At a time when many Jewish newspapers are struggling, Detroit’s to seek sustainability by going nonprofit

(JTA) — Detroit’s Jewish newspaper is becoming a nonprofit news organization in a change aimed at creating a pathway to sustainability during a moment of crisis for the local news industry nationwide.

Beginning Oct. 1, the 78-year-old Detroit News will be operated by a nonprofit foundation, according to the newspaper’s announcement Thursday. The paper will keep its staff, continue to produce a print edition and still run advertising. But it will also be able to become a destination for donations from private individuals and philanthropies.

That model, its publisher and newly formed foundation hope, will allow the paper to stave off the financial pressures that have caused many papers to shutter or switch to digital only in recent years.

“The decision by the board helps assure that the Jewish News, through its print and digital platforms, can continue to meet the diverse information needs of the community for years to come,” Larry Jackier, the foundation’s vice president, said in the announcement on the paper’s website.

Financial stress has taken a toll on multiple Jewish newspapers, including several for whom the drop-off in advertising during the pandemic spelled disaster. The Canadian Jewish News, for example, ceased publication in April, and The New York Jewish Week announced that it was going online only in July. Two longstanding British Jewish newspapers also announced that they would shutter because of the pandemic, though they later changed those plans and remained open with different management.

The Detroit News announcement comes the same week that another local Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Standard of northern New Jersey, announced that it will increase the number of New Jersey counties that it covers through an agreement with the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ.