The Risks of Nonprofit Local Journalism

The decision of Washington Post owner/Amazon founder Jeff Bezos not to allow the paper’s editorial board to endorse a presidential candidate has stirred disappointment cum outrage among the paper’s readers — some 250,000 have gone so far as to cancel their subscriptions. Bezos, with the deepest of pockets, was once viewed as the Post’s savior — now he’s the devil in a Blue Origin rocket. His decision has also stirred those with an interest in sustaining local journalism, under dire threat from closing and shrinking newspapers, to propose what they see as an approach better than that of Bezos: not just a willingness to take the risk of losing money but an outright nonprofit model.

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Steven Waldman of the group Rebuild Local News offers details about such an approach: “A foundation or public charity would be created to house the Washington Post. . . . It would have an independent board, committed to its mission of public service journalism and independence.” In such a model, per Waldman, a nonprofit organization would own the newspaper, which itself could operate on a traditional profit/loss model — but this nonprofit could, crucially, also accept charitable donations and funnel funds to the paper.

About the Author

Howard Husock

Howard Husock is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of The Projects: A New History of Public Housing.

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The decision of Washington Post owner/Amazon founder Jeff Bezos not to allow the paper’s editorial board to endorse a presidential candidate has stirred disappointment cum outrage among the paper’s readers — some 250,000 have gone so far as to cancel their subscriptions. Bezos, with the deepest of pockets, was once viewed as the Post’s savior — now he’s the devil in a Blue Origin rocket. His decision has also stirred those with an interest in sustaining local journalism, under dire threat from closing and shrinking newspapers, to propose what they see as an approach better than that of Bezos: not just a willingness to take the risk of losing money but an outright nonprofit model.

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Steven Waldman of the group Rebuild Local News offers details about such an approach: “A foundation or public charity would be created to house the Washington Post. . . . It would have an independent board, committed to its mission of public service journalism and independence.” In such a model, per Waldman, a nonprofit organization would own the newspaper, which itself could operate on a traditional profit/loss model — but this nonprofit could, crucially, also accept charitable donations and funnel funds to the paper.