Hopes High for Local TV Nonprofit Co-ops

Under the terms of the Federal Communications Commission order approving Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, at least half of NBC’s 10 own and operated TV stations have to find a nonprofit news center with which to work within the next year.

The order cites the KNSD-VoiceOfSanDiego.org alliance as the model for what it would like to see in other NBC markets. Proponents of the growing nonprofit news movement are hoping that NBC’s FCC-mandated efforts will bear fruit and encourage other commercial TV stations to seek out nonprofit partners. “What it seems to be is a nod toward the idea that there are ways to uniquely cover the community, and get a voice, and be present in the community beyond where [TV stations] have been in the past,” says Al Tompkins, the Poynter Institute’s group leader for broadcasting. Once TV stations realize the benefit -- robust, investigative content many stations no longer do themselves -- they will seize the opportunity, he says. “This isn't work that is being done by some watchdog group, or special interest. It’s real journalism, and it’s important journalism. It is my opinion that 2010 was the beginning of a new birth in investigative journalism.” However, Tompkins cautions, models for the financial and creative side of the arrangements need to be worked out if nonprofits are going to be sustainable and true to their mission of public service journalism.