In today’s Wall Street Journal, Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia University, and author of a new book, “Uninhibited, Robust, Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century,” wrote an op-ed article calling for a new media-industry business model that relies on government funding. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704629804575324782605510168.html

Mr. Bollinger says, “The proliferation of communications outlets has fractured the base of advertising and readers [of what he calls “the U.S. press”]. He proposes that without government funding, journalists in the United States will not be able to compete with news agencies around the world, such as XinHua News, CCTV, BBC, and Al Jazeera. Mr. Bollinger, a lawyer, points to the U.S court system and how the government provides defense attorneys to defendants as an example of how government can play a paternalistic, unbiased role in society–presumably similar to the other news agencies he mentioned. For example, XinHua removed the words “Falun Gong” from its vocabulary, not because it had the potential to organize into a powerful political coalition, but because exposing citizens of the People’s Republic of China to a dangerous cult was not good for them.

While Mr. Bollinger is on a roll, he might consider proposing government funding of churches. Many churches have undoubtedly seen reductions in tithing and donations, similar to the reductions traditional media companies have experienced in advertising revenues. After all, Mr. Bollinger could argue, many other countries have strong ties between church and state. How can churches in the United States compete with churches in those countries?

Apparently, Mr. Bollinger hasn’t recently read George Orwell’s 1984. He also apparently has not visited China recently where he would have had to report to the local police station upon his arrival and would have had to set up a virtual private network to an internet service provider outside of China just to get basic information. He apparently has not lived in Mexico where, at least when I lived there, the nightly news anchorman delivered government messages as if he were reporting factual news. Mr. Bollinger apparently would also point to the Rachel Maddow and Glenn Beck shows as examples of unbiased journalism, whose balanced reporting would certainly improve with government funding from a politically agnostic organization such as the Federal Communications Commission in the Executive Branch.

There is no doubt that traditional media companies, “the U.S. press” as Mr. Bollinger calls them, have been greatly damaged. According to Vocus, Inc, 293 local newspapers went out of business in 2009, alone. Should we lament the disappearance of local newspapers and ask the U.S. Federal Government to bail them out? I tried subscribing to the local paper, more than once. Each time I was so underwhelmed, I cancelled the subscription. I used to also receive those huge, 3-inch thick documents, called the Yellow Pages and White Pages. Should we ask the government to bail out this grand tradition, also? After all, there are probably thousands of nursing homes full of people who wouldn’t know how to find a local plumber if the facilities maintenance staff went on vacation for the next decade.

Do people no longer need plumbers, simply because they don’t receive the Yellow Pages book? Do people no longer care about what is happening in the world because they no longer subscribe to their local newspaper? Did the demand for news all of a sudden disappear after approximately 240 years, since Benjamin Franklin first started publishing newspapers in the U.S? People still want and will pay for information. The thing that has changed is how they pay and how they receive it.

I can find a local plumber faster than I can find an old Yellow Pages book. I can find the current status of events such as the Gulf oil spill faster than I can say the words. I also subscribe to the hard-copy Wall Street Journal. I look forward to taking it out of my mailbox every day. A friend of mine, the author the book, Rethink, looks forward to taking his copy of the New York Times out of his mailbox every day. Why? These members of “the U.S. press” provide a variety of high-quality information, whether it is today’s reporting of a recent meeting of the Federal Reserve presidents, or of Portugal’s challenges reducing their 9.4% public debt to GDP, or of how clothing fashions get started. My wife, who chided me for subscribing to the local paper, recently insisted that I renew the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> subscription—she loves it!

Wake up Mr. Bollinger. This is 2010. The New Economy and The New Media are soooo last century. Tim Berners-Lee and Jeff Bezos are now as ancient and as much a part of our everyday lives as Gutenburg’s printing press. Mr. Bollinger, you’d be a bit more credible if there were some evidence that you were participating in “the new media.”  Where is your “Follow Me on Twitter” icon on your Columbia University President’s Page? Where is your President’s Blog? If it exists, you need to improve your SEO. Where is your Facebook fanpage? I’m sure Columbia University is a fine institution of higher learning, but your school’s website looks like it was literally developed last century. My local school district’s website is far more modern—it’s built on Microsoft’s Sharepoint collaboration platform.

Change happens… Don’t get run over by it–get ahead of it!

Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak, Talks Tough on Business on The Actuation Zone Radio Show, hosted by Brett Clay

Jeffrey Hayzlett, celebrity judge on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice TV show, and author of the best-selling book, The Mirror Test, recently appeared on The Actuation Zone radio show, hosted by Brett Clay, author of the award-winning book, Selling Change. In the interview, Hayzlett asks the tough business questions and suggests the changes that executives and business owners need to be making, right now, to grow their businesses.

In an in-depth interview with Brett Clay, Jeffrey Hayzlett, business best-selling author — 800 CEO Read, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal — talks about the changes he’s seeing in the marketing and business worlds, including the change from “broadcasting to narrowcasting,” the role of social media in marketing, and much more.

“To succeed in business in the 21st century, salespeople and executives must not only adapt to change, they must lead change,” says host Brett Clay. “I want to hear from people like Jeffrey Hayzlett who are making it happen instead of reacting as it happens to them.”

Jeffrey Hayzlett is a master of driving change and creating opportunity. “If there ever were a candidate for a company to be rendered irrelevant by change, it would be Kodak,” says Clay. “Yet, Kodak has not only survived, it has thrived. Jeff was there when it happened and played an instrumental role in Kodak’s evolution.”

In The Actuation Zone interview Hayzlett also shares the key concepts that have driven his book to be a best-seller, including asking tough business questions, the four E’s of customer relations in social media, the power of ones and zeros, and the powerful ‘118 rule’. He says, “Business owners, executives, marketers, and salespeople must be able to communicate their value in 118 seconds.” Hayzlett describes why and how in the interview.

Clay and Hayzlett also discuss how to make big changes and the concept of ‘conditions of satisfaction’. Hayzlett says, “Conditions of satisfaction is one of the most valuable concepts I’ve ever learned in life.”

Finally, Hayzlett suggests three changes people can make, right now, to grow their businesses. “It doesn’t matter whether you have 2, 27, or 27,000 people in your company,” says Hayzlett. “You need to make these changes, now, to survive and grow your business.”

To hear Jeffrey Hayzlett’s interview with Brett Clay, go to http://ActuationZone.com.

About The Actuation Zone Radio Show

Host, Brett Clay, author of the award-winning book Selling Change, named the Best Business Book of 2010 by the Independent Publisher Book Awards, discusses business trends and today’s hot issues with thought-leaders—authors, analysts, scholars, journalists, and practitioners—who are not just adapting, but are creating and harvesting new opportunities by leading change. The Actuation Zone helps you put change into motion to achieve your goals.

For more information about the show, visit www.ActuationZone.com.

About Jeffrey Hayzlett

Hailed a “Celebrity CMO” by Forbes Magazine and famous for his outspoken appearances on numerous television networks, Jeffrey Hayzlett is widely recognized as one of the most influential marketers of our time. As the former Chief Marketing Officer of the iconic Eastman Kodak Company, Hayzlett has been responsible for the company’s worldwide marketing operations including the design and execution of all marketing strategies, branding and corporate communications. With Hayzlett at the helm of Kodak’s marketing and business development initiatives, the company experienced record growth, unveiled revolutionary new products and has established a global brand as a leader in cutting-edge research and product development.