With US media regulator the FCC looking at relaxing cross-media ownership rules, and all the recent excitement in the US over newspaper ownership , it is worth recalling a different and rather quaint proposal, from way back when:

The basic material conditions of contemporary journalism are fatally unsound. Journalism that is too “cheap” to be self-supporting as journalism cannot be satisfactory.

Newspapers that cannot make their ends meet without heavy, abundant advertising, and to which circulation is merely a means to advertising, cannot be independent, sober, and honest.

They are under the constant necessity of “splurging,” of trafficking in rumors and false reports, of making mountains out of molehills.

And this in turn carries with it the necessity of rigorous economy in handling news that cannot possibly be rendered sensational and exciting…

Has not the time come to revive definitely the idea – vaguely broached years ago – of privately endowed newspapers?

‘A Neglected Opportunity and Duty in Journalism,’ Victor S. Yarros, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol 22, No 2 (Sep 1916), pp. 203-211.