Politics and Technology

Much of the focus surrounding Mignon Clyburn’s upcoming nomination to the Federal Communications Commission – announced by the White House this week – has focused on two things.

 

First, her pedigree as the daughter of the House majority whip, Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina. Second, the experience that justifies the nomination: her past 11 years as a member of the Palmetto State’s Public Service Commission.

 

Each of those foci is newsworthy and proper, but many of us in the media space are at least equally hopeful about her prior 14 years as publisher and general manager of a weekly newspaper in Charleston – The Coastal Times.

 

It feels important that President Barack Obama is appointing a former newspaper executive to sit on the federal agency that oversees communications in the United States. And that’s because newspapers have struggled as much as any industry to keep pace with changes – in their case, lost advertising revenue – as the Internet has emerged as a de facto communications means.

 

Many of us in the media have asked ourselves whether technology can come full-circle and save the newspaper industry. And it needs saving.

 

In the past few months alone, The Rocky Mountain News in Denver published its last edition, the Philadelphia Inquirer filed for bankruptcy, and the San Francisco Chronicle is facing extinction. Last year, the Tribune Co, publisher of The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun, filed for bankruptcy, as did The Minneapolis Tribune, and the New York Times Co has suspended its dividend to cope with the recession.

 

Already, we’ve seen several newspapers and wire services try to leverage technology to turn profit margins around.

 

Recently, TMCnet talked to Associated Press General Manager for Mobile and Emerging Products Jeffrey Litvack about a new effort – the “Mobile News Network – that brings local, national, international, business, entertainment, sports and other news from more than 1,000 participating media organizations, supplemented by AP text, photos and videos.

  

As TMCnet has reported, the mobile Web – widely considered the platform of future telecommunications – is drawing more and more news organizations that long have struggled in an Internet-advertising era to post profit margins of years ago.

 

The AP’s effort followed a similar try from Cox (News - Alert) Newspapers Inc., which launched 19 Web sites for newspapers it owns and operates across a wide swath of the United States, including Texas, Ohio and Florida.

 

As TMC (News - Alert) President Rich Tehrani pointed out, newspapers likely need to reinvent themselves using wireless technology.

 

Until they do, the industry will continue to falter – to the laments of journalists who claim that the loss of newspapers hurts the communities they serve. Newspapers keep public officials accountable, inform constituents and spotlight the goings-on of towns and cities, advocates say.

 

So Mignon Clyburn is a new face in Washington, D.C. that we’ll keep an eye from a technology perspective – how she and incoming FCC chairman Julius Genachowski (News - Alert) help lead the now Democratic-led panel, especially as this complicated digital TV transition picks up steam – as well as a news industry perspective.