Sykes writes ( and wrongs)

This from WTMJ talker Charlie Sykes:

THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER BOONDOGGLE

". . . buried deep inside Governor Doyle's budget was an interesting power grab. Doyle wanted to shift the power to select the state's "official newspaper" from the legislature to the administration. The official paper gets all of the state's notices and is the paper of record, a plum designation that is worth (I'm told) about $10 million a year. That's a rather generous carrot (or stick) the governor could use to help nudge newspapers who might be tempted to be too critical... The current official newspaper is the Wisconsin State Journal, a Madison daily, but Capitol buzz had it that Doyle might be inclined to ship the business over to the much-friendlier Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

"Not surprisingly, GOP legislators stripped the item from the budget."

As usual, there are two sides to every story. (C'mon, Charlie, "Capitol buzz"?) This wasn't a power grab by Doyle, so he could give it to some friendly newspaper. What Doyle did want to do was award the newspaper contract by competitive bidding, instead of letting the legislature's GOP leadership award it without bids.

A $10-million a year contract with no bids? Doyle's mistake (or his budget office's) was in not attaching a cost savings to the proposal. It was actually a budget item, not a policy item, but it was removed from the budget. Let's hope it comes back as a separate bill, so GOP leaders John Gard and Dale Schultz can explain why it shouldn't be put out for bids.

Now back to Sykes: "But the larger question is this: why is the state still spending $10 million on a single newspaper, when it could put the same information out to the entire state on the internet for a tiny fraction of the cost?

"As one Capitol insider told me: 'There is no need to do this in a newspaper anymore. Especially since the state subsidizes every library in the state having Internet hookup. Put this stuff on the state's web page and save the $10 million.

"The state newspaper of record is a horse and buggy relic in a jet age.'"

Write this one down: Sykes and I agree on that part.

Except I was thinking the state could use my blog as the official site, maybe for about 10% of what it now pays the State Journal. That would be $9-million in annual savings. And a million a year would not affect my objectivity one bit.

There's more from Sykes, including a letter from Racine County's exec, at Sykes Writes.