{"id":201981,"date":"2021-03-14T21:07:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T18:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/baltimore-sun-deal-sets-up-major-test-for-nonprofit-news-model\/"},"modified":"2021-03-14T21:07:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-14T18:07:12","slug":"baltimore-sun-deal-sets-up-major-test-for-nonprofit-news-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/baltimore-sun-deal-sets-up-major-test-for-nonprofit-news-model\/","title":{"rendered":"#Baltimore Sun deal sets up major test for nonprofit news model"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Baltimore Sun deal sets up major test for nonprofit news<\/a> model<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Baltimore
\n Baltimore Sun reporter Jean Marbella holds up the newspaper’s front page that headlined its potential take over by a nonprofit group during an interview on March 11
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After years of staff cuts, shrinking budgets and declining readership, the Baltimore Sun finally has some good news to report about itself: a deal for a new nonprofit group to take over, and potentially revive the struggling newspaper.<\/p>\n

The plan unveiled in February comes in response to an extraordinary movement\u2014supported by civic and business leaders, sports figures, journalists and others\u2014to rescue the 184-year-old newspaper and bring it back to local ownership.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit Sunlight for All Institute, led by businessman Stewart Bainum, struck the tentative deal to acquire the Sun and affiliated newspapers for $65 million as part of the sale of parent firm Tribune Publishing to Alden Global Capital.<\/p>\n

The agreement represents a major new test for the nonprofit model which has gained momentum in recent years in response to the deepening crisis in the sector. <\/p>\n

Newsroom employment at newspapers fell by half between 2008 and 2019, according to Pew Research Center, with more cuts reported during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The idea had been circulating in Baltimore for years but gained steam with the “Save Our Sun” campaign launched last year by journalists, union and civic leaders and others.<\/p>\n

“There was a huge amount of community support,” said Sun journalist Liz Bowie, one of those behind the campaign.<\/p>\n

Bowie said Baltimoreans app<\/a>eared to understand the value of the longtime news organization and what might happen if it failed or was hollowed out.<\/p>\n

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\"The
\n The Baltimore Sun has moved its newsroom to this headquarters building with its printing operations, but journalists have been working remotely during the pandemic
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“That void can’t be filled by a digital startup,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ted Venetoulis, a former county executive and gubernatorial candidate who joined the campaign, said the initiative drove home the notion that the newspaper was the “soul” and “conscience<\/a>” of the community.<\/p>\n

“They’re watchdogs, they keep people honest, but they also are cheerleaders. They magnify the good things about our society,” Venetoulis said.<\/p>\n

The “Save our Sun” campaign got more than 7,000 signatures and was endorsed by prominent locals including baseball icon Cal Ripken, TV producer David Simon and film director John Waters.<\/p>\n

The deal for Bainum’s group to buy Sun Media<\/a> Group would depend on Alden’s acquisition of the rest of Tribune Publishing, including the Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and other regional dailies.
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Going nonprofit<\/b><\/p>\n

The nonprofit model has been growing in recent years in the United States, and now includes some 300 news outlets, according to University of Illinois professor Brant Houston, a founder of the Institute for Nonprofit News.<\/p>\n

Nonprofits have made inroads during a crisis that has seen many local newspapers disappear and others consolidated by big chains and hedge fund owners, most of which have cut staff and coverage.<\/p>\n

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\"Baltimore
\n Baltimore Sun reporter Liz Bowie (C) wears a “Save Our Sun” facemask at a gathering with other journalists gathering March 11 outside the headquarters of the newspaper which has a tentative deal to be acquired by a nonprofit organization
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“The business model for newspapers was just not working,” Houston said.<\/p>\n

“If you have an organization beholden to stockholders, you end up with a business model of laying people off and cutting coverage,” Houston said. “That’s not a strategic plan.”<\/p>\n

The Sun has won 16 Pulitzer prizes including one last year for a story on a corruption scandal which led to the resignation and prosecution of mayor Catherine Pugh.<\/p>\n

But it has been reeling like many of its peers, with print circulation has fallen to just 43,000 on weekdays and 125,00 on Sunday, a fraction of the level from its peak years. Newsroom staff has been slashed over the years, and is now less than 100.<\/p>\n

Sun journalists expressed hope the new model could help reverse the newspaper’s decline.<\/p>\n

“We were blown away and psyched by this,” said reporter Colin Campbell.<\/p>\n

Health reporter Meredith Cohn said she hopes the deal will lead “getting more reporters and covering the community,” including areas neglected in recent years.<\/p>\n

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\"Like
\n Like other daily newspapers, the Baltimore Sun has seen shrinking revenue and print circulation as more people turn to digital news
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Philadelphia experiment<\/b><\/p>\n

One hopeful sign comes from Philadelphia, where the Inquirer newspaper has been under nonprofit ownership since 2016 when owner Gerry Lenfest donated his stake to the Lenfest Institute along with a $20 million endowment.<\/p>\n

Since then, “there has been an outpouring of community financial support” for the daily with some $7 million in grants in 2020 alone, said Jim Friedlich, chief executive of the nonprofit group.<\/p>\n

The Inquirer has been able to maintain a newsroom staff of 200, far bigger than most of its peers, said Friedlich.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia group offered informal advice to Bainum, who has not publicly discussed his plans for the Baltimore Sun, he added.<\/p>\n

Bainum, chairman of Choice Hotels, “has become something of a student of the news business and has been inspired by and is replicating the Lenfest nonprofit model,” Friedlich said.<\/p>\n

John Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild which represents newsroom staff and helped organize Save the Sun, is optimistic that the Sun can open the door to similar deals.<\/p>\n

“I hope we can get back to publications which are accountable to the community, and not just interested in short-term profits.”<\/p>\n

Schleuss said he was disappointed that similar efforts failed at other Tribune dailies which will be taken over by a company “with a history of cutting a large number of jobs.”<\/p>\n

“It’s good that people in Baltimore stepped up,” Schleuss said. “We need that to happen all across the country.”\n <\/p>\n\n

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Hedge fund strikes deal for Tribune Publishing newspaper group\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Baltimore Sun deal sets up major test for nonprofit news model (2021, March 14)
\n retrieved 14 March 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2021-03-baltimore-sun-major-nonprofit-news.html<\/p>\n

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