While broadcasters continue to fight the FCC, some organizations are turning to do it yourself options to "Free the Files." With the help of readers around the country, ProPublica is collecting stations' public paper files containing data on political ads and posting them online because the information is generally unavailable elsewhere.
Working with students at the Medill journalism school at Northwestern University, ProPublica launched the database by looking at five local stations in the Chicago market. You can explore the results yourself: Here are detailed breakdowns of when the ads aired, during which programs, and how much each spot cost: Read the documents from the local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and CW.
This is interesting: Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, found that $70 million in advertising had been unreported from 2000 through 2010 in Michigan. He got that number by personally examining public files, at one point driving 14 hours for a 15-minute visit to a station.
He told the FCC, "I can testify to you, unequivocally, that the threshold of effort necessary to report this important public interest story is too high for every news organization in Michigan, except mine."
So what do you think? Is online access to these files a solution?
Borrell Associates estimates Political Action Committees, candidates and political parties will spend an estimated $9.8 billion in advertising this year. It will be the most expensive campaign in U.S. history. And while broadcast TV will get a smaller slice of the pie than four years ago, it still stands to get a huge windfall, as this chart explains:
Media
|
2008
Estimate
(Millions)
|
Spending
Share
|
2012
Projection
(Millions)
|
Spending
Share
|
'08-'12
%
Change
|
'08-'12
Share
Pt. Shift
|
| Newspaper |
$546.0 |
7.80% |
$699.5 |
7.1% |
28.1 |
(0.7) |
| Other Print |
$97.5 |
1.40% |
$174.9 |
1.8% |
79.4 |
0.4 |
| Broadcast TV |
$4,319.8 |
61.90% |
$5,640.3 |
57.3% |
30.6 |
(4.6) |
| Cable |
$468.0 |
6.70% |
$938.8 |
9.5% |
100.6 |
2.8 |
| Radio |
$552.5 |
7.90% |
$819.2 |
8.3% |
48.3 |
0.4 |
| Out of Home* |
$247.0 |
3.50% |
$377.4 |
3.8% |
52.8 |
0.3 |
| Direct Mail** |
$227.5 |
3.30% |
$285.3 |
2.9% |
25.4 |
(0.4) |
| Online |
$22.2 |
0.30% |
$159.2 |
1.5% |
615.6 |
1.2 |
| Telemarketing |
$500.5 |
7.20% |
$744.8 |
7.7% |
48.8 |
0.5 |
| U.S. Totals |
$6,980.9 |
100% |
$9,839.5 |
100% |
40.9 |
|
Re: Ad spending 2012
driven
4/16/2012 8:19:27 AM
Broadcasters will do well, but what this chart really says to me is how much more significant online ads have become.
Re: Ad spending 2012
cat tail
4/16/2012 8:52:23 AM
Didn't the FCC try to eliminate the public files requirement altogether last year?
Re: Ad spending 2012
Tenacious
4/16/2012 9:41:18 AM
Back in early 2011, the FCC invited comments on whether or not the local public inspection file requirement is really necessary. At issue was the amount of time it takes each station to assure compliance with the public file requirement, which it estimated at the widely variable "2.5-109 hours"!
Looks like they determined the time is worth spending.
the files will be a nice tool for journalists, but I still can't see many average people taking the time to look at them, whether they are online or in an old cardboard box somewhere.
Re: Ad spending 2012
tokyogai
4/16/2012 9:34:16 AM
I think that the inofrmation will at leat be interesting. I wonder if online ads will have the same requirement in the future?
Looks like the politicians are spending more on Online Advertisement (an increase of more than 615%) over 5 years, but a 1.5% is still a drop in the bucket compared to the ad spending on TV and radio stations.
chicken and egg
Dex
4/16/2012 8:06:01 AM
Maybe more members of the public would take the time to look at these files if they knew they had the right to look at them. How often do you see this publicized?
public
AskAsa
4/16/2012 10:32:43 AM
The main reason anyone cares about those "public" airwaves is because a private business entitiy invested millions in developing content to transmit over them.
I think its sad how the public dosnt view the airwaves as part of our national resource. it really is something special that needs to be managed better.
There are some potentially interesting things in those public files. As Our Public Airwaves notes:
Find out who is complaining about what, and how the station is responding to the community's needs. Find out who is buying political ads and at what price. Learn just how much money the station is making through political ad sales. Look for existing petitions to deny licenses, and see if two stations have shared services agreements to operate just one newsroom.
Re: public
AskAsa
4/16/2012 5:44:22 PM
I'm sincerely curious.
How would you manage them better?
@AskAsa,
just an idea -- for one, they could release some of the spectrum that has been locked up with broadcast TV and is no longer being used because barely anybody watches TV with an antenna anymore.
I could not agree more scott, There is a lot of value in the spectrum. and a lot of it is not being used, having it just sit there is hurting the country by not being abel to develop it.
I would also set very high min bids for the auctions, I think there is more value there than has been represented in the past.
Re: public
AskAsa
4/16/2012 9:57:07 PM
Interesting!
So then what could be done with this now public natural resource?
Auctions? Perhaps another PBS?
There was at one point talk of giving anyone with 10 thousand a mini tv station of their own. But a laptop now performs essentially the same thing. Let's say they did go with auctions what type of investors do you think would jump on?
I don't see anything wrong with posting information about political ads.
Marvin,
35 years in broadcasting taught me that stations are loath to show their public files to anyone. It's so bad that I had it written into my contracts that the stations could not prevent me from disclosing what was required by law to be disclosed.
I remember one executive, still prominent in the business, telling me that if anyone wants to look at the public file, we'll make it as difficult as possible and shadow their every move.
In order to protect the guilty I shall not reveal the name or the station.
Putting the public files on the internet requires a scanner. One can be had for as little as $150 at Staples. The stations all have websites nowadays. They just need to post the required pages to the sites. Heck, they can have an unpaid intern feed documents into the scanner.
Now, the silly thing that the sole Republican on the FCC said is balhoney. The stations fired people in the 1980s when the FCC requirements were relaxed. The money went straight to the bottom line. At leas this new requirement would provide a foot in the door for some deserving college kid.
Those requirements actually performed a service. They demanded that a station conduct community surveys and provide programming according to the community needs that the surveys revealed.
Remember that these guys get the spectrum for free. It would be a different story if we made them pay for it at auction.
Cheers,
Ted.
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