Speaking of the newspaper business:
Dogtown Wire has a story about an interest on the part of some city officials in NLR in moving — first on Main Street and then perhaps throughout the city — to force newspapers to circulate through expensive modular newsracks that present a tidier appearance than a jumble of different boxes.
This is a familiar story around the country. One comment: We wouldn’t be happy about the city of North Little Rock nullifying our small company’s investment in a significant number of news racks. We also wouldn’t be happy if a couple of major media companies controlled these racks, which is at least a possibility suggested by this article and prices mentioned for the racks.
More to come on this topic, but, in the name of the First Amendment, it bears watching. A fight over the issue in the San Francisco area illustrates how, in the name of tidiness, unreasonable costs and an undependable government can work to limit free speech.