ABSTRACT
In July 2009, 30 journalists gathered at a conference center at the Pocantico estate near New York City to create a network of nonprofit newsrooms to confront and counter the disintegration of the traditional model of US journalism and the ensuing loss of integrity of the profession. Indeed, the content and reach of commercial broadcast journalism also had been in a long decline as a quest for ratings and more advertising revenue led to an emphasis on such approaches as happy feature stories, celebrity news, and local crime and weather coverage. A nonprofit part of the industry, public broadcasting, had seen increases in listenership and viewership but was facing its own set of challenges, from the aging demographics of its audience to a need to increase its expertise and volume in news coverage, particularly local and regional. Hamilton cited an economics term “positive spillovers” to argue why the support of nonprofits would combat the market failure in watchdog journalism.
