Billionaire owner Gerry Lenfest’s donation of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News to a charitable foundation is a gesture with a grand historyThe billionaire media owner of Philadelphia’s two huge papers gives them absent to a new institute owned by an existing charitable foundation,feeds them a starter float of $20m – and says he’s done it “because of the journalism”. Salvation for the struggling Inquirer and Daily News? Perhaps: this seems a natural, more tangible extension of the US non-profit surge that has seen dozens of charity-owned news websites developed. It’s one way rich men like Gerry Lenfest contemplate they can keep quality reporting afloat in a sea of clickbait.
Is this, or then,the reply to journalism’s woes, asks a chorus of American pundits? Don’t hold your breath. Not many press proprietors share Lenfest’s philanthropic passions. Nor does charitable ownership deny the need, or over time,to construct a steady business model. Philadelphia can only be one future ingredient of a complicated ownership mix.
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Source: theguardian.com