Salon Talks Newspapers Going Non-Profit

Katharine Mieszkowski writes:

Chip Giller, though, believes foundations aren’t the ultimate answer for journalism. “The nonprofit world can be a bridge to a bigger solution, but I don’t think that there’s enough dollars in the nonprofit world to support the infrastructure to do the kind of investigative journalism and bird-dogging and watchdogging that’s required for a vibrant society,” he says. Besides, due to the recession, foundations’ endowments are down around 40 percent, which makes them less likely to try to take on the role of funding news gathering, given their many other urgent priorities.

In late March, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., proposed legislation called the Newspaper Revitalization Act, which would help newspapers go nonprofit. While the papers would no longer be allowed to make political endorsements, they would operate much like public broadcasting with all the attendant tax benefits, including donations from readers.

We’ve said for a while that newspaper online readers should be able to AT LEAST subscribe to the paper and not have to get a physical newspaper delivered. We’d be happy to give LAT what we give NPR each month (if that means everyone’s checks continue to clear…ahem).

Is non-profit newspapers the answer?
( surveys)

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