Week, The

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.