Progressive media activists, rattled by the collapse of a generation of youth-oriented digital news outlets like Vice and BuzzFeed News, are pushing wealthy Democrats to invest in for-profit media companies and social media influencers.
That’s the conclusion of an 85-page report, obtained by Semafor and subsequently published online, prepared for a gathering of progressive leaders in Washington, D.C. last month.
The report calls for “diverting a share of the investment that’s going into exclusively cause-funded nonprofits towards sponsored content and into direct investment in hybrid and for-profit enterprises with large audiences.
“Likewise, rather than continuing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on TV ads, we believe that there is more long-term value for nonprofit investors — ranging from civic media focused philanthropies to mission-driven SuperPAC investors — in diverting a share of that investment into sponsoring topical reporting in a for-profit, or simply in buying some of the stations on which they are now advertising,” the report says.
Titled “Analysis of the Changing U.S. News Media Landscape and Strategies Toward Delivering Civic Value,” the report also suggested backing social media influencers and networks of non-traditional journalists who reach audiences not served by mainstream news outlets. And it recommended creating or backing hybrid non-profit/for-profit newsrooms, and buying unwanted or run-down local television networks that still generate revenue and serve as vital resources for local community news and bulwarks against local gossip on sites like Nextdoor.
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