Religious broadcaster ponders publishing paper
By Leah McBride Mensching, Tuesday 15 January 2008 at 00:00 :: Media Ownership :: #1098 :: rss
Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson is considering making an offer to buy The Virginian-Pilot, a daily newspaper based in Norfolk, Va. that he has criticised in the past for its coverage of him and his activities.
Robertson became a multi-millionaire after he founded the Family Channel television station and sold it to Rupert Murdoch. He is also founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, is the host of the Christian television show “The 700 Club,” ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States in 1988 and founded private Christian school Regent University, among other things.
The Pilot is the flagship newspaper of Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc., which last week announced that it is deciding whether to sell all its assets, including The Weather Channel, Business Week reported Monday.
“Although the price for The Weather Channel is a little rich for my blood, I am considering a potential bid for The Pilot and have asked my attorneys to look into it,” Robertson said in a statement via e-mail Friday.
Robertson also said The Pilot could provide Regent University journalism students with internships.
Analysts have estimated the Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, Ga., could bring in up to $5 billion. The Pilot stated in an article Friday that its most recent circulation numbers for an average seven-day period were 186,489.
Philip Meyer, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of “The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age,” told Business Week that should Robertson buy The Pilot, one of two things are likely to happen: Either Robertson could produce a good newspaper, such as The Christian Science Monitor, which is published by The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston. Or, Robertson could use The Pilot to promote his religious and political views. If that happens, it would encourage competition, as there would likely be someone who would try to put out a better newspaper or online news site, Business Week reported.
“So it stirs the pot, and good things could come from this,” Meyer told Business Week.
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