The intense financial pressure on American newspapers moved to a new arena this morning as Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) introduced legislation that would allow newspapers to organize as nonprofits.
Cardin's bill would allow newspapers to choose to operate roughly like public broadcasting -- accepting tax-deductible contributions large and small and exempt from taxes on advertising and subscription revenues.
Newspapers choosing this form of incorporation would lose the ability to make endorsements in political races (direct political activity is forbidden for so-called 501(c)(3)s under federal tax code). They would be free, though, to cover and offer opinion on political races, as NPR and PBS do now.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Cardin cited the shrinking news staff at several metro papers, along with recent bankruptcies and closings, as evidence of a crisis situation meriting congressional intervention.
"Most, if not all sources of journalistic information, from Google to broadcast news or punditry," Cardin said, "gain their original news from the laborious and expensive work of experienced newspaper reporters, diligently working their beat over the course of years, not hours."
"Newspaper reporters forge relationships with people: they build a network which creates avenues to information. These relationships and the information that follows are essential to a free democratic society."
Cardin had an 18-year career in the U.S. House before being elected to succeed Sen. Paul Sarbanes in 2006.
This may help some newspapers, but it should not be...
