Veteran digital media thought-leader Dan Gillmor has a new column for Salon and he's putting down interesting markers in his first efforts. His latest post argues exhaustively (one hopes he's being paid by the word) against tax subsidies for journalists and their work.
Instead, he sees an analogy to the early days of publishing support and the need to subsidize the infrastructure that delivers the digital equivalent of the mail. Open broadband would open the business,
With such support, Gillmor argues, "entrepreneurs would almost certainly come up with the journalism, including a variety of business models to augment or replace today's, that would provide the public good we all agree comes with journalism and other trustworthy information."
Gillmor believes the newspaper industry, with a few exceptions, deserves to die and certainly doesn't deserve to be propped.
"Let's create the conditions that help ensure a market of ideas and business models, based on one of the principle America stood on in its early days: widespread contributions and access to knowledge, as a foundation of the future," he writes.
Instead, he sees an analogy to the early days of publishing support and the need to subsidize the infrastructure that delivers the digital equivalent of the mail. Open broadband would open the business,
With such support, Gillmor argues, "entrepreneurs would almost certainly come up with the journalism, including a variety of business models to augment or replace today's, that would provide the public good we all agree comes with journalism and other trustworthy information."
Gillmor believes the newspaper industry, with a few exceptions, deserves to die and certainly doesn't deserve to be propped.
"Let's create the conditions that help ensure a market of ideas and business models, based on one of the principle America stood on in its early days: widespread contributions and access to knowledge, as a foundation of the future," he writes.
