While there is a very large market for silly lies - tabloids. That market also has a very low barrier to entry.
There are market segments happy and able to pay for quality, try The Economist. Those markets are much smaller but also have a much higher barrier to entry, and a very affluent audience.
I think what's killing the newspapers is that they tried to sit on two chairs at once. Trying to be both informative and popular.
Without competition that might have worked, but it's over now.
Because for pay news like the AP and Bloomberg and magazines The Atlantic Montly, etc, are doing just fine, and because tabloids are also fine, I don't think many will miss those going out of business.
But I also agree with you, the non profit newspaper is a good option. I believe The Irish Times is a grant based non-profit.
Take a look at that trend! (Switch to the 'annual' view). The free-market response is that the company turns around or goes bankrupt. If they were nationalized, you'd expect them to keep losing more and more money, until finally, someone had to take action -- by taxing blogs.
I really don't think that competing for thousands of advertisers is going to make people more honest than serving a single owner with an infinite budget. They'd end up being even less honest than the average Fortune 500 company's internal newsletter.
I live in Mass but enjoy NHPR, does anyone know of good alarm clock radios that are powerful enough to get NHPR in Mass?
It adds to the discussion and it's a curious question. It's not entirely on-topic, but he did SAY that in advance.
What you need is a clock radio that plays MP3 streams. Maybe the Chumby can help you?
Either you tell in-depth news for a small group, or you go sensationalist to go after the masses. News groups increasingly tilted towards the latter for all of the last two decades.