Apr

11

A museum for news

Posted by Vera Haller on Apr 11, 2008 under: economy, newspapers 

newseum-06.jpg I’m not the first person to point out the incongruity between the loads of money spent on the glitzy Newseum, opening today in Washington, and the money that continues to drain from the newspaper industry.

The Newseum, whose slogan is “The Interactive Museum of News,” is funded mainly by the Freedom Foundation, a non-partisan group devoted to furthering the freedom of press, so it isn’t totally fair to compare the investment in the museum to what’s happening in the real world. But it is an interesting observation.

I haven’t seen the museum personally, but the write-ups paint an impressive picture - a brand new building on Pennsylvania Avenue, a news helicopter hanging from the ceiling, dozens of interactive computer exhibits, 15 theaters, and the list goes on.

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the article I read about the museum in today’s The New York Times and an article published earlier in the week about the financial difficulties faced by Sam Zell, who recently took over ownership of the Tribune Corp., my former employer.

Here are some numbers from both articles.

According to the museum story, the Newseum cost $450 million to build. That’s about half of Tribune’s $1 billion debt service bill for this year and close to the amount of money needed to buy Newsday, which Tribune is considering selling to offset its huge debt, according to figures in the Zell story.

Again, taking numbers from these two articles — the museum’s operating budget for this year is $50 million, not an insignificant sum when compared to Tribune’s reported net income last year of $87 million.

The figure that struck me most was in a Washington Post article, which reported that rooms can be rented for events at the Newseum for $500 to $30,000. That $30,000 figure is within range of some starting annual salaries for reporters breaking into the business.

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