ABSTRACT
Newspapers adapted slowly to the challenging environment shaped by the 2007–2009 financial crisis and the internet’s disruption of the traditional business model for news. They cut reporting staff, closed bureaus, and established paywalls and other revenue streams. Many, but not all, discarded their aversion to collaborating with outside news organizations. Evidence suggests that collaborations between nonprofits and commercial and public media are more common. The combination of journalistically sound original stories and a dearth of quality content produced by shrunken commercial newsrooms has made the offer of nonprofit stories at no or little cost irresistible. In late 2008, the Nation magazine and ProPublica published two stories by investigative reporter A. C. Thompson. One described how New Orleans police had incinerated a car that contained the body of an African-American man who had died after being shot by police.
