Saying the word “journalism” these days is like openly inviting those around you to either deliver a lecture on the evils of technology, pontificate about the end of the written word, or expound on their emotional attachment to The New York Times.
Also on the list of hot journalism topics right now is the burgeoning number of nonprofit news organizations. Read Slate Magazine’s report on the new phenomenon, by Jack Schafer, and learn that San Francisco’s own Warren Hellman, founder of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, just committed $5 million to the Bay Area News Project and that MinnPost and Center for Independent Media, among others, are already up and running.
Schafer presents a bleak warning about such seemingly optimal publications: “For-profit newspapers lose money accidentally. Nonprofit news operations lose money deliberately. No matter how good the nonprofit operation is, it always ends up sustaining itself with handouts, and handouts come with conditions.” While for-profit publications strive to serve their consumer-driven readers, non-profit caters to cash-laden, and often do-gooder, donors who often have a lot of influence and agendas of their own to consider along with their funding.
