Can nonprofit journalism be the future?

One of the best conversations I had during my fellowship in Proublica.org was an interview I had with Richard Tofel the general manager.

Tofel, the former assistant publisher of The Wall Street Journal, is responsible for all non-journalism operations in Propublica including finance and budgeting which were the main topics of my interview.

I tried to understand how Propublica as a nonprofit organization gets annual funding to continue its mission.

The funding usually starts with a big push from a big organization as the Sandler Foundation which made Paul Steiger the editor in chief dream come true in Propublica case.

When the project achieve success it can be able to start funding itself partially by generating advertisements and attract more donors in a rolling snow ball experience.

The organization spends all the money needed to produce the best quality journalism and the excess funds can be used as a deposit in the bank to generate more money.

Propublica sends 4 financial and administrative reports to its board members who have the right to comment or make changes which is something rarely happens but in the same time it is an important regulation to make sure the funds are used in the best way by the organization.

On the other hand, Propublica has a journalism advisory board that gathers 18 current and former editors and publishers in the most prestigious news organizations in USA, they help Propublica by advice and tips to improve the organization work which is a priceless job done on voluntary basis due to their belief in the importance of investigative journalism.

I learned so many things from this interview as it showed so many opportunities in Egypt that journalists can’t see.

There are so many funds and nongovernmental organizations in Egypt working for certain goals like fighting corruption, saving the environment, representing Islam to non Muslims, raising awareness towards women rights, fighting poverty.

Propublica example can be repeated in Egypt after localization.

For example, most newspapers administrations find it a luxury to produce a weekly or even a monthly page about Environmental issues, while most journalists working on this field focuses only on news from the governmental agencies, if there is a minimum annual funding, a well trained group of environmental journalists can start a website enabling other media outlets to republish their work if they were able to create really attractive content.

A project like this will serve environmental organizations and help in producing high quality journalism.

What I like the most about nonprofit journalism is how it can be the future model for many small media organizations and it is a very effective way to keep media from influence of financial storms.

On the other hand it is very important to keep a nonprofit organization from influence of its funding source or it will never reach financial independence at all because it will never be able to win people’s confidence.

Another danger I see threaten nonprofit journalism is to fall in the trap of turning into a public relations tool.