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Baltimore officials extended a financial break on Wednesday to the struggling Baltimore Jewish Times, which like many media outlets has been hard hit by the national economic downturn.
A deal, approved unanimously by the city's Board of Estimates, allows the weekly newspaper to suspend principal payments on a $150,000 relocation loan for the next two years. While it saves the paper from having to lay off another staff member, the move raises questions about how news outlets objectively cover cities that have extended financial help.
Calling the concern "valid," publisher Andrew A. Buerger said the transaction would not affect the Times' reporting.
Buerger stressed that accepting the Baltimore Development Corp. loan in 2002 had no impact on the paper's work and pointed to watchdog articles about poor police response times in Jewish communities. He vowed to continue such coverage.
"I don't think our editorial department is even aware" of the restructuring, he said.
"We looked at what costs can we control," Buerger said. "We are not getting out of the loan."
Buerger said that he has laid off four staff members in the past year as advertising revenue declines, and the suspension of loan payments will save a position. The paper has about 45 staff members, including 10 in the newsroom, he said.
The city initially extended the loan to the paper to lure it back from Owings Mills. The money, lent at a 3 percent interest rate, was intended to cover relocation costs. The paper has repaid $40,000 in principal, and will continue its weekly interest payments.
Jeff Pillas, the chief financial officer for the Baltimore Development Corp., said that the "economy has not been kind to a lot of companies." The loan schedule was softened, he said, because BDC "didn't want them to close up."
Accepting funds from the city entity can be complicated for a news organization. Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a media training and studies organization in St. Petersburg, Fla., said that any time a journalism organization gets a favor or a benefit from a municipality "it creates a conflict of interest.
"The problem is that if you are in debt to a powerful organization, you may be inclined to not cover them," she said. "You may not ask tough questions."
But she also noted that in the current economic climate, it is not uncommon for papers to look to government for help. "It is not that unheard of to get a juicy tax credit, to get an actual loan or get some of your taxes forgiven in some way," she said.
And the debate about public subsidies to newspapers is raging in the industry. This month, Leonard Downie Jr, a vice president and former editor of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, released a report urging governments to play a larger role in shoring up news organizations, similar to support for arts and humanities.
Still, they wrote in their report, public subsidies would have to be carefully controlled because "like most Americans" they have a "deep distrust of direct government involvement or political influence in independent news reporting."
Though the issue is topical now in discussions about the journalism industry, news companies historically have obtained subsidies for expansion projects as do many major businesses. Parent companies for The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun have accepted significant government incentives for construction of new buildings or printing plants. Those news organizations extensively covered the deals, something that McBride said helps maintain the paper's credibility.
"Definitely transparency helps. It helps displace perception that there might be something untoward happening," McBride said. "The best remedy is to do really good independent watch dog reporting over time."
A deal, approved unanimously by the city's Board of Estimates, allows the weekly newspaper to suspend principal payments on a $150,000 relocation loan for the next two years. While it saves the paper from having to lay off another staff member, the move raises questions about how news outlets objectively cover cities that have extended financial help.
Calling the concern "valid," publisher Andrew A. Buerger said the transaction would not affect the Times' reporting.
Buerger stressed that accepting the Baltimore Development Corp. loan in 2002 had no impact on the paper's work and pointed to watchdog articles about poor police response times in Jewish communities. He vowed to continue such coverage.
"I don't think our editorial department is even aware" of the restructuring, he said.
"We looked at what costs can we control," Buerger said. "We are not getting out of the loan."
Buerger said that he has laid off four staff members in the past year as advertising revenue declines, and the suspension of loan payments will save a position. The paper has about 45 staff members, including 10 in the newsroom, he said.
The city initially extended the loan to the paper to lure it back from Owings Mills. The money, lent at a 3 percent interest rate, was intended to cover relocation costs. The paper has repaid $40,000 in principal, and will continue its weekly interest payments.
Jeff Pillas, the chief financial officer for the Baltimore Development Corp., said that the "economy has not been kind to a lot of companies." The loan schedule was softened, he said, because BDC "didn't want them to close up."
Accepting funds from the city entity can be complicated for a news organization. Kelly McBride, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a media training and studies organization in St. Petersburg, Fla., said that any time a journalism organization gets a favor or a benefit from a municipality "it creates a conflict of interest.
"The problem is that if you are in debt to a powerful organization, you may be inclined to not cover them," she said. "You may not ask tough questions."
But she also noted that in the current economic climate, it is not uncommon for papers to look to government for help. "It is not that unheard of to get a juicy tax credit, to get an actual loan or get some of your taxes forgiven in some way," she said.
And the debate about public subsidies to newspapers is raging in the industry. This month, Leonard Downie Jr, a vice president and former editor of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, released a report urging governments to play a larger role in shoring up news organizations, similar to support for arts and humanities.
Still, they wrote in their report, public subsidies would have to be carefully controlled because "like most Americans" they have a "deep distrust of direct government involvement or political influence in independent news reporting."
Though the issue is topical now in discussions about the journalism industry, news companies historically have obtained subsidies for expansion projects as do many major businesses. Parent companies for The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun have accepted significant government incentives for construction of new buildings or printing plants. Those news organizations extensively covered the deals, something that McBride said helps maintain the paper's credibility.
"Definitely transparency helps. It helps displace perception that there might be something untoward happening," McBride said. "The best remedy is to do really good independent watch dog reporting over time."
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goalcone - you are lucky the Jwealthy Jewish community invests in Baltimore or it would a total mess.
DrDr74 - where was the WEALTHY jewish community when libraries, pools and PAL centers were being closed in the hood ... Well they weren't the ones destroying those places with their the community's usual disregard for anything nice. It's funny how most of the neighborhooods were lower class Jewish and when they worked hard to get out, the areas turned to ghettos. We wouldn't need so many police if the people who lived in these areas weren't such animals.
Thruthhurts (10/31/2009, 2:44 PM )