There could be a good story in nonprofit journalism

For decades, big-city newspapers spent part of the holiday season trying to boost the fortunes of local foundations that served the poor and a host of other deserving charitable organizations.

It was only somewhat recently that newspapers discovered they were quickly transforming into yet another charity case.

I don’t need to tell anyone about the state of journalism these days, not since most of the biggest newspapers in the country became part of an endangered species list.

Venerable newspapers such as the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer shut their doors this year after more than 100 years of publishing, and a host of other once-thriving dailies filed for bankruptcy.

Cutbacks and layoffs became the new industry standard, as represented at the San Francisco Chronicle, which is barely a shell of its former self after losing about three-quarters of its editorial staff in recent years trying to stave off a dance with death.

So it’s a necessary and inevitable step that newspapers would have to adapt in this brave new world by coming up with different models and strategies, the kind that launched this very tabloid some years back. And the Chronicle’s misfortunes led directly to the start of an anticipated online reporting venture that’s being set up as a nonprofit — charitable news indeed.

Billed as the Bay Area News Project, the venture will partner KQED, the public television and radio station, with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, both of which will provide reporters and editing expertise. There are ongoing discussions with The New York Times about carrying the site’s published content as a Bay Area edition.

The venture is being made possible by a donation of $5 million from local investment banker and philanthropist Warren Hellman, the man who gave San Francisco its free bluegrass festival last weekend that’s now one of the largest annual music gatherings of its kind in the world.

Call it Hardly Strictly Newspapering.

Hellman is hoping that the project will have a similar audience hike, that is, if there’s enough foundation money, grants and public support to make the experiment a success. He’s calling his donation “seed money’’ for the venture, which he says will need a lot more fundraising if it’s ever going to work.

The idea of nonprofit news-gathering operations has been gaining steam since papers’ profit margins went south, taking circulation along with them. Voice of San Diego is now considered something of a mainstay in California’s second largest city and other online startups have recently emerged, asking that readers support their stories with contributions.

Hellman told me the well-known KQED membership drives will be part of the new venture and that it will even be seeking federal stimulus dollars that have been set aside for job retraining (and no doubt there are enough unemployed journalists who could use some financial stimulus).

Yet beyond a conceptual plan, it’s hard to tell what impact another online news site would have given the glut already out there. Would it cover subjects not already part of the beats patrolled by the Bay Area’s other news organizations? And how can it attract the new audience that other journalistic enterprises have struggled to draw in recent years?

“I think the idea is to cover everything from politics to arts and entertainment,” Hellman said. “That’s the core. We’re not going to be covering Iraq, Afghanistan, Fresno or any other foreign country like that."

The nonprofit news model, however, does create some potential conflicts, such as how it would cover news involving some of the very businesses, foundations or even government entities that might provide it money. Hellman told me the news center would have a managing editor and a CEO who would function ostensibly as a publisher.

But most publishers work to generate new business through advertising and other avenues, not serve primarily as a fundraiser. That’s a role that’s rarely been played in any American newsroom, if at all.

Initial reaction to the project has ranged from hyperbolic fear — a Chronicle editor vowed to smash the new competition — to casual skepticism, but the truth is it’s far too early to tell what impact a nonprofit news center might have on the local market. Even if it’s freed from the burden of seeking advertising revenue in a weak economy, philanthropic dollars aren’t easy to come by, and there’s no guarantee the venture would qualify for federal job funding.

Yet, it could provide a jolt to other outlets to do more and better since competition is what solid, old-fashioned news gathering is all about.

But at this point, the project is just an idea with some promise of offering a glimmer of hope in an industry that’s been bereft of good news.