Her main finding is blunt: “The emphasis on funding, on money, and on organizational concerns has become the top priority for individuals working for nonprofit news entities.” And, as journalists “busy themselves” with these administrative chores and organizational imperatives — to keep grant money coming in, to keep funders happy, etc. — it not only comes at the expense of the journalism product but also extracts a heavy toll of unpaid labor from the news workers involved.
The situation, McKinnon-Crowley writes, “leads to a double worker exploitation where journalists feel morally obligated to do good work as journalists and to do good work for a morally just (nonprofit) organization.”
This exploitation, she says, is perpetuated by the nature of nonprofit reliance, as foundations often “take decision-making power away from journalists and the institution of journalism.” A clear example of this, she says, is the grant-making process, which can require an undue level of administrative burden and can force journalists to put the priorities and interests of funders ahead of those of the community.
