IRS Must Modernize Rules on Digital News Startups, Nonprofit Media Group Recommends

New report highlights how IRS approach may harm local news innovation

(Washington, D.C.)—On March 4, 2013, the Nonprofit Media Working Group will release a series of recommendations on how the IRS can modernize its rules to make it easier for nonprofit news to keep American communities informed.

The report, “The IRS and Nonprofit Media: Toward Creating a More Informed Public,” will be the center of a panel discussion taking place at the Newseum and being Livestreamed.

Over the last several decades, accountability reporting—especially at the local level—has declined dramatically, with potentially grave consequences for communities, government responsiveness, and democracy. Nonprofit media provides an innovative solution to help fill this vacuum, but only if the IRS updates the way it views nonprofit media.

Who:
The Nonprofit Media Working Group
Steven Waldman, Journalist and Former Senior Adviser to the FCC Chairman
Lucy Dalglish, Professor and Dean, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
Kevin Davis, CEO, Investigative News Network
Joel Kramer, CEO and Editor, MinnPost
Marc Owens, Member, Caplin & Drysdale

Additional speakers:
Eric Newton, Senior Adviser to the President, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Vikki Spruill, President and CEO, Council on Foundations

What:
Panel discussion on nonprofit media and release of the new report, “The IRS and Nonprofit Media: Toward Creating a More Informed Public”

When:
Monday, March 4, 2013
10 a.m. to noon

Where:
The Knight Studios at the Newseum
Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street N.W., Washington, D.C.
Via Livestream: www.cof.org/nonprofitmedia

For an embargoed copy of the report, contact Mark Carpenter at 703-629-1320 or mark@strongfoundationllc.com

The Nonprofit Media Working Group, made up of funders and nonprofit journalism leaders, was formed by the Council on Foundations with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

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The Council on Foundations (www.cof.org), formed in 1949, is a nonprofit membership association of grantmaking foundations and corporations. Members of the Council include more than 1,700 independent, operating, community, public and company-sponsored foundations, and corporate giving programs in the United States and abroad. The Council’s mission is to provide the opportunity, leadership, and tools needed by philanthropic organizations to expand, enhance, and sustain their ability to advance the common good.