tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471471289744825428.post3584280292522199849..comments2024-03-11T00:31:41.186-07:00Comments on The Oregon Economics Blog: Not-For-Profit Newspapers?Patrick Emersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17242234148546323374noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471471289744825428.post-7833152706836207252009-05-26T22:18:14.646-07:002009-05-26T22:18:14.646-07:00My understanding is that a 501(c)(3)cannot, in any...My understanding is that a 501(c)(3)cannot, in any way intervene in politics: <br /><br />"(h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."<br /><br />Obviously, it would be difficult for a newspaper to defend itself continuously against this claim in court.<br /><br />Please refer to this Cornell Law School page that (I believe) quotes the IRC: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/501(c)(4)(A).html<br />I found it as a citation link on the wikipedia article on 501's.<br /><br />Maybe it could be a 501(c)(4)?Fragehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16246943496885107055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471471289744825428.post-78502558807778353632009-05-13T11:59:00.000-07:002009-05-13T11:59:00.000-07:00I am skeptical about a non-profit model for newspa...I am skeptical about a non-profit model for newspapers. To get there, the existing boards of directors and shareholders would essentially have to give up on their investments, as they would be completely wiped out. I suspect they will try absolutely everything to be successful as private, for profit businesses before considering any such conversion.<br /><br />Second, it is not clear to me that there is the donation capacity to support all of these newspapers. NPR is struggling, laying off employees and cancelling shows. And at what expense would these donations come? It is not like foundations and individual donors have infinite amounts of money to give, and there are great needs in our society for charity, educational institutions, etc.<br /><br />Finally, I don't feel that newspapers have exhausted the possibilities to charge for their content. Unlike public radio, which has no way to charge for content, online news sites could require people to pay to read their stories. The current method for charging, where each newspaper requires a separate subscription is unworkable, as people want to read many news sources and are not going to subscribe to a dozen papers. I am also skeptical about micropayments; I think the transaction costs are prohbitive and it would result in suboptimal consumption of news, because people would be wary of buying an article they are not entirely sure they are interested in.<br /><br />I think the best solution would be for online news sites to enter into revenue sharing agreements. They would have to get an anti-trust waiver to do this, but similar waivers have been granted to the airlines to integrate their marketing operations. Online newspapers could sell an all-access pass and then share the revenue based on usage. So if I spend half my time reading the Oregonian online and half the time at nytimes.com, those two sites would split the revenue equally.<br /><br />Right now, I pay $37/month plus tip to get the paper verison of the Oregonian at home in Corvallis. That is not a sustainable model; the printed paper is expensive to produce and deliever. The news industry would be much better off charging $25/month for total access to US newspapers online, trying to generate millions of customers, eliminating their manufacturing costs and sharing the revenue.MPPBrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09349552296333385953noreply@blogger.com