A nonprofit lifeline for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as more papers seek nonprofit sector help
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3:39 PM on Tuesday, April 14
By REBECCA BOONE
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announced Tuesday it had prevented an imminent shutdown because a nonprofit journalism operation had agreed to buy the struggling newspaper. It's the latest example of a news outlet turning to the nonprofit sector to avoid closing as advertising and circulation revenues continue to drop.
Here's a look at a few other prominent newspapers that have made similar moves.
The Salt Lake Tribune was the first legacy newspaper in the country to directly convert from a for-profit company to a nonprofit in 2019. The newspaper had to get IRS approval to make the precedent-setting conversion, which differed from other papers that were purchased by already-existing nonprofit companies.
As part of the switch, the paper installed a board of directors and began relying on donations. A strict firewall was set up between reporters and donors to prevent influence or sway from tainting the news report, and the paper's editorial board stopped making candidate endorsements.
The Salt Lake Tribune had gone through a number of different owners since its first edition was published in 1871 under the name “The Tribune & Utah Mining Gazette.” As internet use became widespread in the mid-1900s, the Salt Lake Tribune and the rest of the newspaper industry faced worsening financial instability as more readers shunned the print product for online sources, and advertisers turned to digital media.
Alden Global Capital, a New York-based hedge fund with a reputation as a ruthless cost-cutter, bought the Salt Lake Tribune in 2010 and saddled the company with $278 million in debt it took on for the acquisition. A subsequent restructuring led to layoffs and a U.S. Department of Justice probe.
Utah businessman Paul Huntsman bought the newspaper in 2016 and ushered in the company's switch to a nonprofit.
In 2022 Chicago Public Media completed a deal to buy the Chicago Sun-Times, creating one of the country's largest local nonprofit news organizations.
The Chicago Sun-Times was created in 1948 by department store heir Marshall Field III. Field had founded the Chicago Sun newspaper a few years earlier, and he purchased the local Daily Times because he was looking for printing presses. The two newspapers merged, becoming the Chicago Sun-Times.
The newspaper passed through a series of owners over the next several decades before the purchase by Chicago Public Media.
The public media organization already owned WBEZ, the local NPR affiliate. The radio station and newspaper began sharing content across their platforms, expanding the reach of both platforms.
The Tampa Bay Times got its start as the West Hillsborough Times, an weekly newspaper printed on a hand-cranked press starting in 1884.
In 1912, Paul Poynter, a former Indiana newspaper publisher, purchased a majority ownership, according to the St. Petersburg Museum of History. The newspaper remained in the Poynter family's hands for the next several decades, until Poynter's son Nelson Poynter died in 1978. He willed the newspaper to a local journalism school — the nonprofit Modern Media Institute — effectively making the newspaper a nonprofit enterprise.
The Modern Media Institute was later renamed for Poynter.
The United States isn't the only place the news industry is struggling. News organizations elsewhere — including in the Caribbean — have faced layoffs, folded entirely or attempted to bring in new revenue by soliciting donations or adding paywalls to websites.
The Associated Press is one of the world's oldest news organizations, started in the mid-19th century by newspapers looking to share the costs of reporting outside their immediate territory. AP has been a not-for-profit organization for decades, but that hasn't kept the company insulated from the industry's financial woes.
The AP announced last week that it was offering buyouts to an unspecified number of its U.S.-based journalists as part of an acceleration away from the focus on newspapers and print journalism that sustained the company since the mid-1800s. The News Media Guild union, which represents AP journalists, said more than 120 of the staff members it represents received buyout offers. ___
Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. AP Media Writer David Bauder contributed.
