Ownership
What will the newspaper of the future look like?
The Newspaper Guild has taken a leading role nationally in exploring ways for communities to invest in their local newspapers and preserve a vital community institution.
Because it’s so obvious the current business model for newspapers doesn’t work, we’ve been proactively investigating alternative ownership and business models that may ensure the Star Tribune will serve the Twin Cities community for many years to come.
These ideas include a low-profit limited liability corporation, the public television/radio model, micropayments, the Green Bay Packers model, non-profit/endowed organizations, employee ownership, and cooperatives.
The Guild is supporting federal legislation in Washington that would include newspapers among businesses that offer a “social benefit” to the community under current Internal Revenue Service rules. This would pave the way for a unique hybrid ownership model called an L3C – a low-profit limited liability corporation – that is operated as a for-profit business that pays taxes.
We’re engaged in creative thinking to Save the Strib. We deeply care about this longstanding institution because we live in this community. And we’d like to hear your ideas, too.
Email us at: savethestrib@gmail.com.
I already have to edit my own comment! It sounds like I want a better English education for myself rather than for several other posters. My ill-placed snobbery been exposed! I am also reminded that journalists are to be respected for clearly getting information across to us regular schmoes.
As I read many of the posted comments, my mind cries out for a good proofreader. Or perhaps a better education in English, the only language most of us speak or read! Crikey!
Your readers really don’t care who owns the paper. For the huge majority of readers content will drive readership, not ownership options. An interesting twist on the effort to save the Boston Globe … finds a blog rally … http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2009/04/blog-rally-to-help-boston-globe.html
Time for an old geezer to wade into this mess. To those youngsters who love their electronic toys – grow up! The more they isolate you from real face to face interaction the more you lose and become disconnected from society. I’ve been doing computers since the original bulletin boards were invented. Until you meet some one face to face you have a preconceived misunderstanding. We need the real newspaper for the 50% of the population who will not spend thousands of dollars when 2 or 3 gets them all they need and something to wrap the fish in!
If an on-line paper is published, keep it in the print format with expandible windows so us old timers with poor eyesight (but lots of mopney) can read in comfort. BTW, try holding your monitor up while drinking that latte!
Hue
My heart goes out to the people being effected by this. Having an industry dry up is not a thing I would wish on anyone.
With that in mind, I have to say that newsprint is most definitely on its way out. Paying for news directly also seems to be on its way out.
However I want to be clear on my outlook. News is not a commodity, we need journalism, and we need it locally. I have never and will never subscribe to the Strib in print, but I visit the website at least ten times daily. For background on who I am, I’m 24, college educated, office job, and live in the metro.
I believe the way we are going to keep the Strib alive is to develop a business plan that cuts the cord on distributing the physical paper itself. It’s an expense that we don’t need.
If I were to dive further into my suggestions, I would recommend diving head-first into new media (twitter, facebook, and the like). Media is having a rebirth, and journalists will find a way into this new era, but these times are dark. We’ve got to address tomorrows media today. We need to anticipate where media is going, and adapt to it before we have to. Having a standalone webpage is valuable, but it doesn’t address the greater sea-change at hand. We have to make our best educated guess as to where media is headed, and take risks. If we don’t adapt, the Strib is doomed.
So lets roll up our sleeves, and get our hands dirty.
I am a former designer and copy editor for a handful of newspapers, and I remain a passionate supporter of them.
I think print can survive, but preserving the newsroom must remain the goal. As stated on the previous comment, the people suffer from the loss of reporting.
I’m hopeful the L3C thing works out, and I truly hope it saves the print format. Though I believe newspapers need a severely updated and otherwise very different model inside and out. I saw far too much mismanagement and glacial change in my newsroom experience. That MUST change.
Anyway, I am going to embrace this group. I’m pulling for you!
My father edited a small-town daily for over 30 years. It, like many of its kind, disappeared after the Canadian newsprint crisis in the early 1970’s. I know what it means to lose a newspaper, for the jobs associated with it to leave town.
Citizens have much less information about government and business, the particular governments and businesses that affect their daily lives. This lack of information makes democracy much more difficult. It allows those who would abuse and misuse the public trust less likely to get caught.
I’m for any form of organization that meets the challenge, though I have reservations about L3C status, not for the Strib, but for the probability of its misuse.
I’d jettison the presses and the roles of newsprint, phase out the circulation staff and go strictly online. I’d charge for this service in a way that reflected those saved costs.
Disintermediation is only a problem if you’re not taking advantage of it yourself.