The Committee to Protect Journalists last week boosted its $15 million kitty by $2.7M while Fairness & Accuracy in Media Reporting said it faces extinction in 2015.

Oddly, CPJ, based at 330 Seventh Ave. near 29th St., New York, is a block and a half from FAIR, based at 124 W. 30th St. near Seventh Ave.

extraBut FAIR, founded in 1986 by media critic and lecturer Jeff Cohen, who now teaches at Ithaca College, is light years away financially from CPJ. Both are 501/c/3 charitable/educational non-profits.

Revenues of FAIR were $579,366 in the year to June 30, 2013 and net assets were $98,489. CPJ's has net assets of $14.8M—not counting new donations.

"FAIR's life is in danger," says its web. It explains in an e-mail to subscribers titled, "The Fight of Our Lives," that it lost two of its largest donors and is relying on gifts from readers to "pull us through."

More than a million people visited its site this year, viewing more than two million pages of "hard-hitting, reader-supported media criticism," says its website. The audience for FAIR TV segments doubled as did its reach with Facebook, the site adds. "Hundreds of thousands of people are hearing from FAIR every single month, but FAIR will not continue through 2015 without your help."

Lost Ford Foundation

One donor it lost is the Ford Foundation which gave $1.1 million to ProPublica in 2013, a jump from $425,000 I 2011 and $250,000 in 2010. CPJ's assets include $1.5M from Ford.

Cohen stayed at FAIR until 2002 when he joined the Phil Donahue show. He was a Fox News Watch contributor from 1997-2002. He co-founded the online activist group www.rootsaction.org in 2011. His works have appeared in the HuffingtonPost, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and dozens of other dailies.

Current staffers of FAIR include publisher Deborah Thomas, program director Janine Jackson, Extra! Editor Jim Naureckas and senior analyst Steven Rendell. Current articles include a critique of the Nov. 23 New York Times' examination of its coverage of Israel/Palestine and analysis of coverage of unrest in Ferguson, Mo., by CBS.

Boneyard of PR/J Pubs Grows

Should FAIR fold, which includes its ten-issues-a-year print and digital Extra! Magazine, it would join the boneyard of PR/J publications/websites that includes Bulldog Reporter, which barked its last in October after a 35-year-run.

PR Reporter, a weekly NL published since 1958, was purchased by Ragan Communications in 2002 and changed to a monthly. It was folded later that year. The Ragan Report, previously a weekly NL, went online only in 2008. Ragan now does joint projects with PR Society of America.


Reputation Management magazine, a monthly published for most of the 1990s by Paul Holmes, folded after the arrival of PR Week/U.S. in 1998. PR Quarterly was published for 52 years until 2009. The final 48-page issue in June 2009 had two ads.

PR Week/U.S. went monthly in June 2010 and its sister publication in the U.K. went monthly last year.
PR Society of America is converting its two publications to online-only. New members, numbering about 5,500 yearly, no longer get the print versions. Print circulation of the monthly Tactics was 32,000 while Strategist's circulation was 22,000.
 PR Watch, which tracks abusive PR practices, merged with the Progressive monthly magazine in April. Revenues were $737,223 and net assets, $360,580, in its 2012 IRS Form 990.

A recent successful addition to the PR/communications news space is commpro.biz headed by Fay Shapiro. Founded in 2010, the website covers PR, advertising, promotion, internal, social media and marketing. It helps 60,000 communicators with content creation and sharing, brand marketing and lead generation.

FAIR Must Reposition Itself

FAIR, in order to survive, must reposition itself in the marketplace. The big corporate money these days is going to publications and websites that honor people and campaigns.

The capstone of such programs is a $400 and up banquet at which bows are taken by the donors. There are at least nine such programs, including two new "Halls of Fame" for PR leaders by prnewsonline and PR Week/U.S.

Media criticism is needed but the media picture today is very different from what it was in 1986. Large amounts of ad revenues have moved from traditional media to online media such as Google AdWords which is raking in nearly $50 billion.

Newspaper ad revenues have plummeted from $47 billion in 2006 to $21 billion in 2014. Only a small part of the lost revenue has been recouped via online editions of papers.

Finding flaws in media coverage is important but FAIR must also look at the PR part of the equation.

Much of the PR industry now works in close coordination with marketing, legal and financial, three occupations that are not used to being pushed around by anyone.

They have stiffened the backs of PR people when they are confronted with reporters who besiege them with questions.

FAIR needs to examine the prevalence of PR tactics that impede news coverage.

The Center for Public Integrity in November created a blog to list officials in public and private institutions who refuse to comment.

"Lately—whether it's an investigative newsroom like us, an international outlet like the New York Times, or newer media like Politico or Buzz-feed—when journalists call, officials are choosing to comment less for stories on the record," said CPI.

Media reporter David Carr of NYT spoke for all reporters when he wrote that "The modern CEO lives behind a wall of communications operatives many of whom ladle out slop meant to obscure rather than reveal."

Press conferences are a rarity both in business and government circles.

In the Court of Public Opinion, by lawyer/PR counselor James Haggerty, recommends against press conferences because specialist reporters will probe areas that the general press does not know about, opening up all sorts of cans of worms. Haggerty advises not to talk to reporters who call on the phone. Say you'll get back to them and then seek advice, he writes.

PR Society of America, after blocking press coverage of its legislative Assembly three years in a row, allowed reporters in this year but they were forbidden to make a recording and barred from the Assembly breakfast and lunch, both of which had been open to the press for decades.