Journalism's Future Must Wait

Release of FTC journalism report delayed

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/28/2011 12:01:00 AM

Don’t look for the Federal Trade Commission to release its report on the future of journalism this month, as it had originally hoped. In an interview with B&C, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz suggested it was simply a case of more work than there were people to do it. He did not give a new timetable, but said it would likely be several weeks. “We’re such a small agency,” Leibowitz says. “We were hoping to have a report out on the future of journalism this month, but unfortunately the same people who are doing that are also involved in healthcare. We have a lot of smart people, but they can’t do everything at once. “

“I don’t know whether we will be doing it [releasing the journalism report] on the same day [as the FCC]. When you try to do policy prescriptions and proposals through a commission, picking a date is very hazardous,” Leibowitz says. “But on something as important as the future of news and journalism, we will probably let it percolate at the commission level for at least a few weeks.”

The Federal Communications Commission is not expected to release its own future of journalism report until the second quarter.