Is there anything non-profit journalism does better than traditional newspaper journalism in its heyday?
Barnett: That remains to be seen. But I do think the non-profit model does as good a job as any of matching newspapers’ ability to take risks, throwing reporters and resources at a story without any promise of financial return. In most for-profit models of the digital age, news stories must serve two masters: Each must meet the standards of journalistic inquiry and each must carry some share of the freight by generating online advertising revenue. In the non-profit model, the case for philanthropy can be built around the pursuit of objective journalism without the same pressure to generate immediate readership and revenue. You’ve written about the Newspaper Revitalization Act and the FCC’s Future of Media project. What role should the government play in the future of journalism? Barnett: First, we need to separate the concepts of journalism and the media — in this case, newspapers — that deliver it. I’m not a huge fan of the Cardin bill because it attempts to give newspapers — not n
