Publishers have tried, liked tithing

The newspaper industry is not without an internal example of how tithing for research and development might work. Look no further than PAFET -- Partners Affiliated for Exploring Technology.

Started in 1994 by six newspaper companies, founders said the goal was to "expand our core businesses of newspapers and free television."

The organizers of PAFET represent seven of the 50 largest newspapers in the country. Participating are A.H. Belo Corp., Central Newspapers Inc., Cowles Media Co., Freedom Communications Inc., McClatchy Newspapers Inc. and Pulitzer Publishing Co. (membership will drop to five when McClatchy finishes its acquisition of Cowles early next year).

"Our purpose is to maintain and strengthen our competence in collecting, packaging and marketing information, making use of the best of evolving technologies available," said James Rosse, president and chief executive of Freedom, who was the first chairman of the PAFET management committee.

"PAFET will give us a mechanism for obtaining and exchanging research information related to new technology across our organizations," Rosse said. "We believe that a modest investment in such joint research and information analysis will enable each company to make better individual decisions."

PAFET has been run by two panels -- the management committee, consisting of high-level corporate executives, and the operations committee, consisting of technologists from member companies. The operations committee meets almost every other month and has embarked on several research projects.

Members of both committees are reluctant to reveal the actual projects on which PAFET has embarked over the years, but concede that PAFET definitely falls into the tithing category.

"Yes, this is tithing and it's worked really, really well," said one PAFET insider who preferred anonymity.

-- dmc