Why your city government should buy your local newspaper

There is one way that cities could ensure at least a modicum of local reporting: Just set up their own municipally-owned papers. Journalism is not that expensive. Even small cities could easily muster up enough cash to get a municipal paper started. Here's how it could work: A municipality would set up a public journalism corporation operating on an independent, nonprofit basis, and seed it with some public revenue. On a steady financial footing — and not subject to the ludicrous profit demands of some hedge fund goon — they could build out or stabilize a basic reporting outfit. It'd be cheap, streamlined, and efficient. For obvious reasons of journalistic independence, we wouldn't want this under the direct management of the city government. Overall control could be in the hands of an independent board, perhaps half appointed by the government and half elected by the paper's employees; or perhaps elected by the general citizenry, or some other method. The point is that the city would own the paper, but not control it directly, to avoid the appearance (or reality) of political influence. Funding would be locked in over a long period, and the city government would be legally forbidden from pulling funding over unfavorable coverage. Ideally, revenues from subscriptions and advertising would cover ongoing expenses.