On news of more newspaper bankruptcies, including our Star Tribune, the New York Times hosted a discussion laying out “Battle Plans for Newspapers,” with MinnPost.com editor and owner Joel Kramer among the contributors. (It also recently published an opinion piece predicting that only a few large newspapers will survive the recession and saying that it people simply won’t ”pay by the slice” for journalism.)
Across the country, people are starting to realize that investors who don’t care about journalism aren’t the best stewards of local news organizations. When Maine’s largest news organization went up for sale recently, employees and other stakeholders set up a website inviting people to support a bid by employees and local investors to buy the organization. It reads:
“We think an employee-ownership model backed by community-minded investors is the best way to keep our newspapers out of the hands of a low-budget operator who would be more interested in maximizing profits than serving our communities.”
No results yet, but negotiations are underway.
Employee ownership of the Star Tribune would be a great leap forward in protecting one of our community’s most powerful news-gathering organizations. Options for community ownership were addressed at a recent industry conference in Baltimore.
