Originally published at: Patron-Supported Journalism Can’t Be the Future of News - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Writing about the failure of patron-supported journalism is itself a kind of confession. It hasn’t worked for me, and I struggle to weigh my guilt around that (should have worked harder!) against what I know is a structural problem. Patron-supported journalism (including newsletters) is both a throwback to the earliest mode of media production and,…
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Anyone else remember the song “Mr. Tanner”? A baritone who loved to sing made a living cleaning cloth and “Practice scales while pressing tails”.
Music was his life it was not his livelihood.
It made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
He sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole.
The concern is “Parton-Supported Journalism” merely selling people what they want to hear and read?
Or in the alternative is truth your guiding compass.
If it is the former and there is an afterlife, may you join Rush in hell.
If it is the latter and you want to be a columnist or journalist, expect to need a second job.
But that is a difference between the right and the left. If you are supporting policies that benefit billionaires, you can be wrong 1,000 out of 1,000 and still make a nice living. But if you are like people who subscribe or otherwise comment on TPM, you don’t have a patron saint and therefore like me need a second or day job.
The truth is if truth is your compass, then you should expect no glory or wealth for your work.
Thinking about the current state of journalism, I am reminded of an article about Emil Zola, a great French novelist from the 19th century yet mostly known today for a newspaper article/letter J’ACUSSE (I accuse).
While he began his career as an outsider, Zola had become recognized and had settled into a life of society having been accepted by French high society because of his popularity with the masses that made him famous and rich.
When desperate Madam Dreyfus came to his house begging for help, Zola first had her physically thrown out. In the course of events she had dropped some papers that she wanted to show him that she claimed proved her husband’s innocents. While picking the papers up with the intent of throwing them away, Zola read enough of them to know Madam Dreyfus was right, the papers proved her husband’s innocence.
Zola hesitated before deciding what to do next. He had come from poverty and was at first ridiculed and hated by those in high society but now was living the dream having been accepted by French aristocracy. For a moment Zola thought someone else should take up this cause but Zola also realized Madam Dreyfus had been to everyone else and for the very reasons he did not want to, nobody else would take her cause.
Zola would give up his comfortable life as a member of the highest of French society and spend several years in exile for writing J’ACCUSE. It is widely believed he was murdered for it.
The only column I pay to read is from Paul Krugman who won a Nobel Prize in Economics before becoming a journalist. Zola likewise was famous before writing J’ACCUSE. In fact becoming a journalist cost Zola his comfortable life and eventually his life. Furthermore for every Paul Krugman or Emile Zola there are 10 Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh’s.
The point is if you are going to be a journalist who guiding compass is truth, do not expect to be rewarded with fame and fortune. Rather, expect to need a second job.
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The thing is, old time journalists didn’t do it all by themselves, in general. They had camera operators, they had research files and shared resources/tipsters/etc.
One person by themselves is duplicating all the administrative and print functions that a big organization could cover. There’s no one to collaborate with, imagine Woodward without Bernstein (we can actually, it’s not entirely the greatest thing in the world) or Josh without Kate.
Gifted writers like Ana or Digby or Paul are gems among a growing pile of rubble, we don’t get full stories, all the threads of corruption and fascism from this bunch of sociopaths but once in a while, but we do get “influencers” aka propagandists, like Loomer.
News needs help. And people like Bezos need to not be in the owners box.
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Good journalism needs a support structure. Reporters need to be paid a living wage and supported so that they can research and report without a daily deadline. They need editors, fact checkers, lawyers, support staff, everything a Newspaper or Network provides. News coverage cannot be dependent on always making a profit. The old system might not be perfect but it is better than what it is devolviing into.
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