Anyone that’s read me asking for donations for the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism over the years will have seen me mentioning certain themes over and over. I often stress the importance of journalism to a democratic society, for example. I effuse about the fine work that our “intern army” does and stick out my virtual tin cup looking for money to pay them, pay our outstanding “stable” of professional freelancers, and pay myself and fellow BINJ staffers Chris, John, and Linda. Over and over again, year after year.
And you may think to yourself: “Is this guy for real? Why should I donate money to keep him and his buddies employed when life is increasingly difficult for me and so many others in this busted country of ours? And why does he keep talking about journalism being so important to democracy like he’s Captain America or something?”
Which is a perfectly legitimate reaction.
Just understand that my BINJ colleagues and I only do the modern equivalent of begging for alms because we have no other way to pay for publishing the journalism we produce anymore.
I’ll repeat here what I’ve said for years when quoted in the journalism industry press: There is no economic model that is capable of consistently providing stable budgets for American news organizations in this era. And I should know, I’ve personally tried them all—alone and in tandem with each other … the traditional advertising-based commercial model, the rarely attempted consumer co-operative model, and the nonprofit model. None of them work.
We stick with the nonprofit model at BINJ because it’s currently the least bad choice for an independent news organization like ours. It’s been incredibly difficult keeping BINJ going for over 10 years now, but projects we have tried using other economic models have failed outright. We’ve managed to survive by “singing for our supper” to date, so that’s what we’re going to continue to do.
As to why my colleagues and I keep insisting that keeping journalism alive is absolutely necessary if we want to have even the semblance of a democracy in the US, we say that because history shows it to be true. Modern democracy and tough journalism in the public interest arose hand-in-hand … and now they’re both fading away together.
But we’re journalists. And we don’t want journalism to fade away—any more than we can ever accept democracy being allowed to wink out of existence.
So we’ve chosen to fight where we stand. BINJ is small, yes. Poor, sure. Beleaguered, absolutely. It’s a nonprofit news organization when it’s clear the nonprofit model is not working for news organizations, no question.
Yet, tiresome though it may be to our long-suffering audience, humiliating though it can be for us from time to time, we’re going to keep sticking out our hands and asking for your donations. Month after month, year after year. Until we either break through and achieve financial stability against all odds. Or we finally run out of money and steam entirely and give up the ghost.
Independent journalism or bust. That’s our promise to you. And that’s why BINJ needs your support.
Jason Pramas is executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and editor-in-chief of BINJ.News.
