ICYMI: “Epstein's crimes would have gone unexposed without local journalism”

Today, Save Journalism Project co-founder Laura Bassett published a column in MSNBC titled, “Jeffrey Epstein’s Crimes Would Have Gone Unexposed Without Local journalism.” In the column, Basset details the dismal state of local journalism, explains how Big Tech and hedge funds got us here, and why local journalists deserve better than what the dissolving industry can currently provide.

While Google and Facebook draining every last bit of local news resources, much wrongdoing will go unexposed. Many news outlets are shrinking or disappearing altogether, and the strain on the industry’s ad revenue caused by Big Tech has imperiled the journalism industry. Lawmakers must continue to pressure tech giants to halt their abusive, monopolistic practices and allow a fair, sustainable future for local journalism.

Key Excerpts from the column:

Goldberg noted that Brown often had to pay her own expenses while reporting on Epstein and that, despite having broken one of the most important stories of the past decade, she has no retirement fund at age 59, because of the dismal financial state of the journalism industry.

There’s a parallel universe in which local newspapers like The Tampa Tribune and the New Orleans Times-Picayune still exist and even prosper and have the resources to pay a reporter to sit in the courthouse every day or dig for months into some crime that the justice system ignored — and infinitely more heinous scandals like the Epstein one that we’re not aware of are brought to light.

Lately, it’s more often the case that a wealthy and predatory hedge fund buys a struggling newspaper, sells off the physical newsroom and replaces well-paid veteran reporters with young aggregators or contractors who are willing to work for much less money.

Without a thriving free press, the Jeffrey Epsteins of the world will simply always get away with their crimes. Communities will go uninformed about local elections and voting laws and Covid-19 and Covid vaccine information. We don’t want a system in which independently wealthy 22-year-olds are the only people who can afford to write for news websites while the Julie K. Browns of the industry are forced to retire without a safety net.

News publishers should be able to compete in the lucrative online ad market, from which tech giants like Google and Facebook make billions of dollars every year. Instead, those tech companies have dominated and manipulated that market and bullied publishers out of it while profiting from hosting their news content for free. Last year, Google and Facebook alone accounted for 54 percent of all digital advertising revenue in the U.S.
Google and Facebook face multiple antitrust lawsuits that will hopefully force them to operate fairly in the digital ad marketplace and share revenue with newspapers. And President Joe Biden tapped Lina Khan, a formidable antitrust scholar, to chair the Federal Trade Commission, which suggests this administration is serious about reining in Big Tech.

Please reach out if you’re interested in discussing further, and read the full clip on MSNBC here: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/jeffrey-epstein-s-crimes-would-have-gone-unexposed-without-local-n1274901

Key Excerpts from the column:

Goldberg noted that Brown often had to pay her own expenses while reporting on Epstein and that, despite having broken one of the most important stories of the past decade, she has no retirement fund at age 59, because of the dismal financial state of the journalism industry.

There’s a parallel universe in which local newspapers like The Tampa Tribune and the New Orleans Times-Picayune still exist and even prosper and have the resources to pay a reporter to sit in the courthouse every day or dig for months into some crime that the justice system ignored — and infinitely more heinous scandals like the Epstein one that we’re not aware of are brought to light.

Lately, it’s more often the case that a wealthy and predatory hedge fund buys a struggling newspaper, sells off the physical newsroom and replaces well-paid veteran reporters with young aggregators or contractors who are willing to work for much less money.

Without a thriving free press, the Jeffrey Epsteins of the world will simply always get away with their crimes. Communities will go uninformed about local elections and voting laws and Covid-19 and Covid vaccine information. We don’t want a system in which independently wealthy 22-year-olds are the only people who can afford to write for news websites while the Julie K. Browns of the industry are forced to retire without a safety net.

News publishers should be able to compete in the lucrative online ad market, from which tech giants like Google and Facebook make billions of dollars every year. Instead, those tech companies have dominated and manipulated that market and bullied publishers out of it while profiting from hosting their news content for free. Last year, Google and Facebook alone accounted for 54 percent of all digital advertising revenue in the U.S.
Google and Facebook face multiple antitrust lawsuits that will hopefully force them to operate fairly in the digital ad marketplace and share revenue with newspapers. And President Joe Biden tapped Lina Khan, a formidable antitrust scholar, to chair the Federal Trade Commission, which suggests this administration is serious about reining in Big Tech.