Nonprofit news
Is the nonprofit news model sustainable?
Nonprofit news organizations continue to emerge through university partnerships, local communities foundations and wealthy local philanthropists. While few question the motives of these organizations, many of which tackle topics no longer addressed by legacy media, the sustainability of these organizations is repeatedly called into question. One of the most prominent critiques of late was written [...]
Philanthropy as journalism’s savior
But the real point is this: not only will philanthropy alone not save journalism, it can’t likely support even the majority of our modest efforts. We need to run our businesses like businesses, even if our goal is public service rather than profitability. — John Thornton, founder of the Texas Tribune, discussing the future of [...]
Can nonprofit status save news organizations?
Last week’s post discussed how nonprofits and other advocacy groups are becoming producers of news in the Internet age, distributing direct to news consumers alongside traditional news organizations. Recently, though, news organizations have been emerging as nonprofits at a rapid rate. These nonprofit news organizations are opening up possibilities for an entirely new business model [...]
Will the informational role of advocacy groups increase in the new media environment?
As the media landscape changed over the past few years, some university public relations officials began to make an observation – the amount of coverage their organizations’ research was getting had decreased significantly. Shrinking newsroom staffs apparently made it difficult to get their messages to members of the public, so they decided to just skip [...]
Propublica’s annual budget
$9,000,000 according a post by to “Newsosaur” blogger Alan Mutter. That’s enough to support 32 full-time journalists.
Journalistic bias at nonprofits
… journalistic bias is a function of human intention, not the business model under which the story is produced. For-profit, nonprofit, it does not matter. If a reporter or editor has an axe to grind, he or she is going to find a venue to grind it. — Jim Barnett writing on his blog, The [...]
Cost of a New York Times Magazine cover story
$400,000 according to an estimate of the cost of the publication’s latest cover story, funded partly through nonprofit ProPublica (coverage here from Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab)