[ A hopeful story about the survival of independent local
newspapers]
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AS GOES MAINE?  
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Robert Kuttner
July 12, 2023
The American Prospect
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_ A hopeful story about the survival of independent local newspapers
_

The Provincetown (Massachusetts) Independent is one example in a
growing movement to save the local press by returning it to community
or nonprofit ownership.,

 

A nonprofit group dedicated to rescuing local newspapers from either
collapse or private equity pillaging is buying 22 local papers in
Maine. The National Trust for Local News
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founded just two years ago, will purchase five of the state’s six
dailies
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17 weeklies from a private company called Masthead Maine owned by
Reade Brower, who made his money in direct mail. (How one guy managed
to get control of all the important newspapers in a state is a story
for another day.)

The _Prospect_ has long been interested in the takeover of local
papers by private equity companies. In 2017, I wrote an investigative
piece with Ed Miller titled “Saving the Free Press From Private
Equity
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were reporting on a sickening trend with immense implications for
democracy and civic life.

As daily newspapers became less profitable with the rise of online
competitors for both news and ad revenue, private equity operators
were swooping in and buying up papers by the thousands, and making
profits by paring staff and news coverage to the bone. Since then, the
venerable Gannett chain was bought by GateHouse, one of the most
predatory of the private equity outfits, which took over the Gannett
name.

But there was a silver lining to our story that had not yet come to
fruition: Local dailies and weeklies could actually turn a profit with
well-staffed newsrooms if owners could be satisfied by returns in the
5 to 10 percent range rather than the 15 to 20 percent that was
typical in the pre-internet era and that is demanded by private equity
players. Despite the internet, local merchants still rely heavily on
display ads, which are profit centers. And well-run local papers
attract more display ads.

Since then, there has been a slowly growing movement to save the local
press by returning it to community or nonprofit ownership. My friend
and co-author Ed Miller has gone on to found an exemplary
weekly, _The Provincetown Independent
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expense of the GateHouse-owned _Provincetown Banner_, which has lost
most of its staff and circulation. Between 2017 and July 2022, over
135 nonprofit newsrooms were launched, according to the Institute for
Nonprofit News
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Another hopeful sign is that even by laying off staff and reducing
coverage, private equity companies are not making the money they hoped
for, so some of these papers are on the auction block and can be
saved. Maine is not a typical case, since Reade Brower is a
relatively benign monopolist
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was willing to work with the National Trust for Local News.

The trust, still in its infancy, has an operating budget of only about
$1 million, which means it does not have its own money to finance
community buyouts. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, so it’s
not clear whether the trust found a benefactor or whether Brower is
selling the Maine papers for a nominal sum.

The Trust uses a variety of ownership models. Its first major deal was
in Colorado, where it now owns 24 local newspapers
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with The Colorado Sun. It has funders that include the Gates Family
Foundation, the Google News Initiative, and the Knight Foundation. The
MacArthur Foundation also recently announced a major initiative to
save local news.

This is the beginning of a very hopeful trend to save priceless civic
assets from predatory capitalism at its worst.

_Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect,
and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School._

Read the original article at Prospect.org.
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Used with the permission. © The American Prospect, Prospect.org,
2023. All rights reserved. 

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