Nonprofit Newspapers?

A recent SF Chronicle article describes how the decline in printed newspaper revenue has some proposing that newspapers move to a nonprofit model in which they establish an endowment to fund their operations as well as receiving direct donations. Basically, an endowment is a large amount of money that is invested by a foundation or a nonprofit organization into things like the stock market, real estate, etc. The interest collected from such investments then goes back into the foundation or nonprofit organization to fund their work.

Proponents of this idea say that endowments “would enhance newspapers’ autonomy while shielding them from the economic forces that are now tearing them down.”

Conversely, critics say, “endowments also could beholden newspapers to their large donors, and giving newspapers tax-exempt status could restrict them from endorsing candidates and running editorials on pending legislation” (since nonprofit organizations have restrictions placed on them in terms of engaging in politics).

We know that becoming a nonprofit organization does not “shield you from economic forces,” as the system of philanthropy we have now is very much tied to corporate America.

I’m not entirely opposed to this idea of nonprofit newspapers, but I think it misses the larger point highlighted by the current situation.

We’ve all heard the gloom and doom stories about how the rise of internet use has led to less money being made by newspapers and other printed media. The fact we don’t hear highlighted in conjunction with this, though, is that newspapers are still in fact running a profitable business. They are still making money, just not as much as they used to. In terms of figuring out ways of making more money to offset losses, it appears that revenue from advertising on their websites is not cutting it.

I’ve got an idea for how newspapers can regain their prominence: produce quality information again. I think a large reason why people are migrating to the internet to get most of their information is because they can do their own research and investigation to try to get to the truth of relevant issues. Newspapers used to provide a level of rigorous investigatory journalism that produced quality information for the public good. Take the media’s role in the Watergate Scandal back in the ’70s, for instance. Since then, it seems that the media has toned down their level of relevant, investigatory journalism (which is chronicled really well in the book, End Times: The Death of the Fourth Estate). This is probably due to the level of corporate interests that own the major media outlets and are intertwined with the government.

I think overall,  the public is not entirely trustful of the mainstream media’s reporting.  I don’t know if newspapers will be able to regain that trust, but I think focusing on producing the best quality stories for the public good that deserve to be paid for will be a good start.