The Salt Lake Tribune announced a “historic shift” this week, reporting it is now the first newspaper to become a nonprofit.
The move is “is intended to bolster its financial prospects during a troubling time for journalism nationwide,” senior managing editor Matt Canham wrote in the Tribune on Monday.
The IRS approved the move Oct. 29, which means the Tribune is now a 501(c)(3) public charity. Readers and supporters of the newspaper can start making tax-deductible donations right away.
Paul Huntsman, who gave up his sole ownership of Utah’s largest newspaper to make the move, explained in the Tribune’s announcement: “The current business model for local newspapers is broken and beyond repair. We needed to find a way to sustain this vital community institution well beyond my ownership, and nonprofit status will help us do that.
“This is truly excellent news for all Utah residents and for local news organizations across the country,” he added.
The Salt Lake Tribune is the latest newspaper to take an unorthodox approach to staying afloat as downward trends in news media, especially at newspapers, underscore the need for creative solutions. Some outlets have turned to paywalls and ads. Others, like Cleveland.com, are using text messaging-based subscriptions to compete in the digitally-savvy world.
A July assessment of the news media from the Pew Research Center found that newspaper circulation reached its lowest point since 1940 in 2018. That news came after findings that newspaper newsrooms saw the worst decline across media newsroom jobs in the last decade.