The Federal Trade Commission is seeking your input regarding future of news media in advance of its upcoming workshops. The FTC seeks to explore the digital impact on consumption behavior and its correlating effects on the the business of publishing and journalism.

The workshop will be held on December 1-2, 2009 and will consider a wide range of issues, such as Internet-related changes in advertising and the way people receive news, ideas for reducing costs and restructuring news organizations, potential for-profit and non-profit models for journalism, and the evolving competition among news organizations.

The FTC is asking for input on a series of questions to be addressed in the workshops, including:

• How is the Internet changing the way consumers access news and how advertising dollars are spent?

• What economic challenges do news organizations face today?

• What cost-cutting measures have news organizations considered? Which have they adopted, and how have they affected the provision of news to consumers?

• What collaborations are news organizations undertaking or considering to deal with financial challenges brought about by the Internet?

• How is the Internet changing the way news organizations and others research, write, edit, produce, and distribute news?

• What innovative forms of journalism have emerged due to the Internet?

• What are the business models, including the revenue sources, for journalism on the Internet?

• How are news organizations likely to compete for audience and advertising in the future?

• Are new or changed government policies needed to support optimal amounts and types of journalism, including public affairs coverage?

• Should the tax code be modified to provide special status or tax breaks to all or certain types of news organizations?

• Do current U.S. copyright protections provide enough incentive to create news content?

• Should the federal government provide additional funding for news organizations?

The Commission will consider comments received by November 6, 2009.

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

The workshops will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the FTC’s satellite building conference center, located at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. All attendees will be required to display a current driver’s license or other form of photo identification for entry.

For more information about the workshops, please visit http://www.ftc.gov/opp/workshops/news/index.shtml. To file comments, visit: http://public.commentworks.com/ftc/newsmediaworkshop.

Connect with Brian Solis on:
Twitter, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, BackType, Posterous, or Facebook

—
Kindle users, subscribe to PR 2.0 here.
—
New book and Conversation Prism poster now available (click below to purchase):

—
pr pr+2.0 pr2.0 public+relations marketing advertising interactive social+media socialmedia brian+solis social media media2.0 media+2.0 2.0 smo social+media+optimization marcom communication publicity advertising expert interactive spin brand branding guru social+architect