{"id":1356,"date":"2021-12-06T10:28:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T09:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ancstockinvestments.com\/blog\/?p=1356"},"modified":"2021-12-06T10:28:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-06T09:28:16","slug":"nonprofit-journalism-is-booming-in-the-u-s-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ancstockinvestments.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/06\/nonprofit-journalism-is-booming-in-the-u-s-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit Journalism is Booming in the U.S. Here’s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Five<\/a>
Journalists work at the U.S. edition of The Conversation, a nonprofit news organization, in Boston. (\u00a9 Jonathan Wiggs\/The Boston Globe\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Nonprofit news organizations are a growing part of the American media landscape, providing news audiences with investigative reports and hyperlocal information that commercial outlets often lack.<\/p>\n

What is nonprofit journalism?<\/h2>\n

While traditional news sources rely on revenue from subscribers and advertisers, nonprofits focus more exclusively on providing a specific public service to their communities. Since they don\u2019t chase advertising, they can steer away from stories about celebrities or trending topics and instead act as watchdogs against local corruption or purveyors of community news less frequently covered by their for-profit competitors.<\/p>\n

Even so, nonprofit journalists and their platforms need revenue to survive. They typically raise money from individuals, charities or foundations for much of their operating income. But even with these donations, they must also build other revenue streams. \u201cTo be nonprofit is not a business model,\u201d said Jim Brady, vice president of journalism at the Knight Foundation. \u201cIt\u2019s a tax status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shining a light on local issues<\/h2>\n

After a career as an attorney, Geoffrey King started spending more time in his hometown of Vallejo, California \u2014 asking questions and filing\u00a0public records requests<\/a>. Before long, King started an investigative news website called Open Vallejo, to shine a light on any corruption in the working-class town near San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan news website, produces investigative and feature articles about the state. It publishes them on its own platform and distributes them to statewide media for free, guaranteeing a large, interested audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, the network collaborated with the Daily Memphian<\/em> newspaper in Tennessee on a story about a crack on a busy bridge over the Mississippi River that connects Tennessee to Arkansas. Reporters found evidence that the bridge was unsafe, which moved authorities to fire an inspector who had overlooked the damage and to make necessary repairs. At the same time, the Federal Highway Administration reviewed the Arkansas bridge-inspection program and issued several recommendations for improvements, as well as endorsements of some practices.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Top: A cracked beam on the Interstate 40 bridge (\u00a9 Tennessee Department of Transportation\/AP Images). Bottom: The bridge links Tennessee and Arkansas. (\u00a9 Adrian Sainz\/AP Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other examples of thriving nonprofit media outlets include these:<\/p>\n

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  • In Illinois, reporters from Block Club Chicago cover hyperlocal news in 13 city neighborhoods.<\/li>\n
  • The Sahan Journal in Minneapolis covers immigrant communities, utilizing immigrant writers.<\/li>\n
  • MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, a Memphis, Tennessee, newsroom, reports on issues that were dear to Martin Luther King Jr.: poverty, power and policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Why is nonprofit news thriving?<\/h2>\n

    American startup culture drives the growth in nonprofit news<\/a>, according to Damon Kiesow, a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere are many nonprofit newsrooms popping up,\u201d he says, \u201clike in Detroit, filling a specific need in the community.\u201d Nonprofits, he adds, hire reporters and editors who can \u201credefine what news is.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Sue Cross, director of the Institute for Nonprofit News, says the 352<\/span> newsrooms in her organization employ 4,000 people who produce 1,000 stories a day.<\/p>\n

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    Financial pressure on commercial newspapers is also behind the boom. As ad dollars shrink \u2014 down 10%\u201315% annually in recent years, according to Rick Edmonds of The Poynter Institute for Media Studies \u2014 readers are migrating to nonprofit online publications.<\/p>\n

    What\u2019s more, the owners of some well-known commercial newspapers, including the\u00a0Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> and the Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>, have turned those enterprises into nonprofits to attract money they would not have gotten otherwise, says Brady, of the Knight Foundation.<\/p>\n

    He also cites for-profit outlets that have merged with local noncommercial public radio stations to become nonprofits:<\/p>\n

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    • Gothamist merged with the station WNYC in New York.<\/li>\n
    • NJ Spotlight was bought by New Jersey Public Radio.<\/li>\n
    • LAist was purchased by a Los Angeles National Public Radio station.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      These nonprofit outlets \u201care keeping an eye on things,\u201d Brady says. They have found their niche holding city councils, school boards and other local officials accountable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Nonprofit news is \u201cgrowing, succeeding, and it will be a really significant share of news Americans consume in the future,\u201d Cross says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n