Opinion: Newspapers Should Become Nonprofit Organizations

In order for newspapers to continue producing articles in the public interest, they should be allowed to become nonprofit organizations, argues James T. Hamilton, director of Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, in an opinion piece for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Mr. Hamilton says that if newspapers became nonprofit organizations, readers could donate to them and receive tax deductions. He also suggests that Congress could boost the development of low-profit limited liability, or L3C, corporations, to run newspapers.

“A newspaper run as a L3C could draw many different types of investors,” writes Mr. Hamilton. “Foundations interested in accountability coverage could make a program-related investment in the L3C and state up front they did not expect a high rate of return. Socially conscious investors who care about local news could also invest in the L3C and accept only a modest rate of return. With these two sets of investors accepting lower rates, a third set of investors in search of a market rate of return also could be willing to invest in a newspaper.”