Free Press Seeking Public TV Auction Fund for Local Journalism Gets Some Support, Skepticism
Incentive auction proceeds of public TV stations should be set aside to fund local journalism, said Free Press in a release announcing a new effort by the organization Monday. “This auction of the public airwaves gives us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reverse the crisis in local news and re-imagine how local communities can get the information they need,” said CEO Craig Aaron. The campaign is initially focused on New Jersey public stations, but the group that often opposes industry consolidation believesthere are at least 54 public stations participating in the auction around the the country, and that their spectrum is “expected to bring in as much as $6 billion in the auction." Advocates for local journalism see the idea as promising.
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Broadcast industry officials told us FCC anti-collusion rules make it impossible to know how many stations are in the auction, and Free Press's numbers appear optimistic for an incentive auction nearing the end of its third stage. The New Jersey public TV stations are on “beachfront” spectrum that's likely to generate a lot of value in the auction, said Free Press Senior Director-Strategy Tim Karr in an interview.
In New Jersey, Free Press wants to create a "$250 million permanent public fund” that would support ”community-focused digital news sites, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, public data access apps and other civic engagement tools.” Free Press is focusing on New Jersey because the spectrum occupied by its public TV stations is particularly valuable. In the Garden State, the plan is to pressure lawmakers, who have ultimate control over the auction proceeds, to support the plan, Karr said. “This will be a political process.” The situation would be similar for stations controlled by public universities and other public entities, Free Press said. The nonprofit also points to stations in other parts of the county, such as Los Angeles-area public TV stations KVCR, KOCE-TV and KLCS, and Howard University's WHUT-TV Washington.
Free Press numbers appear based on the opening bid prices, said broadcast attorney Todd Gray of Gray Miller, who represents noncommercial stations. “The FCC estimates that the New Jersey licenses, currently leased to the New York-based public broadcaster WNET, are worth as much as $2.3 billion,” said Free Press. The projected returns from the auction are now widely expected to be vastly lower than was suggested by FCC opening-bid numbers, Gray said. Though Free Press mentions the possibility of $6 billion being generated by public TV stations, forward auction bidding in the previous stages of the auction didn't reach $30 billion total, and many auction watchers don't expect the auction to conclude until its fourth stage.
Repurposing the money generated by the sale of the spectrum of nomcommercial stations is important because it preserves the public interest obligation that was originally attached to that spectrum, said Karr. It “makes total sense” that if the custodians of spectrum intended to be used in the public interest “decide to cash in,” that money should be used toward the public interest as well, said Steve Waldman, who wrote an FCC study on the future of media as an aide to then-Chairman Julius Genachowski. Waldman is now the CEO of obituary start-up LifePosts. The “best and most urgent use” for public auction funds is around local news, Waldman said. There is a “deep crisis of local information,” in the U.S., Waldman said. The business models for local journalism have collapsed and will continue to get worse, he said. Though Karr suggested the money could be dispensed to journalism projects using a grant-like structure, Waldman said journalism schools or a nonprofit news program would be able to decide how to use such funds.
Using the funds for local journalism is a good use of auction money, with an important consideration, said Howard University Professor Chuka Onwumechili. Low-income and undeserved populations must have access to the journalism and information so generated, said Onwumechili, who with the Howard Media Group opposed WHUT's participation in the incentive auction.
America's Public Television Stations expects post-auction "a robust public television system to remain," said APTS CEO Patrick Butler in an emailed statement. That would include "stations continuing to focus on providing the highest quality service to their communities in the areas of education, public safety and civic leadership," he said. “Public television stations are committed to serving their communities with high quality educational programming on television, online, on mobile devices and through on the ground outreach. These activities include local journalism, serving as the C-SPAN of many state governments, producing and airing programming on local public affairs, history, culture and other issues of community concern."