The Bergen Record ran a comprehensive story this past Sunday looking at the Future of NJN and the man who will lead the effort to privatize the station. In the story, he says this about the plans moving forward:"If there's legislation that passes by the end of June," he said, "presumably a non-profit would start work on July 1 to raise the necessary funds, put together the necessary staff, put together the management team, put some new technology in place to permit at least the early version of the operating plan to take shape, and by Jan. 1 that non-profit will be operating." If, then and presumably. That doesn't sound very well thought out. Especially since legislation that would need to pass by the end of June to make this happen hasn't even been introduced yet. NJN, the New Jersey Public Broadcast Authority, was established by statute along with the Foundation for NJ Public Broadcasting. The way the statute is written establishing the NJ Public Broadcast Authority, it's unlikely that the Governor could privatize it's operation and certainly could not transfer the licenses to a non-profit without legislation.
Even though there is no legislation yet, the Governor's office still says their budget will assume NJN is privatized and reduce state aid. Unless the Governor just intends to starve the beast by defunding NJN without taking further action, it appears he needs to get the Legislature to go along in order to see it remain. It's not just Democrats who oppose the idea of privatizing NJN. Joe Malone, Tom Kean Jr., John Bramnick and many Republicans verbally support NJN and its NJ news and public affairs programming. Will Republicans stand up to the Governor with Democrats to preserve NJN?
The Courier Post thinks the state needs to at the very least aide in the transition if there is one or it will be the end of NJN altogether: But as the state nudges NJN out of the nest, it should give the network the time and help it needs to get on its feet in a new form and survive. Certainly, NJN, which draws only about 10 percent of its revenue from private donors, won't be able to continue on with 130 employees. It likely won't be able to do as many stories on its nightly newscast. It needs time to figure out a way to grow its donor base and/or sign on more corporate underwriters. Typical public television stations in the United States get about 30 percent to 50 percent of revenue from private donors.
State lawmakers should look to help NJN as much as possible and give it more than half a year to either sink or swim before being completely cut off. As it stands now, NJN looks like it will sink. Lawmakers ought to do something to prevent that from happening. Even under the best economic conditions, it would be difficult for NJN to survive as a private entity. New Jersey will never have TV coverage and that's why it has been recommended in the past that NJN be run as a state agency with the state holding the licenses. While there is no bill from the Republicans to carry out the privatization effort, Assemblyman Wisniewski has introduced a bill to reorganize the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority as the New Jersey Public Media Corporation. The Public Media Corporation would maintain ties to the state (employees would be considered state employees and the corporation could make use of state facilities, security, parking etc) while allowing autonomy in the areas of hiring (no longer would the approval of the Governor's office be required), procurement of equipment, leasing of facilities and spectrum, and labor relations. This is just another flash point in the budget debate. |
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