The idea of running a newspaper as a non-profit like public radio came up again. Mercury News Columnist Mike Cassidy included that idea in his latest column.
Over 20 years in public radio taught me that raising funds at a public radio station is not as easy as it sounds. Public radio's success or failure depends on its content.
Raising money for public radio goes something like this. The content creates the audience. If the content resonates with the values and beliefs of the audience they are more likely to support the content. If the audience perceives the content to be valuable and unique they are even more likely to support the content (programming).
The programming also has to attract a large enough core audience to sustain the programming. The idea is to create significant programming for a significant audience. In public radio, if the core audience tunes in about nine times a week and, they spend about ten hours a week listening to a station, they are the listeners most likely to become contributors. Very few web users spend that much time on any one site. The relationship that creates support is much more complex than this, but these are the basics.
The scary part of the demise of newspapers is who becomes the watchdog? Who will have the resources it takes to do investigative journalism?
Readers of Mike Cassidy's column had a lot of other ideas that followed a few themes.
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_13432751
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