Buying Newpapers

[erpowers]

Liberals need to buy newspapers and restore journalism standards. The main question is how do we do this?

[TwentyFive]

1. If they were for sale

Good idea....but I think most newspapers are owned by larger conglomerates. Since there is no competing newspaper in most cities, they are probably very profitable and the companies have no desire to sell them.

[AllegroRondo]

2. St Louis paper just sold

along with all of Pulitzer media - they owned several major city papers and dozens of smaller ones. It went for tens of millions to a media group from Iowa.

[Cocoa]

3. at a gas station or convenience store

I don't recommend the coin boxes, sometimes they just take your money and don't open up.

[TahitiNut]

4. I prefer the independent news stand.

Support local owner-operators.

[trudyco]

5. I thought about this too

It would be nice if the little independent newspapers could share information and then mail out newspapers (or online - but not everybody has convenient internet access). I have a little local paper in Nebraska mail to me, as does my hometown paper.

The only national liberal rags I know right now are the Nation (but I don't like Corn and they put too much book review in it), Mother Jones (too infrequent), Washington Spectator (thin) and ???

Online there are some great little newsblogs but they also are thin, usually one person show. Salon has more but not enough to tempt me to pay. The new Republic hasn't seemed that good.

So are you thinking of a national progressive-friendly newspaper - with actual news blips, analysis, op-ed, and investigative reporting? Or are you thinking of subtly influencing the masses by buying up local papers and changing the format to make them less right wing biased? I think the former is more doable than the latter, but both need lots of capitol. Also in the latter, a lot of the really local local newspapers don't bother with national or even state news. The rural papers often just cover local stuff.

[erpowers]

6. Think of Both

I think we should buy newspapers in order to give news, analysis, op-ed peices, and investigative reporting. When I speak of changing the format I mean putting real journalistic standards in the papers. It is not really about influencing the masses it is about making sure people are informed. At this time people are not being informed