Here's a nice wrap-up on my earlier post on non-profit journalism from the Poynter Institute.
Here's how this shakes out. The age-old business model of newspapers is scaring the pants off everyone right now. Print circulation and ad revenue are down markedly. Newspapers all over the country are tightening budgets and laying off workers, trying to keep a Wall Street-friendly profit margin in the face of these revenue problems.
People like me suspect that two kinds of coverage are most threatened by this trend: international reporting and investigative reporting. They're both essential to the very meaning of journalism but also colossally expensive to do.
Enter "non-profit journalism." The idea now goes that philanthropists will fund investigative journalism to keep the press as watchdogs of government, business, other institutions.
Do you think this will work? Can entities like this effectively serve as watchdogs? Were newspapers even doing that in the first place? What are the conflicts of interest?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Non-profit Journalism
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2 comments:
I remember reading about Pro Publica in the nytimes last month, and in that story, NYTimes director, Bill Keller said --The Times would be open to using work from an outside source, “assuming we were confident of its quality,” but that “we’ll always have a preference for work we can vouch for ourselves.”--
I think this is an interesting concept. As journalists, of course we want more investigative stories, after all that's what makes journalism appear so rewarding. I think Pro Publica is a good idea to make sure the press can still serve as a watchdog, and may actually be a refreshing way to see news made. Especially with a whole newsroom of investigative reporters, what a unique environment where the tasks of a daily won't cloud progress. Also, it could make newspapering less a corporate interest for conglomerates to buy and sell. However, I wonder how it will work between reporting for Pro Publica and then printing the story in an actual newspaper and what the business practices will be. Integrity might be a question, too, but I think with seasoned journalists writing the stories (like it appears this would use)it will be less of a problem.
I'd really like to see this work.
It's an interesting idea, one that I hope works. As long as the work is as accurate and objective as possible, ProPublica has a good chance of success. If there is even a whiff of bias or manipulation, I think it will morph into activism if it survives at all.
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