The news that billionaire David Geffen is considering buying the New York Times was big last week; the fact he’s considering turning it non-profit was buried in these stories.
From the Guardian:
A loss-making, old-technology newspaper would seem an odd vehicle for a colourful Californian showbusiness mogul. Geffen, shrewdly, is casting himself as a potential saviour of a US national treasure rather than as a business buyer - sources close to the billionaire say he wants to turn the NYT into a non-profit institution, preserving it in perpetuity.
Luckily for the Times, a professor has done an analysis of the paper’s various non-profit options, which she lists as setting up an endowment, seeking support from a foundation, purchase by an educational institution, and an angel investor. She’s not convinced by any of the options, but her analysis is interesting.
- Hollywood visionary who can step in to save America’s ailing national oracle, The Guardian, May 17
- Non-profit model for the New York Times?, Penelope Muse Abernathy, Duke Conference of Non-Profit Media
- Newspapers as endowed institutions 2 Mar 2009
- On a merger of Harvard and the Times 19 Feb 2009