

In San Francisco, plans to start news web site  - bootload
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/business/media/25bay.html

======
ilamont
Great idea, and I wish them well, but how will it be sustainable? I believe
there have been a few other experiments with news orgs owned by or operated as
nonprofits (The St. Petersburg Times springs to mind) yet even they've had to
lay off people.

Then you have the NPR/PBS models, nonprofits that use donations, grants, and
"underwriting" to support free content operations, but they can be sustained
because they are basically monopolies or oligopolies when shows are broadcast
in local markets.

~~~
biohacker42
I believe The Irish Times is funded by a grant. If the starting grant is big
enough, in theory, it can sustain itself for ever even without additional
donations.

But theory and practice are often different in practice.

~~~
anigbrowl
I don't - is this a typo? Being Irish, your statement comes as a surprise to
me. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Irish_Times>

~~~
asdjkf9asd
From Wikipedia: _In 1974, ownership was transferred to a charitable trust, The
Irish Times Trust._

Grant, Trust, same thing?

The article also mentions financial troubles when a major expansion coincided
with a collapse in advertising rates, so it's not purely trust funded?

~~~
anigbrowl
Ah, no, that's a legal structure set up in such a way as to prevent commercial
transfer. Not necessarily funding related at all...it's more like
reconfiguring it to be a non-profit; it can still make money and pay salaries,
but it can't be an investment vehicle.

