Editor’s Note
Back in the old days — that’s less than a decade and before there were such things as blogs and interactive conversations with readers — editors used to respond to their newspaper readers with an “editor’s note.” Sometimes it clarified a point made in a letter to the editor. Sometimes it offered a correction. Sometimes it was just a simple explanation. An editor’s note was a handful of sentences; maybe a four or five paragraphs. It was always a personal link between the editor and the reader. Only difference between it and today’s blog is the immediacy and the platform. Welcome to Editor’s Note.

Archive for January 23rd, 2009

Could you make do with $83 million a year?

Add comment January 23rd, 2009

I’m pretty sure I could. That’s what former Merrill Lynch CEO and now former Bank of America honcho John Thain made at Merrill Lynch in 2007. Thain resigned from BOA this week following reports that he pushed through executive-level bonuses at Merrill Lynch just before it was taken over by BOA the first of January.

In an earlier post this week I asked how he could sleep at night. Thought you might appreciate this Associated Press story that comes to the disheartening conclusion that these wizards of finance are slow to get the message: The obscene gravy boat done cracked.

A bailout for newspapers — in France

Add comment January 23rd, 2009

Assistant Business Editor Isaac Guerrero flagged this post for me just now: “France will offer all 18-year-olds a free daily copy of the newspaper of their choice, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, announcing a package of measures to help the beleaguered press.”

The newspapers will cover the costs of the free papers and France will pay for distribution. Sarkozy also said France would double its spending on government advertising, freeze postal rates and reduce payroll taxes for newsagents.

I assure you that is a multi-million dollar chunk of change, and probably a lot more.  And, oh, is it seductive. I mean, while shouldn’t American newspapers stick out their hands? Everyone else is having their palms greased with government bailouts and the reporters covering those bailouts are wondering if they’ll still have jobs when they get back to the office.

That’s a temptation we need to resist. Newspapers ought to be able to compete for the same loans, incentives and breaks as everyone else, but a bailout?  A bailout a la the banks and financial sectors? No, a thousand times no. The absolute last thing we need in the United States is a news and information industry controlled by the government.

For all our warts, the U.S. news media is the strongest, most aggressive and least beholden of any in the world. You might not like how we do it, but you can be sure of one thing: Try though it might, the government is not controlling it. And, over time, the rough and tumble culture of the First Amendment world defines the foundation of our freedoms: speech, press, religion, assembly and petition.

Gaad, that French cash sounds good. So tempting. No.