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To reach its full potential, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette needs Arkansas. Likewise, the best version of Arkansas needs a healthy Democrat-Gazette.
Those ends are now, finally, better aligned.
About a decade ago, I came to the conclusion that the future of general interest, daily journalism — mainly newspapers — was nonprofit.
The advertising model for printed news was turned upside down, and Google, Facebook and other tech companies gobbled up most of the online ad revenue.
This shifted the business strategy for most from an advertising-heavy model to a subscription-focused model. But a decline in subscriptions and the relatively low amount of revenue generated by each subscription created a barbell effect in the industry. Big players, like The New York Times, can flourish under a subscription model as can very small outlets without the high overhead of a large staff.
But for those in the middle — metropolitan daily newspapers — the subscription model has mostly proven unsustainable.
The Dem-Gaz has fared better than most, a testament to local ownership that cares deeply about its good fortune. Most similarly situated newspapers in other states have been absorbed by hedge funds and newspaper chains that make staff cuts and bleed them for whatever revenue remains.
One bright spot during the last 15 years has been the emergence of nonprofit newsrooms. ProPublica, launched in 2008, is one of the first success stories, as is The Texas Tribune to the south and The Daily Memphian to the east.
In Arkansas, we have the Arkansas Advocate, an affiliate of national nonprofit States Newsroom I helped launch in 2022, focused on state government coverage. It relies solely on philanthropic contributions and benefits from its parent organization’s international network of donors.
The Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Times, which was first, are employing a hybrid model that combines a for-profit and nonprofit structure.
They will continue operating as normal, for-profit companies (though profit has been elusive for the ADG recently) while supplementing the budget with charitable contributions for allowable expenses. The donations could support reporting efforts on the state Legislature, for instance, but not operating expenses unrelated to reporting.
I must admit this accounting sleight-of-hand bothers me a bit. At the end of the day, tax-deductible contributions are propping up a for-profit business’ budget regardless of how they move the money around. I don’t love that, but it’s all aboveboard and has been done for years at newspapers in other states.
So now the future of its newspaper is up to Arkansas. And it’s up to the newspaper to produce journalism worthy of that support every day.
I hope both rise to the task.
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