The document is based on a gathering of journalists and scholars at Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania in 2005 to determine what to do regarding the challenges facing journalism.

• A bigger role for nonprofits, including foundation support;

• More availability of media literacy courses, civics in school, and other things that encourage debate;

• Speaking out more as journalists, in response to challenges to freedom of information, misrepresentation of the press, reporters threatened with jail;

• The media should hold itself accountable and be transparent in its work;

• The discussion about having a free and responsible press should be brought to public attention;

Responsible corporate governance at media companies to help sustain original journalism;

• A clearer understanding of ethics and good practices among journalists, and recommitment to journalism as public-service;

• Understanding new forms of media and the involvement of new groups in media-making, plus the challenges they pose;

• Public consideration of the government;s role in protecting, regulating, and supporting the press

I’m reading this document for a research proposal to study a local non-profit newsroom, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Stay tuned.

Bottom line: after three years, we project that a blogger could hire editorial staff and advertising help – citizen salespeople who help support the citizen journalists – and net $148,000 out of $332,000 revenue. That’s a conservative estimate when you consider that a community weekly paper in such a town probably earns between $2m-$5m.
— Let’s build an ecosystem around hyperlocal bloggers Guardian 14 Sep 2009

Much of the book focuses on Nelson Poynter’s life, but many sections deal with the development of the Poynter Institute and the unusual structure of its ownership of the Times — the part we are interested in.

One paragraph I encountered described the different structures Poynter and his lawyers considered as they planned for the eventual transfer of ownership that would maintain the man’s ideals.

Throughout the early 1970s, idea after idea was explored, picked apart, and usually shelved or flatly rejected. Among them were ownership by the pension and profit-sharing fund, by Yale University or some other educational institution, even by a sole proprietor to whom it would be given. One recourse never taken seriously was public commercial ownership, to which many newspapers [...] were turning. Poynter was dead set against it. He was terrified that stockholders might try to shape editorial decisions.
— A Sacred Trust Chapter 10 In Pursuit of Forever

It is interesting to see how similar structural changes that we are analyzing and are being suggested now were considered decades ago.

• On a merger of Harvard and the Times 19 Feb 2009
• The end of the press baron 2 Jul 2009

By creating value, but offering it for free the Post is allowing sites like Gawker to capture that value and make money off it.

More readers are better than fewer, of course. But those referring links — while essential to our current business model — aren’t doing much, ultimately, to stop our potential slide into layoffs and further contraction. Worse, some media experts believe that Gawker and its ilk, with their relatively low overhead, might be depressing online ad revenue across the board. That makes it harder for news-gathering operations to recoup their expenses.
— The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition) Washington Post

It also shows that even if news outlets restrict their content, they still have to control where it gets copied.

• How charging for online news is different from selling digital music 3 Jul 2009

Part of her strategy at NPR has been to move beyond radio and offer news for free on a redesigned website.

In the interview she offers her views on the news publishing landscape and criticizes some of the models we are exploring.

A lot of media pundits have been saying the salvation for commercial media is to become a not for profit. I laugh when I see that. The notion is that you declare yourself not for profit, and poof, all of your problems go away. Well guess what, if you’re a not for profit, you still have to raise all the money that you’re spending and then some, so you have a surplus when the economy goes off a cliff. It’s incredibly naive.
[...]
I am a staunch believer that people will not in large numbers pay for news content online. [...] News is a commodity; I’m sorry to say.
— NPR’s Digital Makeover Newsweek 27 Jul 2009

Other similar bodies already exist like the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.

A top editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune is leaving the paper to start a local non-profit watchdog institute that will provide “data-driven investigative journalism” to media outlets, including the U-T.
[...]
According to Winner, the institute will be supported by donations and grants. It wasn’t immediately clear how the U-T will support the institute, although Winner wrote that the partnership between the two entities shows the paper’s “strong financial commitment to continuing to provide public service work.” Winner said the U-T will be in the institute’s “lead partner.”
— U-T Editor Starts Non-Profit Journalism Project VoS 29 Jun 2009

Reports say the newspaper is in talks with San Diego State University to house the institute. The staffers that will move to the Institute will still work with U-T reporters so, at least some of the proceeds of the investigations will go to the newspaper.

The new head of the Institute Lori Hearn denies control by U-T in quotation in the Voice, “This is not the Union-Tribune’s non-profit. . . . It is my idea for starting a nonprofit, and I approached The San Diego Union-Tribune as partners.”

Regardless of control or details of the relationship, this setup lets the for-profit Union-Tribune realize more value. The newspaper can attract grants and donations to the institute, receive information for new reports from the institute, and then make money from the stories it produces.

This is an example of where traditional operations can benefit from adopting a mixed model that includes alternative business units.

• Interviewed Voice of San Diego founder 9 Apr 2009

Barber said building online platforms that could charge readers on an article-by-article or subscription basis was one of the key challenges facing news organisations.

“How these online payment models work and how much revenue they can generate is still up in the air,” Barber said in a speech at at a Media Standards Trust event at the British Academy last night.

“But I confidently predict that within the next 12 months, almost all news organisations will be charging for content.”
— Financial Times editor says most news websites will charge within a year Financial Times 16 Jul 2009

He recognizes, as we do, that there is a need for new business models for news publishing. His perspective is for existing outlets. It is likely that newspapers will first consider charging for content like subscriptions, premium pricing, and micropayment because they are revenue models and do not require the structural changes that non-profit or foundation funding require.

• Newspaper executive meet about lawfully charging for news 12 Jun 2009
• News Corp. says it’s going to charge for news — one day 4 Jun 2009

The hard truth about the future of journalism is that nobody knows for sure what will happen; the current system is so brittle, and the alternatives are so speculative, that there’s no hope for a simple and orderly transition from State A to State B. Chaos is our lot; the best we can do is identify the various forces at work shaping various possible futures. Two of the most important are the changing natures of the public, and of subsidy.

As Paul Starr, the great sociologist of media, has often noted, journalism isn’t just about uncovering facts and framing stories; it’s also about assembling a public to read and react to those stories.
[...]
We can expect changes in journalism to be linked to changes in subsidy. There are many shifts coming, but three big ones are an increase in direct participation; an increase in the leverage of the professionals working alongside the amateurs; and a second great age of patronage.
— Not an Upgrade — An Upheaval

The magazine — perennially profitable from its 9 million subscribers for print and online products — expects an operating loss next year due to the recession’s erosion of its customer base.

The magazine, owned by the not-for-profit Consumers Union, doesn’t accept advertising and isn’t dependent on shrinking ad dollars.
— Bad job reviews and Consumer Reports NY Post 7 Jul 2009

It shows that while not-for-profits do have a cushion in their operations, the stormy waters may sink all kinds of boats.

Believing that newspapers 150 years ago where the same as they are now can blind people to how they must change now.

The assumption, in my perception, is pervasive, and it colors the view of today’s journalist toward development of online news; in fact, the assumption may have blinded many executives (including online executives, including myself for a time) in their expectations how to build an online news business.
[...]
James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, E.W. Scripps and Joseph Pulitzer were not just earlier versions of Woodward and Bernstein. They were entrepreneurs, visionaries and risk takers who experimented and explored the capabilities of new technologies with a goal of meeting readers needs and growing audience.
— Newspapers started small, cheap and with different standards Howard Owens 24 Jun 2009