Want to Launch a Local News Website? Profit or Non-Profit?

Here is the (brief) 16th chapter of my guide to launching a local news website. You'll learn about my successes and my failures. I hope this guide keeps you on the right track to creating and managing a site that helps fill the ever-growing news desert. I must note that in November 2020, I sold the website that I launched to someone who has taken it in the wrong direction, and its traffic has plummeted. Perhaps he will read this guide and rescue it. You can buy a copy of the book on Amazon: https://bit.ly/48DYr1

E16. For-Profit or Not for Profit?

As news organizations struggle to stay in business, many have turned to the non-profit model. They seek tax-deductible donations from foundations and individual supporters. That is a model I tried. I entered an “affinity” relationship with the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN). With an affinity relationship, I didn’t have to go through the lengthy and burdensome process of seeking nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. Any donations that I solicited, whether personally or on the website, would go to INN. It then would pass the donations along to WEHOville, taking a very small percentage to cover the costs of managing INN.

INN provided a variety of services. Its members engaged with one another online, sharing ideas and asking and answering questions. It seemed to me, although I can’t confirm it, that most of its members were focused on particular issues such as health, preservation, and education, rather than hyperlocal news coverage. It also alerted its members to a large number of organizations that were making grants to nonprofit news organizations.

I eventually decided to end the INN relationship. It was useful but attracting donations from affluent West Hollywood residents who agreed they couldn’t have influence over WEHOville’s content wasn’t easy. I sought funding from some foundations, but the process was lengthy and cumbersome. And the grants weren’t very large.

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