
The Bad News About the News - eplanit
http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2014/bad-news?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=14546300&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-99lsT9-65Nxgq3uPcYuxJhEJVZGzbZjcfUV_2LbfWszPDyuniAtvRLz_J2IZ8tR1lnUMVp7GDpyGCDq4iEy5-igr9oRH78gmlXUNOGogK3Gh-Wc5s&_hsmi=14546300
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cratermoon
The article doesn't note that at least for the major networks the news
divisions that weren't expected to turn a profit. They were allowed to run at
a loss and revenue from the entertainment and sports divisions was used to
make up the difference.

At some point in the 80s profit became the be-all end-all of corporations,
including the media. The news division was no longer allowed to be purely a
cost center, it now had to at least break even in its own revenues.

While this doesn't help newspapers -- they pretty much are going away as
printed ad revenue disappears -- it still matters to TV and online sources. As
long as the news reporting function is expected to be a profit center it will
be at the mercy of whatever ad revenue it can directly generate. Thus you see
click-bait stories and instant "rehosting" sites overwhelmingly growing
because they generate the revenue.

