Innovative Plan Offered to Save Newspapers

Raised an avid consumer of newspaper journalism, I went on to earn a journalism degree from Oklahoma State University and hold a variety of professional positions, most of which afforded me opportunities to work with and among professional journalists on a daily basis. So it goes without saying -- and with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek -- that I want to do my part to assist influential elected officials in their effort to keep the nation's newspaper industry from going under. Among them, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Earlier this year, Speaker Pelosi recently urged the Justice Department to consider giving Bay Area papers more leeway to merge or consolidate business operations to stay afloat, according to a report at SFGate.com, the online home of the struggling Hearst Corporation-owned San Francisco Chronicle.

More recently, however, President Barack Obama joined Pelosi in her desire to help struggling newspapers. In fact, he told The Hill, saying he is "happy to look at" bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses. Newspapers deserve help, right? Of course, they do.

While I think the hearts of both the speaker and the president are in the right place on this issue, I'm doubtful that a legal rearrangement of the newspaper industry's "deck chairs" will produce the desired results. That's why I'm proposing a different solution:

The job of running the nation's major newspapers -- including those in the Bay Area -- should be turned over to the inmates in state prisons. As a launching pad for this project, inmates at San Quentin State Prison can take over operations at the nearby Chronicle.

Though at first blush appearing preposterous, my solution is likely to work out as well or better than the newspaper model that has been in decline for most of the past two decades. Below are several of the reasons why it should work:

• After a 16-year hiatus, the San Quentin News newspaper was revived on June 1, 2008 (Vol. 1), and has printed six editions since then (See Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6 and Vol. 7).
  

• It already circulates inside and outside the prison walls;

• It boasts a circulation of 7,500; and
  

• It costs very little to produce.
  

To meet the increased circulation and daily deadlines associated with running the Chronicle, the San Quentin News staff will need to grow. To fill those staffing needs and, at the same time, relieve overcrowding, inmates can be given jobs at the Chronicle immediately.

Under my plan, they would be offered jobs as beat reporters, distribution specialists and collection agents for the new Chronicle, and people would subscribe -- I guarantee it!

If the San Quentin News-San Francisco Chronicle project works, it can be duplicated in cities across the state and across the nation. Imagine the possibilities!

[Editor's Note: The post below was originally published here March 31, 2009. With news about a newspaper bailout back in the public spotlight, I decided to breathe new life into it and republish an updated version of the post today.]

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