San Diego Blazes Path To New Media Model

Ten years from now, when journalism professors talk of markets that led the way to a new model in local news coverage, they might speak of San Diego.

Providing, of course, the new model survives.

VoiceOfSanDiego.org, one of the nation’s most ambitious attempts at a non-profit, Internet formula for local news, launched here in 2005. It got its start after a fired local newspaper editor joined forces with a retired venture capitalist also dissatisfied with the coverage provided by The San Diego Union-Tribune, the only major paper in town.

Similar non-profit attempts have followed in Minneapolis (Minnpost.com) and Austin, Texas (Texastribune.org). They are part of a new breed of sites that use money raised through grants and individual contributions to hire experienced journalists and publish weighty articles -- as opposed to one-man blogs and sites that rely on unpaid contributors or news gleaned from other media.

“A lot of people are worrying about what’s happening in the world of media,” Scott Lewis, CEO of VoiceOfSanDiego.org, said. Why shouldn’t such people help fund quality news coverage in their own community? he asked. “People give millions of dollars to NPR all the time.”

The San Diego media market might be particularly well-suited to support a non-profit. Its population of 3 million enjoys a cushy median household income ($62,468 versus $49,777 for the U.S. as a whole), and its Southern California population ranks near the top for Internet access.

Local advertisers here already support online: They spent $123 million online last year, out of an $876 million local advertising pie, according to media research and consulting firm Borrell Associates Inc. Local online spending is expected to grow almost 84%, climbing to $227 million, by 2015, Borrell said. The total for local ad spending will then be $1.2 billion, Borrell predicted.

Whether fans will contribute in sufficient numbers to support substantive local journalism is a question still to be answered. Just like traditional media, non-profits will face challenges finding a business model that is sustainable, said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a non-profit training center for journalists.

For one thing, he said, the charitable foundations happy to provide start-up money are often less enthusiastic about footing the bill indefinitely. So non-profit sites must quickly find a broader base, he said.

A recent Federal Communications Commission ruling might help. In approving Comcast Corp.’s acquisition of NBC Universal, the agency stipulated that at least 5 of the 10 NBC-owned stations partner with a nonprofit news center. The existing partnership VoiceOfSanDiego has with a San Diego NBC station, KNSD, was held up as an example.

VoiceOfSanDiego earns some of its money by helping produce segments and providing content for KNSD, Lewis said. He gave as examples a feature called “Fact Check,” which evaluates the truth of public statements, and another known as “San Diego Explained,” which delves into local conundrums.

VoiceOfSanDiego operates on a $1 million annual budget. In 2009, 20% came from its co-founding angel, the retired venture capitalist Buzz Woolley. But the site also counts more than 1,200 other donors, Lewis said.

Its budget is enough to pay for the site’s 11 editorial staff and four others, Lewis said, with technology expenses kept to a minimum.

Another non-profit local news site sprang up last year, compliments of that colossus of non-profit media, National Public Radio.

A 2009 Columbia Journalism Review report chastised NPR for not taking on a larger role as newspaper and TV staffs shrank around the country.

Last summer, the public news organization (with financial help from the Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) established 12 pilot local news sites -- one of them in San Diego. The site, called Home Post, focuses on the military presence in San Diego and is attached to the existing public radio and TV Web site, KPBS.org. [Editor's Note: Updated to add CPB's involvement.]

NPR hired just one reporter for each of its 12 local blogs, said Joel Sucherman, program director of the pilot, called Project Argo. Each blog focuses on a single issue important to the area where it's located, he said. Together, they create a kind of network of quality local news blogs on different subjects.

Another NPR pilot is planned for launch in eight states by June, with two reporters in each state focusing on the impact of government’s actions on residents, Sucherman said.

Sucherman said the hope is that local NPR stations will take up the mantle when Project Argo’s $3 million funding ends at the end of this year, and that other public radio stations will add their own bloggers.

NPR went to WordPress.org for free software to create its blogging platform, Sucherman said. It used Django Software Foundation’s open source content management system, and wrote some code in-house.

NPR plans to open source the entire platform for anyone to use at the end of this year, Sucherman said.