Wehco Media Inc. Chairman Walter Hussman Jr. listens to National Public Radio almost every day and pulls for nonprofit journalism, but the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher says profit is the best motive for keeping any enterprise going.
Hussman offered his thoughts in an aside during a podcast update on the newspaper’s digital replica idea for saving newspaper profitability (see E&P Boss Catches Up With Hussman, Remotely).
“There’s a big push towards nonprofit news, and that’s great; I’m happy about that,” Hussman said. “But to me, the greatest economic model ever devised to sustain an entity is for it to make a profit. Because as long as an entity makes a profit, someone will want to continue it year after year.”
Under the nonprofit model, organizations are dependent on philanthropy, and that can dry up in hard times, he warned. But as long as a business is profitable, someone will be willing to run it and keep that profit.
“Of course, we have a profit-sharing plan, so we share our profits with employees, and that helps motivate them,” Hussman continued. “It motivates me, too, because I’m part of the plan.”
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