Countering the billionaire oligarch right-wing capture of US news media

While making resolutions for the new year, consider making one to revise and expand your sources of news and information. This year, seek out news sources that are structured and operated as a not-for-profit business.

We have all read that a large segment of the influential main stream media is now under the control and dominance of billionaire oligarch owners. And the owners are under the control of their fear of the right wing governance of this country. These owners have directly interfered with editorial judgment in the newsrooms they own. Such interference has been based solely on tactical business concerns rather than strategic journalistic standards. Recall Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to over-ride his editorial staff and his decision to quash any presidential candidate endorsement in the 2024 election. The Los Angeles Times’ owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, continues to meddle in the editorial decisions of the newspaper he owns.

By contrast, the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper did not hesitate to endorse a 2024 presidential candidate. It’s ownership structure may have played a large part in that decision. The Inquirer is owned by a non-for-profit corporation, the Philadelphia Foundation. It is a public benefit corporation. There is no billionaire oligarch owner to meddle in editorial considerations.

At the state level, one example is States Newsroom. It is a non-profit, non-partisan news network with affiliates in all 50 states. Find the one in your state and follow it for a while. Support it with views, clicks, and if you decide it’s worthwhile, support it with your dollars.

Moving to my local community, there is the Tucson Sentinel. Not only is it structured as a non-profit but as a non-profit charitable/educational organization under Section 501 (c)3 of the Internal Revenue Service code. This means any money I give to it can be deducted from my personal income taxes. I give it a monthly subscription equivalent to the cost of subscribing to my local dead-tree for-profit newspaper. And as that newspaper has laid-off expert, experienced, knowledgeable journalists, replaced them with journalism school interns, and cut other costs to sustain dividends to the stockholders, I have grown more confident that I’ve made the right move.

Just like the big oligarch-owned media, non-profit news media need views, clicks, and money through subscriptions or contributions to sustain the business model. Non-profit is a tax classification not a style of management. These outlets still need more money to come in than goes out. An outfit like the Washington Post would call it “profit” (if the Post made one … $77-million loss last year.) An outfit like States Newsroom or the Tucson Sentinel calls it “excess of revenue over expenses.” In a for-profit business, any excess money gets parceled out to stockholders and owners. In a not-for-profit business, that extra money gets reinvested in the organization to pay for utility bills, updated equipment, server rentals and fees, and staff salaries and all the other costs that any going concern has to sustain.

Every one of these non-profit news sources is pledged to following the highest standards of journalism.
When you are picking a news and information outlet to patronize, investigate the ownership structure and ask “who benefits?”

The not-for-profit news and information model is like a newly-sprouted plant. No one can predict what it will look like when fully grown. But to grow and mature, the non-profit news model needs views, clicks and money. With enough support from news consumers we may succeed eventually in getting the ethical, fact-driven news and information coverage so conspicuously absent in today’s main stream media landscape.