can’t be that far off.