Web Blackout Petition FAQ ...
Q: What is the petition about?
A: The post that launched the petition explains it all. As stated in several different places at Know Newspapers, the petition effort has nothing to do with maintaining paper as a medium. This is not about paper.
Q: What is Know Newspapers?
A: Know Newspapers was founded by TJ Sullivan to promote the Web blackout petition launched Feb. 06, 2009, in an effort to raise awareness nationwide about the importance of newspapers as news-gathering organizations and the crucial role they play in both American democracy and in the daily lives of people living in communities large and small.
Q: Who writes the posts at Know Newspapers?
A: All contributors to Know Newspapers are volunteers. Bylines appear at the end of each post. In addition, links to author bios are listed in the right column of each page beneath the heading "Know Writers."
Q: Is this blog associated with any publication, or trade organization?
A: No. Both the petition effort, and the Know Newspapers blog are independent. Know Newspapers is an advertisement-free site focused on raising public awareness about the importance of newspapers.
Q: Does this petition have anything to do with saving newspapers as print products?
A: No. Not at all. Clearly, the future of newspapers is on the Internet. The term "newspapers" refers only to the news-gathering organizations that have traditionally published news on paper. Readers who access newspaper content via the Internet far outnumber those who obtain it via the printed product.
Q: Why doesn't the petition call for a week-long blackout of news published on paper?
A: The blackout that the petition endorses is intended to raise awareness about the crisis being faced by newspapers and the colossal domino effect that their demise is sure to have on all news organizations and American democracy.
Because the bulk of newspaper content is consumed for free online, the Internet is the logical place to conduct a blackout.
Another reason the proposed blackout does not include print products, or pay-access Web sites, is a matter of ethics.
Much the same as law enforcement officials are ethically bound to serve and protect, newspaper journalists are ethically bound to fulfill their duties as the Fourth Estate. It would be irresponsible to ask newspaper journalists to shut down for even a single day. Therefore, by permitting the news to continue to be published in the print product and behind pay-access Internet barriers, newspapers can carry out their duties while also helping raise awareness about the threat to democracy posed by the current crisis.
Q: Why should anyone care about newspapers?
A: For more than 50 years, daily newspapers have served as a kind of fishing report for other forms of media, and for each other. Radio news programs, television news programs, and even afternoon daily newspapers have traditionally looked to the morning dailies before assigning and assembling their own reports.
Try this experiment: Read the daily newspaper in any metropolitan area, then watch the evening television news in that market and you're guaranteed to find that most of the non-crime news stories on TV repeat what was in the paper that day. Sometimes the TV news even gives credit to the newspaper.
The same is true on the Internet, but to a far more alarming degree.
Q: How is the Internet any more of a threat to newspapers than television has been?
Unlike TV news programs, many Internet news sites completely regurgitate the newspaper reports they obtain for free online without conducting any original reporting. Sometimes these sites credit the newspapers from which they obtained the content. Sometimes they don't.
As a result, readers are never given cause to question whether the site from which they access news is also the source.
This, of course, further confounds efforts to effectively communicate the immensity of the crisis confronting the newspaper industry and, by association, democracy.
Q: Isn't it unreasonable to think that nobody would be covering government if there were no newspapers? Wouldn't TV pick up the slack?
A: First of all, its important to acknowledge that newspapers serve as tip sheets for other forms of media.
Secondly, the issue at hand is about far more than the few newspapers that can afford to cover Washington, D.C.
The fact is that most American newspapers are located in small-to-medium-sized markets where they fulfill vital roles in their communities, the most important of which is covering local government, everything from PTA meetings on up to city councils and state legislatures.
Professionally staffed and ethically bound newspapers help to keep government honest at every level while striving to maintain a standard of fairness.
Q: Why is a blackout of free-access newspaper Web sites necessary?
A: Americans need to be made aware in a hurry of the effect that the loss of newspapers will have on democracy as well as every other type of news-gathering organization. In some cases, these effects are already being felt.
Readers need to realize that newspapers produce the bulk of reporting in the United States.
News consumers need to understand that the work of newspaper reporters and newspaper photographers often ends up being regurgitated on the Internet and through The Associated Press. Even though all the bylines are hacked off, there's still a publication out there that employed the people it took to produce those news reports.
Q: Haven't readers always been confused about the news-gathering and news-delivery process?
A: Yes, but it didn't matter before the Internet because content wasn't free, and it wasn't so easy to access and manipulate.
For many years, for example, when readers in New York City purchased copies of "The New York Times" to get the news, they knew the source of what they were reading because they had to purchase it, and even then they sometimes mistook Associated Press stories produced by other newspapers as New York Times copy simply because it appeared in the pages of The New York Times. But, newspapers weren't concerned about this misunderstanding because only paying members of The Associated Press could access their copy to publish it.
The Internet changed all that. Now everybody on the Net can get at everything for free. Content is cut and pasted millions of times each day as online news is stripped of its brand and repackaged by countless unassociated providers. The public not only perceives the product as free, but almost as if it were ubiquitous. It's devalued.
News consumers now view news the way many people perceive tap water. As long as it continues to flow, who cares from where it came, or who produced it? But the moment the source of that flow is eliminated, catastrophe is sure to result.
Q: Why should anyone help the newspaper owners?
A: This petition effort is in no way an attempt to assist the owners of newspapers.
What this petition does is:
1. It acknowledges the importance of newspapers as news-gathering organizations, and as components of a healthy democracy.
2. It attempts to raise awareness about the crisis facing America's communities and its government as a result of losing newspapers as news-gathering organizations.
3. It seeks to engage and empower all news consumers who wish to join in the search for a solution.
Q: Does this petition endorse a pay-to-access system for news online, as suggested in TIME magazine by its former managing editor, Walter Isaacson?
A; No. This petition states quite clearly that it is not an endorsement of any permanent solution.
More Q&A content will be added to this post as necessary.
— TJ Sullivan
*** Sign The Petition ***
A: The post that launched the petition explains it all. As stated in several different places at Know Newspapers, the petition effort has nothing to do with maintaining paper as a medium. This is not about paper.
Q: What is Know Newspapers?
A: Know Newspapers was founded by TJ Sullivan to promote the Web blackout petition launched Feb. 06, 2009, in an effort to raise awareness nationwide about the importance of newspapers as news-gathering organizations and the crucial role they play in both American democracy and in the daily lives of people living in communities large and small.
Q: Who writes the posts at Know Newspapers?
A: All contributors to Know Newspapers are volunteers. Bylines appear at the end of each post. In addition, links to author bios are listed in the right column of each page beneath the heading "Know Writers."
Q: Is this blog associated with any publication, or trade organization?
A: No. Both the petition effort, and the Know Newspapers blog are independent. Know Newspapers is an advertisement-free site focused on raising public awareness about the importance of newspapers.
Q: Does this petition have anything to do with saving newspapers as print products?
A: No. Not at all. Clearly, the future of newspapers is on the Internet. The term "newspapers" refers only to the news-gathering organizations that have traditionally published news on paper. Readers who access newspaper content via the Internet far outnumber those who obtain it via the printed product.
Q: Why doesn't the petition call for a week-long blackout of news published on paper?
A: The blackout that the petition endorses is intended to raise awareness about the crisis being faced by newspapers and the colossal domino effect that their demise is sure to have on all news organizations and American democracy.
Because the bulk of newspaper content is consumed for free online, the Internet is the logical place to conduct a blackout.
Another reason the proposed blackout does not include print products, or pay-access Web sites, is a matter of ethics.
Much the same as law enforcement officials are ethically bound to serve and protect, newspaper journalists are ethically bound to fulfill their duties as the Fourth Estate. It would be irresponsible to ask newspaper journalists to shut down for even a single day. Therefore, by permitting the news to continue to be published in the print product and behind pay-access Internet barriers, newspapers can carry out their duties while also helping raise awareness about the threat to democracy posed by the current crisis.
Q: Why should anyone care about newspapers?
A: For more than 50 years, daily newspapers have served as a kind of fishing report for other forms of media, and for each other. Radio news programs, television news programs, and even afternoon daily newspapers have traditionally looked to the morning dailies before assigning and assembling their own reports.
Try this experiment: Read the daily newspaper in any metropolitan area, then watch the evening television news in that market and you're guaranteed to find that most of the non-crime news stories on TV repeat what was in the paper that day. Sometimes the TV news even gives credit to the newspaper.
The same is true on the Internet, but to a far more alarming degree.
Q: How is the Internet any more of a threat to newspapers than television has been?
Unlike TV news programs, many Internet news sites completely regurgitate the newspaper reports they obtain for free online without conducting any original reporting. Sometimes these sites credit the newspapers from which they obtained the content. Sometimes they don't.
As a result, readers are never given cause to question whether the site from which they access news is also the source.
This, of course, further confounds efforts to effectively communicate the immensity of the crisis confronting the newspaper industry and, by association, democracy.
Q: Isn't it unreasonable to think that nobody would be covering government if there were no newspapers? Wouldn't TV pick up the slack?
A: First of all, its important to acknowledge that newspapers serve as tip sheets for other forms of media.
Secondly, the issue at hand is about far more than the few newspapers that can afford to cover Washington, D.C.
The fact is that most American newspapers are located in small-to-medium-sized markets where they fulfill vital roles in their communities, the most important of which is covering local government, everything from PTA meetings on up to city councils and state legislatures.
Professionally staffed and ethically bound newspapers help to keep government honest at every level while striving to maintain a standard of fairness.
Q: Why is a blackout of free-access newspaper Web sites necessary?
A: Americans need to be made aware in a hurry of the effect that the loss of newspapers will have on democracy as well as every other type of news-gathering organization. In some cases, these effects are already being felt.
Readers need to realize that newspapers produce the bulk of reporting in the United States.
News consumers need to understand that the work of newspaper reporters and newspaper photographers often ends up being regurgitated on the Internet and through The Associated Press. Even though all the bylines are hacked off, there's still a publication out there that employed the people it took to produce those news reports.
Q: Haven't readers always been confused about the news-gathering and news-delivery process?
A: Yes, but it didn't matter before the Internet because content wasn't free, and it wasn't so easy to access and manipulate.
For many years, for example, when readers in New York City purchased copies of "The New York Times" to get the news, they knew the source of what they were reading because they had to purchase it, and even then they sometimes mistook Associated Press stories produced by other newspapers as New York Times copy simply because it appeared in the pages of The New York Times. But, newspapers weren't concerned about this misunderstanding because only paying members of The Associated Press could access their copy to publish it.
The Internet changed all that. Now everybody on the Net can get at everything for free. Content is cut and pasted millions of times each day as online news is stripped of its brand and repackaged by countless unassociated providers. The public not only perceives the product as free, but almost as if it were ubiquitous. It's devalued.
News consumers now view news the way many people perceive tap water. As long as it continues to flow, who cares from where it came, or who produced it? But the moment the source of that flow is eliminated, catastrophe is sure to result.
Q: Why should anyone help the newspaper owners?
A: This petition effort is in no way an attempt to assist the owners of newspapers.
What this petition does is:
1. It acknowledges the importance of newspapers as news-gathering organizations, and as components of a healthy democracy.
2. It attempts to raise awareness about the crisis facing America's communities and its government as a result of losing newspapers as news-gathering organizations.
3. It seeks to engage and empower all news consumers who wish to join in the search for a solution.
Q: Does this petition endorse a pay-to-access system for news online, as suggested in TIME magazine by its former managing editor, Walter Isaacson?
A; No. This petition states quite clearly that it is not an endorsement of any permanent solution.
More Q&A content will be added to this post as necessary.
— TJ Sullivan
*** Sign The Petition ***
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