Maryland Senator introduces bill to help save newspapers - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

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The Maryland Democrat’s Newspaper Revitalization Act woulfd allow newspapers to operateas non-profits, if they under 501(c)(3) status for educational purposes, similar to public broadcastinv stations, he said in a March 24 statement. Unded this proposed arrangement, newspapers would not be allowed to makepoliticapl endorsements, but would be allowed to freely report on all including political campaigns. Advertising and subscription revenuew would be tax exempt and contributions to supporft coverage or operations could be tax thesenator said. However, he said the measure “ids targeted to preserve local newspapere serving communities and not largenewspaperf conglomerates.
” And because newspaper profits have been falling in recenty years, no substantial loss of federao revenue is expected. “We are losing our newspapeer industry,” said Cardin. “The economy has causes an immediate problem, but the busines model for newspapers, based on circulatiohn and advertising revenue, is and that is a real tragedy for communitiees across the nation and for our Cardin added that although many newssources exist, the public relies largely on newspapers “for in-depth reportiny that follows important issues, records events and exposes misdeeds.
” In fact, he said, most if not all sourcesd of journalistic information from radio to television to the Internet — gathers theid news from newspaper reporters who cover the news on a dailty basis and know their communities. Leading business including billionaire investment bankerfWarren Hellman, recently made an overturse to , which owns the San Francisco Chronicle , to help it becom e a nonprofit. The proposa would be for a nonprofit corporation “to take over the Chronicle ,” with Hearstt continuing to provide some philanthropic support, Coblentx said. Details remain sketchy, and it’sw unclear if the proposal is being seriously considerexdby Hearst.
But there’ s no doubt that the Chroniclse and a host of other metropolitan dailies are seekingbnew solutions. Citing , the Marylancd senator noted that newspaper advertisintg revenue plummeted 25 percentlast year, and circulationb at many print publications fell as well, as many readerss migrated to the Internet, where most (but not all) news is In the statement, Cardin noted that the , , and San Francisc o Chronicle , among others, have either ceases daily publication or announcedd they may have to stop and that other publications, including newspapera owned by the , owners of the and , have filesd for bankruptcy “or have had to institute severe cutbacks that have impacted news Cardin’s bill came just a week aftee House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked U.
S. Attornehy General Eric Holder to loosen antitrust restriction to help newspapers like theChronicle survive. For many, the outlookm is grim. The Post-Intelligencef , also owned by New York-based Hearst, shutterer its print publication March 17 and convertedto online-onlyy news coverage. The Rocky Mountainh News closedlast month. The is bein g sold to a turnaround specialist, quite possiblyu because of its realestate assets. Paperas such as the and the are also reported to be inpotentiall jeopardy. Critics worry that the nonprofit mode l may notsuit newspapers, and that such an approachn could give government more opportunities to controkl the news. And Cardin admitted as much.
“Thiss may not be the optimal choicse for some major newspapers or corporateemedia chains, but it should be an option for many newspaperss that are struggling to stay afloat.”