America is unique among democratic nations in its nearly complete reliance on commercial media to inform our communities, educate our children, and hold power to account. The media system we have is no accident. At every point in history when technological change challenged the incumbent media establishment—from radio to TV to the Internet—policy decisions have concentrated media in the hands of a few commercial stakeholders. Unfortunately for the burgeoning nonprofit journalism sector, history seems about to repeat itself.
Right now, the Internal Revenue Service is considering whether journalism and media organizations should be eligible for nonprofit status. That may sound odd given that nonprofit journalism has been a part, albeit a small part, of American media for decades—think Mother Jones, NPR, the Christian Science Monitor, even the Associated Press. YES! Magazine itself has operated as a nonprofit since its founding 16 years ago.
Nonetheless, a whole cadre of new journalism start-ups like the San Francisco Public Press, Worcester Wired, and Monitor Oklahoma have been waiting months—some even years—for the IRS to approve their applications for nonprofit status.
How did we get here?
At the end of the last decade, it was becoming increasingly clear that the advertiser-driven commercial media model was not producing the full extent of news and information our communities need. Job cuts decimated newsrooms, companies closed foreign bureaus, and the number of journalists covering statehouses had shrunk to almost zero in many places.
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http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/no-news-is-bad-news-for-nonprofit-journalism