In a message dated 10/28/2006 9:14:15 AM Central Standard Time,
steve@coanews.org [1] writes:
I think
building new community news organizations is usually the way  to go,
but itdepends on the situation.  But I think it is important that
they be non-profitincorporated, as we have seen what has happened to
for-profit  alternative dailynewspapers - they have been bought
up by one corporation, and in many  cases thatcorporation has
removed the unprofitable local content that was once 
available.Being non-profit also means that one person or group of
people won't  be creating acommunity website in order to create a
golden egg for later in life =  selling out whenthe time is
right.Sustainable long term community media should be non-profit and
independent.-I do still respect community media projects that are
for-profit (I  think coastsider.comfalls in this category), but I
do not think it is the long term  solution to ourprivatized media
system.Just my two cents,SteveQuoting Bill Densmore
<densmore@densmoreassociates.com>:

Steve and I have discussed this and I think there are room for both
models.
 
The reality is if you look at non-profit media, it also too often
fails.  Look at what happened to non-profit FM classical stations. 
Look at what happened to the fight over Pacifica.
 
I've also been witness to many non-profit boards in advocacy areas fight
over whether they were going to go centrist or be more aggressive -- and this
split the boards apart.
 
Also, non-profit media is still responsible to funders. If a major funder
indicates that they don't like the direction that the non-profit media project
is going, they can pull the rug out from under the project.  In short, the
same issues of compromise occur in non-profits as in for-profits, only they are
a bit different in terms of why they occur.
 
I will rest my case with what has happened to NPR and PBS in America. 
Yes, there is a government component to those two entities, but the issue
extends far beyond that and includes their major non-government funders.
 
Non-profit status is no guarantee of purity or sustainability.  You
still have to kow tow to funders, who although they don't make a profit, are
still stakeholders, even if not shareholders.
 
There's also the issue that there is limited non-profit money. 
Utlimately, the new media is going to have to prove its value in the
marketplace. It is going to have to be desired by people.  They are going
to have to monetize it one way or the other.
 
Mark Karlin
Editor and Publisher
BuzzFlash.com