Papers Oppose DC Newsrack Bill

The proposal, backed by the Downtown Business Improvement District (DBID) and considered by the Council Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, would grant sponsoring organizations virtual control over all newsracks, vending stands, sidewalk cafes, street furniture, public art and information or display kiosks in newly created Retail District Enhancement Zones. Sponsors could include Business Improvement Districts, including the DBID.

Witnesses on the newspaper panel organized by the MDDC Press Association hammered the bill as an indefensible ceding of government power to a private sponsor. Panel representatives from daily and non-daily papers also cited the importance of newsracks as a means of reaching readers, the competition that exists among newspapers in the District, the importance of newsrack sales, the importance of branding their papers by the color of their newsracks and the need for them to be able to place and present newsracks where they would do the most business. The proposed fee of $60 a newsrack was cited by representatives of the smaller papers as a distinct threat to the viability of their businesses.

On the importance of newsrack distribution, Carol Melamed, vice president of government affairs of The Washington Post, and Rodney Tirey, circulation manager of The Washington Times, noted that their papers sold "hundreds of thousands" of additional single copies in the days following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Arguing for removal of the newsrack section from the overall bill, Melamed said the bill "presents legal problems, as well as policy and practical problems." The legal problems "arise from the constitutional protections afforded newspapers by the First Amendment," she said.

The newspaper executives acknowledged that there are valid concerns that need to be addressed regarding newsracks on the sidewalks, but they and other witnesses at the crowded hearing cited a groundbreaking voluntary demonstration project in the city’s Golden Triangle Business Improvement District as the preferable way to address such concerns. The Golden Triangle BID testified about the project and opposed the bill.

Linda Boggs Spahr, general manager of USA Today for the Washington/Baltimore region, said her paper doubled its single copy sales in Washington following the attacks. She endorsed the Golden Triangle project as a preferred way to deal with any newsrack problems and echoed her colleagues on the panel in requesting that the newsrack provisions be eliminated from the legislation.

Media attorney Alice Lucan, representing USA Today, noted the intense newspaper competition that exists in Washington as a benefit to the city, as are the many vendors that operate there. She also took issue with earlier testimony that indicated some court decisions around the country had supported the type of control this legislation would impose. "None of those cases considers or justifies a privately controlled system like this one," she said.

Committee Chair Sharon Ambrose, who conducted the hearing and is one of the four sponsors of the bill, emphasized many times during the day-long session that the bill is "just a starting point," that whatever legislation emerges from her committee will be very different from the original bill, and that there will be no further hearings until after January 1. She said a demonstration project like the Golden Triangle may be a better approach to the problem, and she promised to convene a meeting with publishers to further examine their concerns.

The only other Council member present, at-large member David Cantania, said he could not support the bill as presented for several reasons, including that it cedes too much city authority to private interests and that it does not seem to represent the interests of the city’s sidewalk vendors. Many vendors also testified against the bill, as did the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

In addition to Melamed, Tirey, Spahr and Lucan, the newspaper panel included Edgar Brookins, general manager of The Afro-American Newspaper; Kathryn Sinzinger, editor and publisher of The Common Denominator; and Jim Donahue, executive director of the MDDC Press Association.