Newspapers as Nonprofits

Our founding fathers established a press system because they realized the necessity to inform all citizens. It was public policy. The news as a public good. They knew that an informed citizenry was essential to democracy.

Now, due to the failing economy, the internet, media consolidation ( i.e. big corporate takeovers) and a failing business model based on circulation and ad revenue, these are dark times for the venerable printed newspaper. And a tragedy for democracy.

I read this the other day: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government could provide tax breaks for newspapers or allow them to operate as nonprofits to help the struggling business survive, Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday.

Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland is proposing legislation (The Newspaper Revitalization Act)

http://cardin.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=310392 which would allow newspapers to restructure as nonprofits. The purpose of this legislation is to save local papers and community papers, not the big media conglomerates. Nonprofit status would allow for advertising and subscriptions to be tax exempt. The newspaper would subsist on tax deductible donations and contributions. As a nonprofit, the newspaper would not be allowed to make political endorsements. They would be allowed to operate for educational purposes, like NPR or PBS.

This sounds good to me, because it would allow for many perspectives and different points of view. Media consolidation has suppressed the diverse voices in our community. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership

And this would be one way to help local and community newspapers to stay afloat, hopefully preserving some investigative journalism.