Senator Kerry is holding hearings next week on the viability of the newsaper industry while a bill has been introduced in Congress to restructure newspapers as nonprofits (see Philadelphia Inquirer).
I'm very conflicted on this matter. On the one hand, yes, the newspapers legally structured as nonprofits has plausibility as a model that can reach into largely untapped resources (donors and foundations). At the same time, those largely untapped resources are under severe duress facing many challenges as to how to distribute severely reduced resources. Adding a whole industry as one of the competitors with a number of very basic needs seems an unwarranted strain.
On the other hand, the current newspaper business model is clearly failing. And, newspapers are critical to our democracy, such as it is.