Not-for-Profit May Be the Future of Local News

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, a new non-profit news web site just opened, The Bay Citizen. It is funded by wealthy individuals and foundations. I think this model is one of the best hopes for funding U.S. journalism.

There's nothing sacred about the objective of turning a profit and creating wealth for shareholders of a newspaper. That's just how most of them developed, back when selling retail and classified ads was a good enough business to more than fund the cost of newsgathering. This coincided with the rise of U.S. metropolitan areas and then the expansion of their suburbs. Sellers of everything from food to homes to cars needed a way to reach these newly congregated consumers, and printed newspapers turned out to be a good way to do that.

Now, in the 21st century, some huge things have changed. The cities and suburbs are largely built, and the people who are maturing in them now have grown up with the Internet. They have almost no need for a printed version of the news, which remains an expensive way to gather and distribute news and information.

Since there's still a societal need for the gathering and dissemination of news, there need to be new ways of doing it, and The Bay Citizen may be one model. Jeff Kaye, an old friend of mine, has  come out with a book on the subject, Funding Journalism in the Digital Age. I've just gotten a copy and haven't read all of it yet, but it's got chapters on possible models such as micropayments, e-commerce and citizen journalism, as well as one on sponsorship and philanthropy.