This is the last column of 2004, and I want to bring up some points for reflection. This is not a balance sheet, just another look at problems I have been dealing with since April concerning the relationship between the press and society.
The long crossing
News organizations are ending the year in a better financial situation than they started. They are not out of the desert they have been crossing since 2001, but they can see the horizon. Here are some indicators:
1 – Almost all of them have renegotiated debt, most now transformed into reals (from dollars) and extended. They can breathe, therefore, even after the shipwrecked negotiations with the national development bank, BNDES.
2 – The advertising market should grow by an estimated 20 to 250ver a weak 2003. According to the Inter-Media Project by “Media & Message” magazine, there was 25.5 0rowth in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year. Newspapers increased 18.9%. The lion’s share remained with TV, which got a 61hare of advertising.
3 – Average daily circulation at newspapers was lower than in 2003, but the results for the second half show that it is possible that the downward trend has been stanched.
“Newspapers want loyalty from their readers when they should be looking for complicity.”
4 – Some newspapers returned to “taking care of the product,” to use the jargon of executives. That was the case, for example at “O Estado de So Paulo,” Folha’s main competitor, which in October carried out a graphic and thematic makeover. It is still early to judge the results of the new project, but all indications are that it has been successful.
5 – Folha, which in July made the biggest cut of journalists in its recent history and advanced a flattening of salaries in the newsroom, has the perspective for a better year. The information that I gathered indicates financial relief starting in the middle of 2005, if the economy continues to increase. Always in the conditional. The newspaper did not breathe well in 2004. Its biggest investments were in the coverage of the Olympics in Greece and elections in Brazil (municipal) and in the United States (presidential).
Impatience of readers
The situation of news organizations is better, but their problems are far from being solved. The precarious balance was reached, thanks principally to the violent cuts in personnel and expenditures implemented in recent years. The necessary restructuring of debt alleviated, but did not reduce, dependence on banks. In 2005, the companies will have one eye on developments in the economy and another on interest rates.
As for newspapers, they lost competitive power at the moment when they most needed strength and resources to confront ample competition from new sources of information and growing impatience by readers facing irregular editions.
It is hoped, with the softening of the crisis, that newspapers more clearly realize that the obstacles for a new cycle of growth lie not only in the economy and in performance, but should discuss the role of the newspaper in a society that lives with rapid and constant mutations. What does a newspaper produce? There is no easy answer.
It will be a growing challenge to attract new readers, mainly young readers, indispensable to renovate newspapers. And it is increasingly difficult to please citizens who are saturated with news and bombarded with appeals from the market.
The Federal Journalism Council as it was initially conceived by journalists’ unions has been buried, but the discussion that it tried to provoke will emerge once again sooner or later. The repulsion of any form of state control can’t stifle the pressure of readers and sectors of society for precise information, good stories, balance and diversity. And this pressure is principally toward the big newspapers, such as Folha.
The challenge is to understand that in a more demanding society entrepreneurial success will be subject to meeting these expectations. A way to escape from government control is self-regulation. This way requires a pact of confidence with society and readers.
It demands more transparency from newspapers, more responsibility in journalistic research, commitment to correcting mistakes, guarantee of the right to respond and explanation of editorial decisions. In other words, more dialogue with readers.
Newspapers want loyalty when they should be thinking about complicity and participation. For this reason, they have to be more open and willing.
THE PRESS AND SOCIETY
Is self-regulation possible?
A synthesis of the discussion about the relationship between the press and society is self-regulation. I sent to two experienced journalists the following question: do you believe that the Brazilian press is capable of self-regulation? If not, why? If yes, in what way? These are the responses.
——————————————————————————–
Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva is a journalist and a director at Government Relations and Public Policy, or Patri, a public policy institute. He was assistant managing editor at the daily newspaper “Valor Econmico” and at Folha. He is the author of various books about journalism, such as “The Early Hour” (Summus, 1990), “A Thousand Days” (Cultural Trajectory, 1988) and “Beyond the Botanical Gardens” (Summus, 1985).
“I believe that the Brazilian press is able to regulate itself. But more than this, I believe that it is a necessity and should do it. I believe that society is right to demand more quality, balance and plurality. If the press does not take care of the matter, attempts by the state to control it will happen again and/or increasingly bigger sectors of the public will lose confidence in it, and, in the end, abandon it.
“I believe that the best way to practice this self control would be some formula similar to what Brazilian publicists are already using, Conar, that is only indicative, not punitive. Or the traditional British Press Council. Or even the dissemination of the ombudsman.”
——————————————————————————–
Geraldinho Vieira, 46, is a journalist, adviser to Andi (News Agency for the Rights of Children and a representative of the Avina Foundation in Brazil). He is the author of the book “The Clark Kent Complex – Are Journalists Supermen?” (Summus, 1991).
“No. Owners of news organizations and journalists need to understand and respect the current big discomfort in society concerning the quality of information, with access a right of citizens. If we judge the questionable quality of journalistic training facing a new world agenda, the urgent necessity to increase the voices which comprise the news and even a scenario which puts into doubt the real freedom and independence of news organization, it is normal to seek an organized way for the promotion of a permanent, transparent dialogue with various segments of society.
“This form, I believe, should be inspired by the public interest and not allow shadows of censorship. When the media are private companies and their owners have the right to hold as many news organizations as they are able to buy and afford, when politicians and owners of media organizations are practically the same in many parts of the country, allowing a critical dialogue with society is the least that can be expected. This debate does not summarize the question of ‘freedom of the press’ but also ‘freedom of business’ and therefore, its social responsibility.”
Translation by John Wright
