Amidst the contraction of for-profit newspapers across the United States, nonprofit journalism has emerged as a widely endorsed alternative for sustaining local news. Drawing on 11 semi-structured interviews with nonprofit news leaders in Pennsylvania, we examined how people working in the nonprofit news sector envision its role in addressing the journalism crisis and rebuilding local journalism. Based on a thematic analysis of these interviews, we identified two distinct visions animating nonprofit news in Pennsylvania: the restorationist vision of nonprofit journalism, a more conservative approach centered on filling market gaps and restoring newsrooms to their pre-crisis form and function, and the transformational vision of nonprofit journalism, which is oriented toward building a structural alternative to for-profit news media. Additionally, we calculated the cost of implementing each of these visions in Pennsylvania. Based on these estimates, we found that it is unlikely that either the restorationist or transformational vision can be achieved through existing revenue sources. We conclude that if nonprofit journalism is to move beyond a small-scale corrective, public funding will be essential to sustaining nonprofit local news at scale.
AbernathyPM (2023) News deserts: a research agenda for addressing disparities in the United States. Media and Communication11(3): 290–292. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6728
2.
BagdikianBH (2004) The New Media Monopoly. Boston: Beacon Press.
3.
BermanDE (2025) On Optimization: Cultural Labor in Platform Capitalism. New Media & Society, 1–21.
4.
BirnbauerB (2018) The Rise of Nonprofit Investigative Journalism in the United States. New York: Routledge.
Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting (1979) A Public Trust: The Report of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting. New York: Bantam Books.
FerrucciP (2019) Making Nonprofit News: Market Models, Influence and Journalistic Practice. London: Routledge.
14.
FerrucciPNelsonJL (2019) The new advertisers: how foundation funding impacts journalism. Media and Communication7(4): 45–55. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v7i4.2251
FriedlandLAKoniecznaM (2011) The Field of Nonprofit Funding of Journalism in the United States. Dortmund: Technical University of Dortmund.
17.
HanitzschTVan DalenASteindlN (2018) Caught in the nexus: a comparative and longitudinal analysis of public trust in the press. The International Journal of Press/Politics23(1): 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161217740695
18.
HermanESChomskyN (1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.
19.
HyzenA (2023) Propaganda and the web 3.0: Truth and ideology in the digital age. Nordic Journal of Media Studies5(1): 49–67. https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2023-0004
Institute for Nonprofit News (2025a) Increase in local members and topical news coverage: highlights from the 2025 INN index survey. Available at:https://news.inn.org/highlights-2025-inn-indexaccessed29 August 2025.
MeeseJHurcombeE (2020) Facebook, news media and platform dependency: the institutional impacts of news distribution on social platforms. New Media & Society23: 2367–2384. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820926472
NeffTPickardV (2021) Funding democracy: public media and democratic health in 33 countries. The International Journal of Press/Politics29(3): 601–627. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211060255
30.
NielsenRK (2016) The business of news. In: WitschgeTAndersonCWDomingoD, et al. (eds) The Sage Handbook of Digital Journalism. London: Sage Publications LTD, pp. 51–67.
31.
NielsenRKGanterSA (2022) The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
32.
NisbetMWihbeyJKristiansenS, et al (2018) Funding the news: foundations and nonprofit media. Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at theHarvard Kennedy School and Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. Available at:https://shorensteincenter.org/funding-the-news-foundations-and-nonprofit-media/accessed30 August 2025.
33.
NoamE (2009) Media Ownership and Concentration in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
PetreC (2021) All the News That’s Fit to Click: How Metrics Are Transforming the Work of Journalists. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
36.
PicardRG (2013) Killing journalism. Journalism and media convergence: 19–28.
37.
PicardRGVan WeezelA (2008) Capital and control: consequences of different forms of newspaper ownership. The International Journal on Media Management10(1): 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/14241270701820473
38.
PickardV (2020) Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
39.
PickardV (2023) Another media system is possible: ripping open the overton window from platforms to public broadcasting. Javnost: The Public30(2): 284–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2023.2201804
RosenJ (1999) What are Journalists For?New Haven: Yale University Press.
42.
RosenstielTBuzenbergWConnellyM, et al (2016) Charting New Ground: The Ethical Terrain of Nonprofit Journalism. American Press Institute. Available at:https://americanpressinstitute.org/nonprofit-news/
43.
SchillerD (1981) Objectivity and the News: The Public and the Rise of Commercial Journalism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
WenzelA (2023) Antiracist Journalism: The Challenge of Creating Equitable Local News. New York: Columbia University Press.
51.
ZayedM (2023) The Rise of the News Desert: A Study on the Effect of Local Newspaper Closures on the American Public’s Trust of Government. USA: Georgetown University. PhD thesis.
52.
ZelizerB (2015) Terms of choice: uncertainty, journalism, and crisis. Journal of Communication65(5): 888–908. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12157
53.
ZuckermanNMiconN (2023) The cost of sustaining local journalism: a working paper. Medium.
