Here’s another one that you can loosely file under “Government aid to newspapers,” even though there’s no money that taxpayers would fork over to newspapers. Maryland Democratic Senator Benjamin Cardin introduced a bill on Tuesday to allow newspapers to become non-profit organizations to help them survive.
Cardin points out that this wouldn’t help big chains facing bankruptcy, falling advertising revenue or some combination of the two. Instead, it’s designed to let the little guys — the community newspapers — survive, he says.
SENATOR CARDIN INTRODUCES BILL THAT WOULD ALLOW AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS TO OPERATE AS NON-PROFITS
His Goal is to Help the Newspaper Industry Survive
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), today introduced legislation that would allow newspapers to become non-profit organizations in an effort to help the faltering industry survive.
In recent months, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, have either ceased daily publication or announced that they may have to stop publishing. A number of other publications, including newspapers owned by the Tribune Company, owners of The Baltimore Sun, have filed for bankruptcy or have had to institute severe cutbacks that have impacted news coverage.
