The Newseum re-opened last year in new, far more expensive quarters: a $450 million complex in Washington, D.C., paid almost entirely by Freedom Forum. But the journalism foundation's investment portfolio has plunged in value, to $400 million from $600 million, the AP said. That reduces income for Freedom Forum's main project, the Newseum. Seeking to shore up operations, trustees hired USA Today Editor Ken Paulson as president, the No. 2 job; he began last month.Former Gannett CEO Al Neuharth, 85, established Freedom Forum in 1991, using $650 million in seed capital from GCI stockholders. He and his longtime associate, Freedom Forum CEO Charles Overby, have been among the charity's highest-paid officers; they also have steered millions of dollars in grants to their favorite causes. Overby, 61, got paid $481,985 in wages and benefits in 2007, plus another $95,039 for expenses, according to the foundation's most recent public annual return to the Internal Revenue Service.
Show of hands: Has anyone been to the Newseum? (either location)
ReplyDeleteNot me, but I would if in the area and admission wasn't 10 shares of GCI.
There's a caterpillar's worth of shoes ready to drop over there at Freedom Forum/Newseum.
ReplyDeleteI've been to the new Newseum once, but only because I got a free ticket from work. It's a really cool museum, but I could not see shelling out $20 ($13 for kids) to visit this place. Is a family of four really going to shell out $66 for a two-hour visit when most museums in DC are free? Hell no! The old Newseum was free; I used to spend my lunch hours there when I worked at USAT in Rosslyn. But how do you go from free to $20 overnight? Very badly planned IMHO.
ReplyDeleteThe Newseum is a joke. With the National Gallery of Art right next door, with its doors open for free, why would anyone pay the Freedom Forum to see a McMuseum?
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget that besides the National Gallery, there is also the entire Smithsonian complex of educational opportunity free for all visitors.
The Newseum is the USA Today of vacuous content cloaked in the name "Museum." Lots of hit tech smoke and mirrors, but how much scholarship goes into the presentation, how much philosophical and ethical debate is truly presented? Posting the front pages of major newspapers every day is hardly informative. Instead where is the debate of how and why of the decision making process of why the front pages present what they do?
The Newseum is "Eye Candy." Where's the main dish?
In New York the Sports Museum of America opened and closed within a year or so. It was neat, but expensive as well, and didn't have the history of all the individual sports halls of fame.
ReplyDeleteThe Newseum strikes me as the same kind of miscalculation.
The history of newspapers, at least right now, is the history of history. Why go there to find out about events when there are other places (free) to explain the same events?
When the last paper rolls off the press, perhaps then there will be a need for a Newseum, like the other monuments to the dead along the Mall.
They should have stayed in Arlington. The Newseum in downtown Washington is interesting, but not worth the $20 a head. They planned on making oodles of cash renting out the place for lobbyist events, but the economic downturn has hit the budgets of Washington lobbyists as hard as it has industry, and so the Newseum is dark most evenings. The tiny condo apartments didn't sell and it is grossly overstaffed. It burning through cash and is now a serious drain on the endowment and I doubt it will survive unless corporate gives it more money.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking my kids to Washington for a weekend next month. Two years ago, I would have loved to have taken them to the Newseum because I loved so much being part of a newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI don't work at a paper any more. We're going to look at dinosaurs at the Smithsonian instead. I have more in common with them these days than I do with anything at the Newseum.
I was previously a volunteer for the museum but stopped when I realized they were getting me to do for free exactly what a slew of paid employees were doing. They have dropped some perks for volunteers and at this time there is no volunteer coordinator. Sounds like they are starting to scramble over there.
ReplyDeleteA great place to visit, but a little excessive.
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ReplyDeleteThe Newseum, another Al's ego trip like USAT, that is not a success.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why Freedom Forum is not talking more about democracy and the role of news organizations, especially during these times. Also, what in the world is the First Amendment Center saying and doing about all that is going on? All this silence just seems strange.
ReplyDeleteA little reality for the group tirade: Few pay $20. The Newseum discounts -- I've been there several times on deep discounts for off-season or take-kids-free deals. The Newseum also courts and discounts for bus groups, both tours and school groups. They pour in there.
ReplyDeleteAs for exhibits and interactivity: The stuffy, sniffy Smithsonian world has been roiled by the Newseum and similar interactive museums in NYC. The overhauled Museum of American History is proof.
I'm not surprised about Newseum layoffs -- they are rife in that business, even in taxpayer-sucking museums. Even the Getty is slashing.
The First Amendment Center at the Freedom Forum just hosted a ton of Sunshine Week events. Staff and contributors crank out a lot of First Amendment news, insight and analysis:
ReplyDeletewww.firstamendmentcenter.org/
Ha Ha Looks like Paulson jumped off the Titanic and ended up on the Lusitania!!
ReplyDeleteverification word: hoaloaf