Nonprofit News Site in LA?

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, this new resource could come online in the future.

An excerpt.

“I've been wondering for a couple of years whether someone would bring Los Angeles the kind of not-for-profit news website that has popped up in cities like San Diego, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Austin and Chicago.

“That day may be drawing closer, as venture capitalist and former newspaper executive Tom Unterman has been quietly exploring the formation of such an organization to focus on public policy issues.

“Unterman has been quietly discussing the idea with a handful of community leaders around Los Angeles on and off for at least a year, with his deliberations picking up momentum of late. He still doesn't have a formal plan or the partners he would seek to launch the site, but told me he expects to decide this spring whether to go ahead.

"A good, smart, nonprofit journalism effort could be a very nice complementary piece to the media picture here in L.A.," said Unterman, former chief financial officer for Times Mirror Co., which published the Los Angeles Times before it was bought by the Tribune Co. in 2000. "Particularly if it focused on investigative work and filled a gap in the kind of stories that for-profit media can't persistently fill now because of changes in the economics of the news business."

“While "very hopeful" about making the site a reality, the founder of the Santa Monica-based investment firm Rustic Canyon Partners said the key would be coming up with a plan to sustain such a venture beyond the startup phase — which he estimated would last three years and cost $10 million.

“While reserving judgment on the many particulars that remain unclear, I can't think of any substantial reason not to root for the opening of another news outlet in our region. Yes, it would bring more competition for stories and perhaps for journalists. But there are plenty of good unemployed scribes raring to get back at it, and more being minted every day.

“Journalists should operate from the assumption that more information — as long as it's thoughtfully collected and delivered — is better. Most of the cities that have been home to nonprofit news ventures over the last half-dozen years have seen a nice flowering of stories and competition. In most of those cities, the operators will concede they don't have the size to do a lot of the daily coverage established news outlets still provide.”