Spokane’s Spokesman-Review is going nonprofit

The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, has joined a small contingent of newspapers converting to nonprofit status. The move was announced Tuesday morning at the industry’s annual Mega-Conference.

Owner and publisher Stacey Cowles and his family are donating the Spokesman-Review to Comma Community Journalism Laboratory, a nonprofit created in 2022 by executive editor Rob Curley, who will remain.

The deal is contingent on raising $2 million from donors, which Cowles plans to match. The Spokesman-Review will have a relationship with Gonzaga University, where Comma is housed, and with other local educational institutions.

I asked Cowles, who has been publisher for 33 years, why he is making the change. By email, he rattled off five considerations that I think would be on the minds of any individual- or family-owned paper considering the change.

1. “Newspapers won’t offer much financial return for investors going forward, particularly given the need to grow digital subscribers;
2. the model of partnering with local colleges and school districts fits extremely well with our need to engage younger audiences;
3. we’re convinced there is strong philanthropic support for saving newspapers that practice community journalism;
4. we have already doubled down on community journalism and have a strong and excited team;
5. and our family owners really do not want to see wholesale destruction of our flagship brand as has occurred in so many markets where newspapers are sold to chains.”

He added: “We’d end up spending at least that much (his $2 million) if we continued to own it through five more years of transition toward a digitally dominant model. Having twice as much gives the paper some cushion and some real ability to face a down year and invest in systems that will improve its ability to reach digital-centric audiences. This option really lets us commit both to our fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and stay true to being stewards of what we know to be a vital asset for our community and democracy.”

Conversions to nonprofit status in recent years include The Salt Lake Tribune, bought by Paul Huntsman of the prominent Utah family in 2016, and the Portland Press Herald, sold by Reade Brower to a Maine offshoot of the National Trust for Local News in 2023.

A landmark in these arrangements was Nelson Poynter’s bequest in 1978 of the for-profit St. Petersburg Times (now The Tampa Bay Times) to the nonprofit Poynter Institute. Philanthropist Gerry Lenfest similarly donated The Philadelphia Inquirer to the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism in 2016.

Curley, who had early involvement in digital news with stops at The Washington Post and Las Vegas Sun, said he hopes the nonprofit arrangement will start with a high level of community involvement and build on that. Comma houses The Black Lens newspaper and Northwest Passages, a book club and current events forum.

I have been mildly surprised that the modest trend toward nonprofit conversions has not picked up more steam. As Cowles said, the chances of a turnaround to substantial profitability are poor. In fact, as he suggests, digital revenue will take years more to develop at most outlets, with reinvestment needed.

Another alternative, which the Spokesman-Review has already tapped into, is for papers to establish an associated nonprofit arm to facilitate philanthropy for investigative and other special reporting units.

Still, many family owners exiting from the business choose to cash in modestly by selling to a chain or hedge fund. Those new owners bring economies of scale and expertise but at the cost of a sure sense of local news needs, which is a business asset as well as a seedbed for good journalism.