A call has gone up to protect the interests of Long Island residents in a sale of Newsday.
According to a proposal from Jaci Clement, head of the Fair Media Council, Nassau and Suffolk residents should chip in to fund a non-profit that would own the paper. "In return," she says, "the newspaper could focus on taking care of the community and reinvest the profit into the newspaper. That hasn’t happened here in a very long time." She doesn't give any firm financing details, but suggests that even something as mundane as people donating their daily Starbucks expenses could help.
Clement writes: "So what we have here is a grand opportunity for Long Island to lead the way in the future of the news media, much in the same way we gave birth to the ’burbs and coddled aviation. Instead of allowing another mega media company to acquire Newsday and lose what’s left of the voice Long Island needs to bind this region together, we need to seriously explore other options."
--Noel Rubinton
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