Who owns public information?

Journalists love to thump their stumps with self-righteous proclamations about “the public’s right to know.” They consider themselves the fourth arm of government (legislative, administrative, judicial and - journalism) - because, supposedly, they use their journalistic power on behalf of citizen-taxpayers. They hammer home at every opportunity that their freedom to pry facts from government equates to citizens’ right to know what government is doing and that better government is the result.

A few decades ago this was true; today it is not.

A few decades ago, for instance, the Advocate maintained, as best it could, an extensive file of clippings. A long and impressive row of filing cabinets occupied an entire back wall of the newsroom and it was the job of the clerical section to keep news articles clipped, mounted to cardboards, and indexed. Along another wall were large cabinets for the storage of microfilm.

These were tools of journalists, a prehistoric forerunner of the computer search engine. Additionally, all this information was available to the public. Anybody could enter the newsroom and, with the assistance of an employee if needed, use these files for research. We considered it their right to use it and our duty to facilitate it.

But then along came corporate “journalism” and today access to the Advocate’s morgue bears a price tag. An obscenely high price tag, as advertised on its web site:

The Advocate Archives Pricing Options
To allow for greater flexibility and ease of use, we now offer article packs, in addition to the single-article purchase option. You will be offered payment options only after you select to download the full-text of any article.

Single-article purchase - $2.95
Future purchases will require a separate charge to your credit card.
24-hour pass, 10 articles - $9.95 (65% discount)
3-article pack - $6.95 (20% discount)
Good for one week from purchase.
10-article pack - $21.95 (25% discount)
Good for one month from purchase.
25-article pack - $49.95 (30% discount)
Good for one month from purchase.
40-article pack - $79.95
Good for one month from purchase.
Doing long-term research?
500-article pack - $995 (33% discount)
Good for one year from purchase.
1,000-article pack - $1,995 (33% discount)
Good for one year from purchase.

.....

The archives contain most, but not all, of the articles published by your newspaper, and cover only the more recent years of publication. These archives are a self-service system. Currently, our staff does not provide a service to help locate articles. If you need to find an article which you believe was published but is not in the database, your newspaper may provide additional search service at an hourly rate. Please contact your newspaper for details.

Gannett, while it calls itself “your newspaper” and while it may espouse “freedom of the press,” and “the public’s right to know,” and while it seems to expect readers to come to its aid in these causes, assumes ownership of this information and tries to turn an obscene profit for access to it. The public’s right to know is now predicated on the public’s willingness to pay Gannett stockholders for the right to use it.

Nothing is farther from the spirit of the public’s right to know, nothing is farther from the spirt of the Internet, nor is anything farther from service to the community Gannett claims to serve.