I'm not the only one who thinks that the future of journalism is in the non-profit sector. It's a tough problem. Our government needs a robust press watching it to keep it honest. But most of the real work of journalism is done by newspapers, and several factors are driving newspapers out of business.
We need to keep journalists on staff, even as running a newspaper ceases being profitable. Even if newspapers go fully electronic, like the Christian Science Monitor, they still won't be profitable.
So we should stop expecting them to be. The New York Times should become a charitable non-profit. 501c3. You'd still sell copies of the paper, and you'd still sell ads (although you'd call it corporate sponsorship or partnership like public radio and TV do) but you'd accept donations and give tax deductions and stop trying to make a profit. Over time, the paper will go away and it'll all be online, and the fact that the profit evaporates won't matter so long as you can at least pay your bills.
It's problematic to try to get all the local city papers to do it too, but at least their future selves won't have to carry national news because the national news foundations will.
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