Major city newspapers will go nonprofit to keep influence

Major cities such as San Francisco, Washington D.C., LA, Chicago, New York, Houston and Philadelphia may convert the serviving newspapers into nonprofits to keep their political and philanthropic status. 

The San Francisco Chronicle will be the first to test the entity. 

San Francisco investment banker Warren Hellman and other prominent SF  lawyers and investors made an informal proposal  last week to Hearst, owners of the San Francisco Chronicle about helping the troubled daily paper become a nonprofit, San Francisco attorney Bill Coblentz told the SF Business Times.

Hellman and Coblentz discussed the idea, then Coblentz conveyed it to former San Francisco Examiner editor and publisher William R. Hearst III, who is a Hearst Corp. director and an affiliated partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. William is one of the working Hearsts who lives in the Bay Area and keeps touch with The Chronicle on a daily basis. It’s unofficially the Hearst flagship, though in money making ability, their Houston Chronicle is by far the financial headquarters. 

“What happened after that, I don’t know,” said Coblentz, who is out of town.

The proposal would be for a nonprofit corporation “to take over the Chronicle,” with Hearst Corp. continuing to provide some philanthropic support, Coblentz said. Details remain sketchy. It’s unclear if the proposal is being seriously considered.

 

Editorial-wise they are already PBS in print, aren’t they? 

 

It was the best of Times, now it’s the worst of The Times

Updated: The Trenton Times is the 2nd largest circulation gainer in the U.S.

Oct. 27, 2008

 

The Trenton Times on Thursday announced a buyout to its full-time workers with the goal of reducing staff by 25 full-time, non-represented employees.

Richard Bilotti, the publisher said the reduction in employees at The Times is tied to a buyout and labor negotiation effort also announced Thursday at its sister paper, The Star-Ledger, which is the “mother ship.”

If The Ledger does not reduce its work force by 200 full-time, non-represented employees by Oct. 1 and the paper cannot reach labor agreements with its drivers union and mailers union by the same date, both papers will be sold. If The Times does not meet its buyout number, and the Star Ledger achieves its goals, The Times will be closed.

“Both the Star-Ledger and our newspaper have been suffering an unprecedented and steep decline in advertising revenue,” Bilotti said. “Therefore both newspapers are now facing a crisis. The situation is critical. The Star-Ledger and The Times are currently on life support.”

Bilotti is known for being optimistic about The Times. He is also a good newspaper publisher and savvy marketer.

Now the Trenton Times is the sencond biggest gainer in circulation in the U.S. according to ABC Fast FAX. TRENTON (N.J.) TIMES — 53,303 — 5.34%

Who wrote Dreams From My Father? Not Obama but William Ayers?

The evidence of a close kinship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers is coming out in the open on blogs, talk shows and in magazines. The mainstream media is hoping it will all be “noise” with no consequences. After all, the election is in the bag for Obama with only three weeks left.

Jack Cashill has written a story in American Thinker about the timing and evidence of a ghost writer who may have written Dreams From My Father — the book that put Obama on the national stage.

Time Magazine called Dreams … “the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician.”

But Obama had not really written anything up until that. So, did he use a ghost writer? The evidence is there, it is very professional and has a wonderful style. So why doesn’t he name the ghost writer? Or why doesn’t the great writer come forward and say “It was all Obama, I just zipped it up a little.”

Greta Van Sustren is said to be about to break this story.

Come on, this is your time to get some credit. Call yourself just an editor. But let us know who you are?

Wait a minute, what if the ghost writer is Bill Ayres? That would show that Obama is a fabricated man, built by the life-long socialist Ayres.

This is the October surprise.