Recently a for-profit news media declared that the nonprofit way was the only way to be sustainable.
Ah...but while I've been saying this since the trend to go nonprofit began, more concrete evidence is in to demonstrate that nonprofit journalism has its own sustainability challenges. As reported by a number of sources, The American Prospect board is facing its own financial sustainability issues needing to raise a half-million or more to address a "funding gap" and wanting to raise another half-million to meet the next six months of expenses.
In my experience, donors are fairly open to supporting future needs and $500,000 is not that much to raise. Raising money to cover past expenses, that's a bit of a challenge, and probably requires an event like an auction where the "donors" get something more tangible in exchange for their support. But I'm sure the folks at American Prospect have all the advice they need.
Meanwhile let's talk about the bigger issue that for-profits wanting to convert to nonprofits must face. For either to succeed, there must be a market demand: a value-proposition that is viewed by the buyer (aka donor) as being a better option than the alternatives. Failure or success is not driven primarily by the tax structure, it is driven by the consumer.